$117,660estimated top of the range · middle $55,000 / yr
AI augments this role
Masons in the United States earn a median of $55,000 a year. Pay starts near $35,000. The top of the range is estimated at $117,660. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this exact title, so this figure is derived from the closest occupation it does track and is labelled an estimate.
Source: PayCrunch estimate. Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$35,000
Top-end estimate
$117,660
Education
High school diploma + apprenticeship
Wages — PayCrunch estimate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for Mason; figures are derived from the closest occupation it does track and are labelled as estimates. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for MasonReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Mason work right now.
Workiz AINEWPaid / see site
Field-service software with an AI receptionist that answers and books calls.
How a Mason uses it: never miss a job call — AI answers, quotes, and schedules
HandoffNEWPaid / see site
AI estimating that turns a scope into a priced proposal.
How a Mason uses it: produce accurate estimates and proposals in minutes, not hours
Trunk ToolsNEWPaid / see site
AI assistant that answers questions from job plans, specs, and submittals on site.
How a Mason uses it: ask a question and get the answer pulled straight from the project drawings/specs
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Mason uses it: load your own manuals, policies, or PDFs and ask questions that stay accurate to the source
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
AI assistant that answers code, spec, and troubleshooting questions in plain language.
How a Mason uses it: look up code requirements, check a spec, or troubleshoot a fault on the spot
ServiceTitan Titan IntelligenceQuote-based
AI across dispatch, scheduling, and customer follow-up for trades.
How a Mason uses it: route jobs, price work, and follow up with customers automatically
BuildOpsCustom pricing
Commercial trades platform with AI estimating and job management.
How a Mason uses it: manage bids, jobs, and techs with AI-assisted estimating
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing, long-document analysis, and coding.
How a Mason uses it: analyze big reports or spreadsheets and turn messy notes into clean, finished writing
Google GeminiFree / $20 mo
Google's AI assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, and Search.
How a Mason uses it: draft and reply inside Google Workspace and research without leaving the page
Before the first course goes in
The site is still cool when a mason starts walking the work. Chalk lines from yesterday may be true, or they may have been snapped in a hurry and then stepped on. You check them against the drawing before a unit goes down, because a wall that starts out of square stays out of square all the way up. Brick, block, and stone each feel different in the hand, and the job is still the same kind of promise: a straight face, joints that read as one surface from the street, and corners that stay plumb after the scaffold comes down.
On a commercial job the morning might be concrete block for a warehouse, with brick veneer waiting on the elevation the public will see. On a house you might be building a chimney, a stoop, or a stone face the owner picked from a pallet at the yard. You read the bond, the openings, and the height. Windows and doors have to land where the sheet says they land. A lintel has to bear on solid masonry. You are already thinking several courses ahead while your hands stay on the course in front of you.
The crew around the wall is part of the craft. A tender keeps units and mud within reach and helps move scaffold as the work climbs. The foreman watches the leads, the corners you build first so a line has something true to run to. A large union crew may split the wall into stretches. A two-person residential crew may lay, cut, and clean up without anyone else on the masonry. Either way, low sun at the end of the day shows a wavy joint that looked acceptable at noon.
Cutting belongs in the day. You mark a unit, cut it to close a course or to turn an opening, and set the piece so the cut face lands where the elevation wants it. Stone asks for more layout and more patience than a repetitive block wall. A rubble wall and a wall of dressed ashlar are different assignments inside one trade. You learn to see the bed, the face, and the joint as a single decision. The joint is finished so the wall sheds water and looks intentional. That judgment comes from working beside someone who already has it.
Weather works the same shift you do. Cold can stop a wall or spoil one if you push through it. Heat can pull moisture out of a fresh joint before the work has a chance to settle. Rain sends the crew to cover fresh masonry and to protect the tops of unfinished walls overnight. A mason plans production around that, not only around the unit count an estimator hoped to see. You also leave the ground. Scaffold has to be fit to stand on before the wall is fit to admire. Where the drawing calls for ties, flashing, and a path for water out of a cavity, you coordinate with whoever is installing those pieces so the masonry does not cover a problem.
Larger jobs run on drawings. You look at elevations, the opening schedule, and the notes that place control joints. When steel is late or an opening has moved, you say so to the superintendent while the correction is still cheap. A mason who can read a set and describe a conflict saves a tear-out. That is one reason some masons later estimate or run work for a contractor. Early on, the skill that keeps a paycheck coming is simpler. Your corner stays plumb, your line stays tight, and you leave the next trade a sill they can use.
