Piping Designer Salary (2026)
Typical pay is $63,520 a year, with most piping designers earning between $51,650 and $79,700. Based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Salary Calculator›Piping Designer
Nationally, the typical piping designer earns $63,520 a year. Early-career pay starts around $51,650, experienced piping designers earn $79,700 or more, and the top 10% make over $99,380. About 14,470 people work in this occupation in the US. Pay is highest in New Jersey ($77,840) and, among metro areas, in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($90,850).
Piping Designer salary in the United States
Annual pay, BLS survey of May 2025
What piping designers do
Piping designers and steel detailers create the 3D models and drawings used to build plants, pipelines and steel structures, often in tools such as AutoCAD Plant 3D, SmartPlant or Tekla. BLS counts them as "drafters, all other," which is the occupation used here.
Piping Designer salary by state
Typical annual pay for piping designers in every state where BLS publishes figures, highest first.
| State | Typical | Early career | Experienced |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | $77,840 | $62,550 | $96,050 |
| California | $73,390 | $61,160 | $90,850 |
| Wisconsin | $73,040 | $55,640 | $80,470 |
| Washington | $72,800 | $60,600 | $82,920 |
| New York | $72,190 | $62,080 | $94,310 |
| Massachusetts | $72,100 | $62,590 | $79,980 |
| New Hampshire | $70,710 | $60,840 | $85,850 |
| Arizona | $70,070 | $52,640 | $83,200 |
| Utah | $69,420 | $52,900 | $86,310 |
| Louisiana | $68,470 | $53,990 | $88,380 |
| Michigan | $67,750 | $56,590 | $87,960 |
| Mississippi | $67,730 | $63,560 | $92,570 |
| Colorado | $67,320 | $61,470 | $78,490 |
| Virginia | $67,220 | $57,370 | $82,780 |
| Connecticut | $66,620 | $57,320 | $79,720 |
| Kansas | $66,040 | $58,580 | $82,120 |
| Minnesota | $63,220 | $55,480 | $80,130 |
| Montana | $63,200 | $57,130 | $75,950 |
| Georgia | $62,400 | $48,150 | $80,600 |
| Nevada | $62,400 | $58,990 | $73,730 |
| Missouri | $61,990 | $48,220 | $72,310 |
| South Carolina | $61,250 | $58,630 | $75,160 |
| Iowa | $60,750 | $48,470 | $63,820 |
| Texas | $59,990 | $48,190 | $72,550 |
| Florida | $59,970 | $50,910 | $74,080 |
| Vermont | $59,930 | $40,630 | $74,000 |
| North Carolina | $59,500 | $47,040 | $67,650 |
| Oregon | $58,790 | $47,940 | $75,660 |
| Nebraska | $58,640 | $44,940 | $69,380 |
| Indiana | $58,600 | $52,790 | $69,380 |
| Kentucky | $57,930 | $49,180 | $64,110 |
| Ohio | $57,610 | $50,130 | $69,970 |
| Idaho | $56,430 | $47,930 | $68,480 |
| Maryland | $55,640 | $45,920 | $75,390 |
| Maine | $55,460 | $47,500 | $67,410 |
| Pennsylvania | $54,240 | $47,840 | $65,000 |
| Illinois | $53,300 | $48,120 | $78,150 |
| Oklahoma | $49,920 | $44,800 | $68,870 |
| Arkansas | $48,020 | $35,810 | $73,530 |
| Alabama | $47,320 | $36,750 | $61,030 |
Highest-paying metro areas
| Metro area | Typical |
|---|---|
| 1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $90,850 |
| 2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $82,360 |
| 3. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $81,220 |
| 4. Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | $80,470 |
| 5. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $79,960 |
| 6. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $78,020 |
| 7. Baton Rouge, LA | $77,020 |
| 8. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $76,330 |
| 9. Fresno, CA | $75,150 |
| 10. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | $75,090 |
| 11. Boulder, CO | $74,630 |
| 12. Alexandria, LA | $74,540 |
| 13. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $74,380 |
| 14. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $73,880 |
| 15. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $73,840 |
Pay in Apollo's markets
| Metro | Typical |
|---|---|
| Atlanta | $62,500 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $61,200 |
| Houston | $60,820 |
| Austin | $64,490 |
| Charlotte | $61,800 |
| Raleigh | $63,330 |
| San Antonio | $60,950 |
| Chicago | $53,300 |
| Orlando | $59,810 |
| Tampa | $59,970 |
| Miami | $60,520 |
| Jacksonville | $60,600 |
| Greenville-Spartanburg | Not published |
| Columbia, SC | Not published |
| Charleston, SC | Not published |
| Savannah | Not published |
Related cad and design salaries
Piping Designer salary FAQs
How much does a piping designer make in the US?
The typical (median) piping designer in the US earns $63,520 a year, or about $30.54 an hour (BLS, May 2025). Half earn more and half earn less.
What is the entry-level salary for a piping designer in the US?
Early-career piping designers in the US typically earn around $51,650 (the 25th percentile), and the lowest-paid 10% earn under $43,420. Degree, internships, licenses and the industry all move starting pay.
How much do experienced piping designers earn in the US?
Experienced piping designers in the US earn $79,700 or more (the 75th percentile), and the top 10% earn over $99,380.
Which state pays piping designers the most?
New Jersey has the highest typical pay for piping designers at $77,840 a year. The highest-paying metro area is San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at $90,850 (BLS, May 2025).
Are piping designers in demand?
BLS projects employment in this occupation to shrink 7.3% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% for all jobs, with about 1,000 openings a year nationally as people retire, change jobs or the field grows.
Hiring piping designers?
Where these numbers come from
Pay figures come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program (OEWS), which surveys about 1.1 million employer locations and is the government's main source of pay by occupation and location. This page uses the May 2025 survey, released in 2026, and updates itself when BLS publishes the next year's figures. Job outlook comes from the BLS Employment Projections for 2025–35. Cost of living comes from the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities for 2024, where the US average is 100.
Pay is base wages and salary before tax. It does not include bonuses, overtime, benefits or equity. Early career is the 25th percentile (a quarter of workers earn less), Typical is the median and Experienced is the 75th percentile. The bar shows the full range from the 10th to the 90th percentile. The salary rank check estimates a percentile by drawing straight lines between those five published points.
BLS groups some job titles together. Controls engineers, for example, are counted with electrical engineers, and CAD designers with drafters. Each result names the BLS occupation it uses so you can see exactly what is being measured. BLS does not publish every occupation in every area, for example when too few people in a job were surveyed or when a figure does not meet its reliability standards. When a metro figure is missing, the calculator shows the state figure, or the national figure if the state is also missing, and says so.
BLS occupation used on this page: Drafters, All Other (SOC 17-3019).