Pay

HVAC technician salary by state: what HVAC techs earn

Checked against official sources · Last reviewed October 12, 2026

What HVAC technicians earn nationally (May 2025)

HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (see our HVAC glossary). HVAC technicians install, maintain and repair heating, cooling and refrigeration systems. The BLS calls the job "heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers."

The BLS counts their wages through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, which asks employers what they pay. The latest figures describe pay in May 2025:

• Median pay: $61,010 a year, or $29.33 an hour.
• Mean (average) pay: $64,780 a year, or $31.14 an hour.
• Bottom 10%: earned less than $40,050 a year ($19.25 an hour).
• Bottom 25%: earned less than $48,360 a year ($23.25 an hour).
• Top 25%: earned more than $77,060 a year ($37.05 an hour).
• Top 10%: earned more than $95,210 a year ($45.78 an hour).
• Jobs counted: 409,670 HVAC jobs. This survey does not count self-employed workers.

The industry with the most of those jobs was "Building Equipment Contractors" (305,330 jobs). See the BLS HVAC wage profile for the full tables.

You may see a bigger number elsewhere: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts about 440,900 HVAC jobs in 2025. Its count includes self-employed technicians (6% of those jobs), which the wage survey leaves out. All job counts on this page are from the wage survey.

Pay also differs by type of employer. The Handbook lists these median wages for May 2025: $71,190 in wholesale trade, $62,830 in retail trade, $62,520 in educational services, and $60,030 at plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors. Those contractors employ the most technicians: 68% of the jobs in the Handbook's count. [1][3][4]

Mean vs. median, in plain English

The median is the middle paycheck. In the BLS's words, it is "the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less." Half of HVAC technicians earned more than $61,010 and half earned less.

The mean is the plain average: add up everyone's pay and divide by the number of workers. A smaller group of high earners can pull the average up. For HVAC technicians, the national mean ($64,780) is higher than the median ($61,010). The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook gives the median as its headline pay figure for HVAC technicians ("2025 Median Pay").

The yearly figures are hourly pay turned into a full-time year: BLS calculates them "by multiplying the hourly wages by 2,080 hours" (40 hours a week for 52 weeks). The survey also does not count self-employed technicians: the estimates "do not include self-employed workers." [3][4]

HVAC technician pay by state (May 2025)

Each line shows the state's annual mean wage, annual median wage and the number of HVAC jobs the survey counted, all for May 2025, from the BLS state wage tables. The BLS published all three figures for every state and the District of Columbia. Each state links to its HVAC licensing guide.

• Alabama: $51,320 annual mean, $48,370 median, 8,260 jobs
• Alaska: $80,150 annual mean, $77,430 median, 610 jobs
• Arizona: $60,900 annual mean, $59,400 median, 10,860 jobs
• Arkansas: $51,150 annual mean, $48,110 median, 4,960 jobs
• California: $75,370 annual mean, $72,560 median, 35,130 jobs
• Colorado: $71,330 annual mean, $65,200 median, 8,940 jobs
• Connecticut: $73,590 annual mean, $76,610 median, 3,800 jobs
• Delaware: $66,140 annual mean, $62,320 median, 1,730 jobs
• District of Columbia: $84,920 annual mean, $84,390 median, 400 jobs
• Florida: $57,310 annual mean, $56,670 median, 39,160 jobs
• Georgia: $57,080 annual mean, $56,390 median, 12,290 jobs
• Hawaii: $67,070 annual mean, $65,450 median, 1,300 jobs
• Idaho: $60,010 annual mean, $56,240 median, 4,550 jobs
• Illinois: $77,570 annual mean, $77,410 median, 9,740 jobs
• Indiana: $65,110 annual mean, $60,430 median, 8,530 jobs
• Iowa: $63,120 annual mean, $60,680 median, 3,840 jobs
• Kansas: $61,470 annual mean, $60,460 median, 3,770 jobs
• Kentucky: $58,870 annual mean, $58,620 median, 5,100 jobs
• Louisiana: $56,880 annual mean, $58,650 median, 5,380 jobs
• Maine: $65,300 annual mean, $63,170 median, 2,250 jobs
• Maryland: $73,820 annual mean, $70,020 median, 8,560 jobs
• Massachusetts: $77,760 annual mean, $77,300 median, 8,200 jobs
• Michigan: $64,490 annual mean, $60,850 median, 12,590 jobs
• Minnesota: $73,990 annual mean, $76,350 median, 4,200 jobs
• Mississippi: $53,020 annual mean, $48,680 median, 2,700 jobs
• Missouri: $62,410 annual mean, $59,950 median, 7,220 jobs
• Montana: $62,260 annual mean, $60,850 median, 1,230 jobs
• Nebraska: $61,050 annual mean, $59,850 median, 3,020 jobs
• Nevada: $63,350 annual mean, $60,510 median, 4,170 jobs
• New Hampshire: $71,490 annual mean, $73,850 median, 2,560 jobs
• New Jersey: $77,580 annual mean, $74,450 median, 10,330 jobs
• New Mexico: $55,330 annual mean, $50,270 median, 1,950 jobs
• New York: $74,760 annual mean, $74,430 median, 24,430 jobs
• North Carolina: $57,400 annual mean, $57,260 median, 15,230 jobs
• North Dakota: $70,010 annual mean, $74,490 median, 970 jobs
• Ohio: $66,000 annual mean, $62,510 median, 14,150 jobs
• Oklahoma: $57,640 annual mean, $57,560 median, 5,650 jobs
• Oregon: $68,430 annual mean, $62,940 median, 3,980 jobs
• Pennsylvania: $64,880 annual mean, $62,400 median, 15,880 jobs
• Rhode Island: $69,780 annual mean, $67,370 median, 1,450 jobs
• South Carolina: $56,460 annual mean, $56,610 median, 6,920 jobs
• South Dakota: $61,100 annual mean, $61,390 median, 1,610 jobs
• Tennessee: $57,810 annual mean, $55,490 median, 9,740 jobs
• Texas: $59,130 annual mean, $57,760 median, 34,730 jobs
• Utah: $60,000 annual mean, $58,730 median, 5,580 jobs
• Vermont: $67,070 annual mean, $62,150 median, 970 jobs
• Virginia: $61,190 annual mean, $59,730 median, 14,690 jobs
• Washington: $78,860 annual mean, $75,660 median, 7,370 jobs
• West Virginia: $51,700 annual mean, $48,850 median, 1,690 jobs
• Wisconsin: $67,410 annual mean, $61,710 median, 6,630 jobs
• Wyoming: $55,760 annual mean, $54,700 median, 690 jobs

