Occupation / job
Helpers--Roofers
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $44,160, Helpers--Roofers lands just under the $50,020 national midpoint — $5,860 apart, inside the range a single promotion or a move between states closes.
With 6,030 employed nationally, Helpers--Roofers is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
Helper roles are the paid entrance to a trade. They suit people who will trade a low starting rate for time on a site next to someone who already knows how the work is done.
How long it takes to become one of the 6,030 people doing this is not something we have a source for. BLS counts and pays them; it does not record how they got there, and we would rather say so than guess.
Who should not do this
The quarters sit at $37,030 and $48,970, $995 a month apart at a ratio of 1.3x. Narrow enough that what you can expect is close to what everyone else gets.
A quarter of the field earns under $37,030 — $12,990 below the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is the number to plan on for a first year, not the midpoint.
Avoid it if you need the entry rate to be liveable immediately — the helper year is deliberately the cheap one.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 6,030 people employed as Helpers--Roofers; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x spread means the top quarter of Helpers--Roofers is not doing a different job from the bottom quarter, just a slightly better-paid version of the same one. Between $37,030 and $48,970 is the whole of the negotiation.
In cash terms the middle half of Helpers--Roofers runs $37,030 to $48,970 — $11,940 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $44,160.
Between $37,030 and $48,970 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $44,160. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $4,810; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $11,940.
Getting from $37,030 to the $44,160 midpoint is $7,130; getting from there to $48,970 is only $4,810. The hard part of the range is the lower half, which is also the half a newcomer starts in.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Helpers--Roofers is $21.23 an hour. The quarters sit at $17.80 and $23.54, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $44,160 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $44,160 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Helpers--Roofers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else