Apprenticeship on a union crew
A union apprenticeship is a common path into masonry. The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers is the craft union many masons meet first. Local joint apprenticeship committees, often teaching with the International Masonry Institute, pair paid time on real walls with related instruction away from the site. You are an employee while you learn. You are also there to absorb bonds, layout, scaffold habits, and the differences among brick, block, and stone.
What the program proves is practical, and a contractor can see it. Finishing means you can be sent to a wall and trusted to build it under a foreman. The apprenticeship committee and the union program are the bodies that stand behind journeyworker status. That status tells the next employer you completed a structured route, rather than a short stretch of watching from a scaffold plank. Preparation is the work itself plus the class time. You show up, you take the corners people would rather avoid, and you ask a journeyworker to look at a lead before you run a long line from it.
The trade does not hand you a single national licence the way some professions do. Journeyworker status from a union program is the credential many commercial contractors recognize on sight. It proves you spent years, in the ordinary sense of a multi-year apprenticeship, mixing paid site work with instruction, and that a committee was willing to call the training complete. Keep the completion record. When you move to another local or another contractor, that paper travels farther than a verbal claim that you have laid a lot of block.
A non-union path is common on residential work and on some small commercial crews. You start as a helper: carry, cut, keep the mason supplied, and then take a trowel on a short wall where a mistake is still cheap. A patient mason teaches you if you make the teaching easy, which means you watch, you repeat the correction, and you do not argue with the line. A community college course or a pre-apprenticeship can give you a first look at tools and site safety before a contractor takes a chance. Some contractors train in house and will later sponsor a person into a formal program. Your proof, if you lack union status, is the walls a foreman will describe when someone calls.
Estimates, because this title has no Bureau series
Read these as estimates
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this exact title. These are PayCrunch estimates, and they are not taken from a Bureau brickmason series. Use them as a national picture for a pay conversation. They are not a local union scale and they are not a promise from any one contractor.
The entry estimate is $35,000. That floor fits someone at the start: a helper moving onto the trowel, or an apprentice early in the program, depending on the contractor and the market. The median estimate is $55,000. That middle figure is the more useful anchor for a mason who can hold a corner, keep a line, and work a full week without constant correction. The estimated top is $117,660, a high reach for this title rather than a wage you should assume is waiting at year five.
The step from entry to the median is $20,000. The further step from the median to the estimated top is $62,660. Those two gaps tell different stories. The first is the move from new to competent, the stretch in which a crew starts to trust your leads. The second is much larger. It is where lead masons, foremen, and people with a scarce specialty can land when the employer and the market support it. Nothing in these estimates is tied to a single state, and nothing in them replaces the rate sheet on a prevailing-wage job you already hold.
Treat the three figures as a map, not as a schedule. Plenty of skilled masons earn around the median for a long time because the work is steady and the contractor is fair, and they prefer that to chasing the top. Others move toward $117,660 by taking responsibility the median job does not include: running a crew, pricing work, or handling stone and repair assignments that fewer people can finish cleanly. If an offer quotes a rate you cannot place on this map, ask what duties come with it before you decide the number is high or low.
Staying on the crew after the first week
Hiring in this trade is blunt. A foreman cares whether you arrive when the hoist starts, whether you own a trowel, a level, and the jointers you claim to use, and whether you can work outside at height for a full day. A driver's licence matters on residential crews that move trucks between houses. Commercial sites often want a safety card and a drug screen before you step inside the fence. None of that replaces the wall. If you have laid anything you are proud of, photographs help. A phone call from a previous foreman helps more.
The first week is an audition you should treat as one. Take the assignment you are given, even if it is repetitive block or a long stretch of backup. Keep your leads checked. Sweep your own droppings off the scaffold so the next person is not standing in them. Listen when a journeyworker moves your line. Argue only when you are sure the drawing disagrees, and then show the sheet. Crews remember the apprentice who protected finished work in the rain and forget the one who talked about speed.
If you are entering through the union, the hall and the apprenticeship coordinator are the hiring route. Show up for the process they describe, bring the documents they ask for, and treat class nights as part of the job. If you are knocking on contractor doors, go early, ask for the masonry foreman rather than a generic office, and be ready to start as a helper if that is the open seat. A helper who anticipates the next unit is already halfway to a trowel. A helper who waits to be told every move will stay on the mud board.
Leads, a foreman seat, and a company of your own
The usual ladder starts with helper or apprentice, moves to journeyworker mason, then to the person who builds the leads and sets the line for everyone else. From there a lead mason may become a foreman, responsible for the crew, the material, and the conversation with the superintendent. Some foremen become superintendents for a masonry contractor. Some move into the office and estimate, because they already know how long a wall really takes once you count cuts, scaffold moves, and weather. A smaller group starts a company and spends as much time on bids and payroll as on the trowel.