[2]

Highest- and lowest-paying states

Ranked by annual mean wage in May 2025, the five highest-paying states for HVAC technicians were:

• Alaska: $80,150
• Washington: $78,860
• Massachusetts: $77,760
• New Jersey: $77,580
• Illinois: $77,570

The District of Columbia is not a state, but its mean ($84,920) was higher than any state's. The survey counted only 400 HVAC jobs there.

The five lowest were Arkansas ($51,150), Alabama ($51,320), West Virginia ($51,700), Mississippi ($53,020) and New Mexico ($55,330).

The states with the most HVAC jobs were Florida (39,160), California (35,130), Texas (34,730), New York (24,430) and Pennsylvania (15,880).

In 7 states, including Connecticut, Minnesota and North Dakota, the median is higher than the mean. In those states the middle HVAC technician earns more than the state average. [1][2]

Apprentice pay: how it rises

There is more than one way into HVAC work. The BLS says HVAC technicians "typically need postsecondary instruction from technical and trade schools or community colleges", in programs that "generally last from 6 months to 2 years." New hires "typically work alongside experienced technicians" and start with basic tasks. Others learn through an apprenticeship: "Some technicians train through an apprenticeship program, which usually lasts several years. Apprenticeships include paid on-the-job training, as well as some technical instruction, each year." See how to get an apprenticeship and vocational school for both routes.

If your apprenticeship is registered (approved by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized State Apprenticeship Agency), federal rules set a floor. Under 29 CFR 29.5(b)(5), every registered program must have "A progressively increasing schedule of wages to be paid to the apprentice consistent with the skill acquired." The starting wage "must not be less than the minimum wage prescribed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, where applicable, unless a higher wage is required by other applicable Federal law, State law, respective regulations, or by collective bargaining agreement."

Here is one real example. A program in Oregon called the Mid-Valley HVAC JAC (Joint Apprenticeship Committee) runs an HVAC/R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) technician apprenticeship registered with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Its standards last 8,000 hours of on-the-job work. Apprentices start at 50% of the journey-level rate for the first 1,000 hours, then move up in 1,000-hour steps (55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 85%) to 90% in the last step. The average journey-level wage it lists is $39.69 an hour (February 1, 2026). The standards list only the percentages. By our own math (50% and 90% of $39.69), that is about $19.85 an hour at the start and about $35.72 an hour in the last step. Other programs set their own steps and rates, so ask each program for its wage schedule before you apply.

To learn what "journey level" means and how you get there, see what is a journeyman. Some states also license HVAC journeymen and masters; see journeyman vs. master. Nearly all HVAC technicians also need a federal certification to handle refrigerant: the BLS notes that the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) "requires nearly all HVAC technicians to be certified in proper refrigerant handling." See our EPA 608 certification guide. [4][5][6][7]

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