Construction Laborers: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Construction Laborers perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers.

• Control traffic passing near, in, or around work zones.
• Clean or prepare construction sites to eliminate possible hazards.
• Signal equipment operators to facilitate alignment, movement, or adjustment of machinery, equipment, or materials.
• Read plans, instructions, or specifications to determine work activities.

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Salary

Construction Laborers with little to no experience tend to make between $23460 and $28520 while the more experienced ones can earn over $47910 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Construction Laborer is to move to a higher paying state like IL. Right now, the highest paying states for Construction Laborers are IL, HI, NJ, MA and MN.

However, a higher pay at IL doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at IL might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Construction Laborer is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Construction Laborers what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a High School Diploma followed by less than a High School Diploma.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Construction Laborer.

What is the job like

51% of Construction Laborers said they were satisfied with their job and 46% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

CF

Insite Construction

I’ve spent the last winter and spring working as a residential construction worker in Arkansas. I acted as a general laborer performing odd tasks at our job sites.

I could be doing anything from laying floor tile, cutting wood to make window sidings, or nailing floor joists for a deck to be added. The most time-consuming projects are house siding because the entire exterior surface of the house needs to be covered.

My Typical Day

On a typical workday, I’ll wake up early and be sent to one of several different active job sites, each at varying levels of completion. For houses getting extensions or remodels, one of the more common tasks I might work on for a day is hanging drywall. Depending on the surface area of the walls being covered, cutting and hanging drywall can take all day to finish. At other job sites, sometimes tile or wood flooring needs to go down in a certain room. One job I worked on even required extending the existing 2×4 studs in the wall.

As a general laborer, I didn’t have a strict set of responsibilities that I kept to every day – I would usually talk to the project manager and see what parts of the job needed to get done that day.

Pros

One of the biggest pros of working in the industry is learning all of the trade techniques firsthand – there are countless day to day applications for skills that I’ve learned on job sites. I’ve also become well-versed in operating tools and equipment that I didn’t even know existed!

Another big pro of working on a construction team is that you get to know all of your co-workers really well, both inside of work and outside. Becoming friends with the people you work with makes any job immensely more enjoyable.

Cons

One of the downsides of construction work that some people find is that the work can sometimes feel a little repetitive. Once you get the hang of cutting floor joists or hanging drywall, it becomes easy to fall into a rhythm of rinse and repeat until the entire area is finished. On the other hand, some people see this as a benefit – you have the chance to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or music while working.

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Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They like working with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery..

They also like following set procedures and routines. They like working with data and details more than with ideas.

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