Specialty work changes the ladder without leaving the trade. Commercial block production, brick veneer, stone, refractory linings, and repair of older masonry are different reputations. Historic repair, in particular, rewards patience and the ability to match an existing wall rather than to outrun a production quota. People who can do that work are scarce, and scarcity is one honest way to think about the long gap between the median and the estimated top. You do not need a new job title on a business card to be paid for a harder skill. You need a contractor who has that work and has seen you do it.
Some masons leave the trowel without leaving construction. Inspection for a public agency, teaching apprentices, and estimating are the common turns. Each still depends on having built enough wall to know a bad joint and to know what a drawing is asking. If you want that turn, keep a record of job types, not only of years. Ownership is a different craft layered on this one: pricing labor, material, and the risk that an opening will move. These estimates say what masons earn. They do not say what to charge a customer. Keep those ideas apart, or a skilled person can slide backward after proving they can build.
A raise conversation with three estimated anchors
Walk into the conversation knowing which anchor you are near. An offer close to $35,000 is an entry conversation. The useful follow-up is what skill and what responsibility move you toward $55,000, and how the contractor will know you have gotten there. The $20,000 gap is the story of becoming fully useful on a wall: leads that stay true, fewer corrections, and a week the foreman does not have to hover. Ask for that path in plain language. A raise with no new duty is harder to justify than a raise tied to a corner you are about to own.
If you are already near the median, the conversation changes shape. The distance from $55,000 to the estimated top of $117,660 is $62,660, and that distance is not crossed by laying the same stretch a little faster. It is crossed, when it is crossed at all, by lead duty, a foreman seat, a specialty, or a move into estimating and running work. Name the duty you want. Then ask where pay sits if you take it. A contractor who wants you to run a crew and still pay a median rate is describing a different job from the one in the offer letter.
Keep the estimates in their lane. On a union job the contract sets the scale, and these PayCrunch figures are only a national reference when you do not have that contract in front of you. On a non-union crew the estimate is a way to test whether an offer is an entry wage dressed up as a journeyman wage. Benefits, a truck, travel pay, and how overtime is handled all change what a rate is worth. Compare those parts of the package without inventing dollar values for them. If the employer will not say where the offer sits between $35,000, $55,000, and $117,660, you still can. Say the sentence yourself, and let the silence answer.
The top of Mason pay — and how to get there with AI
$117,660top-end estimate for Mason
PayCrunch estimate - derived from the closest occupation BLS tracks (Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers, 47-2051). This figure is PayCrunch’s estimate, not a Bureau of Labor Statistics published wage for this exact title.
And the role it leads to — Terrazzo Workers and Finishers — reaches $126,130 nationally.
$35,000entry$55,000middle$117,660top end
A mason at the top of this range is the person the superintendent phones before the truck is ordered, because the judgement on weather, timing and finish belongs to them.
Wind, heat and cold decide how concrete cures, and every decision downstream follows that: when to float, when to broom, when to start rubbing with stone, whether the surface needs wetting before grout or slurry goes into cracks. Most crews keep that judgement inside one head and lose a day whenever that head is on another job. Written into a sheet other finishers can read, with curing predictions set beside real placement notes, it becomes something a contractor schedules around, and the mason who wrote it stops being one fast pair of hands.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingRecord the weather with the slab
For every placement, note air temperature, wind, humidity and the time the truck arrived alongside how the finish behaved.
Check the forms yourself for pitch, depth and alignment before the chute swings, and say so out loud when they are wrong.
Time each stage from casting through brooming, and mark where you had to wet the surface or fill holes afterward.
Have Claude tidy your placement notes into a single record sheet, then correct anything it assumed about your mixes.
What proves it: Six months of placement records with weather, timing and finish quality on one page.
Realistic span: the first year
A few years inTurn the notes into a sheet the crew follows
Run HIPERPAV on an upcoming slab and set its curing prediction beside what your own records say happened in similar weather.
Write a plain call sheet: in these conditions, pour at this hour, begin finishing at this point, cover it this way.
Give the sheet to another finisher on a day you are elsewhere, then fix whatever they could not follow.
Take charge of directing the casting and the laborers spreading the pour on one job, and keep it afterward.
Learn ADAPT-Modeler if your work touches post-tensioned slabs, so you can discuss deflection with an engineer instead of nodding.
What proves it: A pour plan the crew used successfully on a day you were on another site.
Realistic span: years two through five
ExperiencedMake it the company's way of pouring
Roll the call sheet into job setup so every crew starts from the same conditions and the same protection plan.
Price waterproofing and restoration work from your own records instead of a rule of thumb, using Maxwell Systems Quest Estimator.
Feed real placement hours into Sirus GT Construction Accounting so job costing reflects the slab rather than the bid.
Handle weather delay paperwork in ACT Contractors Forms so change orders are documented rather than argued about later.
Watch the neighbouring finishing trades and the strong markets, since Washington pays this occupation best.
What proves it: A placement procedure your employer teaches to new crews.
Realistic span: six years and onward
The next 90 days
Document the next ten pours the way a laboratory would. Conditions before the truck arrives, the result of your form check, the clock time at each stage, and how the surface behaved for two days afterward. Ten records are enough to see your own pattern: the wind speed where a broom finish goes wrong, the temperature where the finishing window closes early. Write that pattern onto one sheet and hand it to your foreman before the next large slab. Concrete waits for nobody, and the mason who can say in advance what it will do is worth more than the one who repairs it afterward.
Wage figures: PayCrunch estimate. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Open ChatGPT (free) first and put it to work as your estimator and jobsite math partner: brick and block counts, mortar and sand quantities, coursing and arch layout, and quick quotes. Bidding accurately and fast is the difference between giving away margin and building an $80,000 business.
Then, to sell high-margin custom work, use an AI visualization tool like REimagine Home or Midjourney to show clients their stone facade, fireplace, or patio before you lay a single unit. Seeing it is what gets homeowners to say yes to premium work.
The one rule, forever: AI estimates and layouts are planning aids, not engineering. Never let an AI number substitute for a structural engineer's call on load-bearing walls, lintels, footings, or retaining walls over code-limited heights, and get stamped drawings where required. Verify local code, mortar type, and reinforcement for the actual application, and follow silica-dust (OSHA) and lifting safety on every job. The structural and safety judgment is yours.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Bid brick, block, and stone jobs accurately and fast
Why this pays: Masonry margin lives and dies on the takeoff, because miscount the brick or mortar and the profit's gone. AI gives you fast, accurate material and labor estimates so you bid confidently at margins that build toward $80,000.
ChatGPTBuildxactBluebeam Revu
1
For any job, let AI run the takeoff from your measurements and lay it out as a quote.
Copy-paste this prompt
I'm a mason estimating a job. Calculate materials and give a line-item estimate for: [describe, e.g. a 40 ft long by 6 ft high standard modular brick wall, single wythe, plus a 200 sq ft concrete block foundation of 8x8x16 CMU]. Compute brick and block counts with a [5%] waste factor, bags of mortar and sand or aggregate, wall ties and rebar, and estimate labor hours and crew. Then lay it out as a customer quote with materials, labor, and mobilization. Ask me for local unit prices.
AI does the counts fast, but you own the pricing and verify quantities and any structural or rebar requirements against code and the plans.
2
Move recurring estimates into Buildxact so you can reuse assemblies and turn bids around same-day, winning more work than slower competitors.
What you'll haveFast, accurate bids that protect margin, the estimating discipline that turns masonry revenue into $80,000 take-home.
2
Sell high-margin custom work with AI visuals
Why this pays: Custom stone, architectural brick, and outdoor-living projects carry the fattest margins, but only if the client can picture them. An AI render closes premium jobs and upsells scope, the biggest revenue lever toward the top of the range.
REimagine HomeMidjourneyCanva
1
Photograph the client's house or yard and use REimagine Home or Midjourney to show a stone-veneer facade, an outdoor fireplace, or a paver patio in different stone and pattern options.
2
Use AI to present tiered options that upsell scope.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a hardscape and masonry design consultant. A homeowner wants to upgrade their [backyard] and I want to present options that increase project value. For a [500 sq ft flagstone patio], describe a good/better/best proposal: base patio; a better version adding a [seat wall and fire pit]; a best version adding an [outdoor fireplace and built-in grill surround]. Note stone options and roughly how each tier raises the price so I can upsell naturally.
Use the visual and tiers to sell value, and verify every structural element (fireplace footing, retaining wall) with proper engineering and permits before you quote.
3
Build a before/after portfolio on your phone and a simple website, because visual proof of custom work commands premium prices.
What you'll haveMore high-margin custom and outdoor-living jobs at bigger tickets, the premium work that defines the $80,000 mason.
3
Solve coursing, arches, and layout math on the spot
Why this pays: A layout mistake, whether bad coursing, a wrong arch radius, or an out-of-level foundation, costs hours and material. Getting the math right instantly means cleaner work, less waste, and the reputation for precision that earns higher rates.
ChatGPTClaude
1
Use AI as an instant masonry calculator in the field.
Copy-paste this prompt
Be my masonry layout calculator. (1) For a wall [8 ft 4 in] tall using standard modular brick with a [3/8 in] mortar joint, how many courses and what's the coursing dimension, and how do I adjust joints to come out even at a [window sill at 3 ft]? (2) For a semicircular brick arch over a [4 ft] opening, give me the radius, number of voussoirs, and joint spacing. Show the math so I can check it.
Verify the math on site and against your story pole. AI is a fast calculator, but you confirm level, plumb, and coursing in the real world.
2
Ask AI to explain any technique you're rusty on, such as corbeling, a soldier course, or a proper weep and flashing detail, before you build it, so it's right the first time.
What you'll havePrecise layouts and fewer costly mistakes, the craftsmanship and speed that justify premium mason rates.
4
Run the business side with AI
Why this pays: The mason who quotes professionally, follows up, and markets stays booked at good prices. AI handles the office work a solo mason never has time for, turning steady, well-priced work into $80,000 income.
ChatGPTJobberGoogle Business Profile
1
Turn your estimates into professional proposals and use AI to follow up.
Copy-paste this prompt
Write a professional masonry proposal from my notes: [scope, materials, price, timeline]. Include scope of work, materials and finish details, what's included and excluded, a payment schedule, and a short line on my experience and warranty. Confident, trustworthy tradesman tone. Then write a friendly follow-up text to send three days later.
Have AI produce the client document, keep client details private, and confirm your warranty and legal terms yourself.
2
After each job, use AI to write a project post and a review request, and to reply to Google reviews, cheap marketing that keeps custom leads coming.
3
Use Jobber or a simple app for scheduling and invoicing so you look professional and get paid on time.
What you'll haveA professional, well-marketed masonry business that stays booked at premium prices, the steady pipeline behind pay at the top of the range.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $80,000 tier.
Month 1
Start using ChatGPT for every takeoff, quote, and coursing calculation, bidding faster and more accurately than the competition.
Months 2-3
Add AI renders to sell custom stone and outdoor-living work, and build a before/after portfolio.
Months 3-6
Standardize professional proposals and follow-up, and push toward higher-margin custom and hardscape jobs.
Months 6-12
Market consistently from finished jobs and run the business side with AI, filling the calendar with premium work toward $80,000.
Gear for this job
As an Amazon Associate, PayCrunch earns from qualifying purchases. Links to books and tools are for the job on this page; we only recommend what we’d use in the work.
Shop copy of the current TMS masonry code. Structural masonry work is scored against this edition.
What Masons earn by state
This page does not show a state table, and the reason is worth stating: the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate wage series for this job title, so there are no official state figures to show. Scaling the national median by a cost-of-living index would produce a number for every state, but it would be an estimate of living costs wearing a wage’s clothes, and PayCrunch would rather show you nothing than that.
What the national figures say: pay starts near $35,000, the median is $55,000, and the top of the range is $117,660. Those national figures are a PayCrunch estimate, not a Bureau of Labor Statistics published wage for this exact title.
No. Laying brick, block, and stone to line, level, and plumb is skilled physical craftsmanship in the real world, and there's no robot laying a custom stone fireplace on a residential jobsite. AI can't touch the trowel work. What it does is handle the estimating, selling, and math that most masons struggle with, so the mason who uses it runs a more profitable business than one who doesn't.
Are AI material counts accurate enough to bid on?
As a fast first pass, yes, but you verify. AI gets brick and block counts and mortar quantities close in seconds, which beats guessing, but you confirm against the actual plans, add your real waste factor, and price with local costs. Treat it as a sharp assistant, not the final estimator.
Can AI help with the structural side?
Only for planning and learning, never as engineering. For load-bearing walls, lintels, footings, and taller retaining walls, get a structural engineer and proper permits. Use AI to understand concepts and prep questions, but the structural and code responsibility is yours and the engineer's.
How does AI actually raise a mason's pay?
It attacks the business side that limits most masons: accurate fast bidding (protects margin), visual selling of high-margin custom work (bigger tickets), instant layout math (less waste, better reputation), and easy marketing (steady premium leads). Those move you from day-rate work at the $55,000 median to a booked custom business near $80,000.
I've laid brick for years and never used tech. Is this worth it?
Yes, and it's easier than you think. You already have the hard skill, and AI just adds the business skills that separate a laborer's pay from an owner's. Start by asking ChatGPT to figure your next quote, and one accurate bid pays for the effort.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.