What Does a Boilermaker Earn
It is one of the most searched questions about the trade, and most of the answers online are a single headline number with no explanation of where it came from. The truth is that boilermaker pay in Australia spans a wide range. A tradesperson on the award minimum in a small fabrication shop and a coded welder on a remote shutdown can be doing recognisably similar work for very different money.
This article sets out the figures that can actually be verified for 2026/27: the legal minimum, the national median and the penalty structure. It then explains what moves an individual boilermaker from one end of the range to the other.
The Award Minimum
Most boilermakers are covered by the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award, code MA000010. A trade qualified boilermaker enters at classification C10. From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, the C10 minimum is $1,119.10 a week, or $29.45 an hour, for a 38 hour week. Annualised, that is about $58,200 before overtime, allowances and superannuation.
The award ladder continues above C10 for tradespeople who hold additional training or carry more responsibility. In 2026/27 the hourly minimums run to around $30.38 at C9, $31.30 at C8 and $32.13 at C7. A tradesperson who supplies their own tools is also entitled to a tool allowance of $17.90 a week, and a leading hand in charge of three to ten people receives an additional $48.98 a week.
Nobody should be paid less than these figures under the award. Very few experienced boilermakers are paid only these figures.
What Boilermakers Actually Take Home
Jobs and Skills Australia publishes earnings for the occupation group that includes boilermakers, structural steel and welding trades workers. Its latest profile, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics earnings survey of May 2025, puts median full time earnings at $1,688 a week, with median hourly earnings of $44. Multiplied across a year that is roughly $87,800.
Two things are worth understanding about that number. First, it is a median for full time, non managerial adult employees, so half earn more and half earn less, and it includes overtime. The same profile shows full time workers in the trade averaging about 46 hours a week. Second, it is a national figure that blends small workshops, large manufacturers, construction and resources. The spread around it is wide.
The gap between the award and the median, more than $560 a week, is the clearest evidence that the market pays well above the minimum for competent tradespeople.
How Penalty Rates Change the Picture
Much of a boilermaker’s earning power sits in when the work is done. Under the Manufacturing Award, overtime is paid at 150 per cent for the first three hours and 200 per cent after that. Saturday work is paid at 150 per cent, Sunday at 200 per cent and public holidays at 250 per cent. Afternoon and night shifts attract a 15 per cent loading, rising to 30 per cent for permanent night shift.
Apply those multipliers to shutdown work, where twelve hour days across a weekend are normal, and a fortnight’s pay can look nothing like the base weekly rate. This is why two boilermakers on the same hourly rate can report very different annual incomes.
Six Things That Lift a Boilermaker’s Pay
Welding tickets. Pressure welding certifications and coded welder qualifications open work on pressure vessels, pipework and structural jobs that uncertified tradespeople cannot touch. They are the single most reliable way to raise your rate.
Stainless steel and TIG skills. Food, beverage and pharmaceutical plants run on stainless. Clean, fully penetrated TIG welds on thin wall tube and sanitary fittings are a specialist skill, and far fewer tradespeople have it than can run a MIG bead on mild steel.
Reading and working from drawings. A boilermaker who can take a drawing, or a sketch on the back of a job card, and deliver a finished fabrication without supervision is worth more than one who needs every cut marked out.
Site and shutdown work. Installation work on customer sites, especially during planned shutdowns, pays through penalty rates and often through site allowances.
Industry. Mining, resources and major construction projects pay the highest headline rates, usually under enterprise agreements and often with rosters that keep you away from home. Manufacturing and maintenance work pays less at the peak but offers steadier hours and a bed at home every night.
Responsibility. Leading hand, supervisor, workshop manager and welding supervisor roles all sit above the trade rate.
What Apprentice Boilermakers Earn
Apprentices are paid a proportion of the C10 rate that rises with each stage. For 2026/27 the indicative weekly minimums for a junior apprentice who did not complete Year 12 are $559.55 in stage 1, $671.46 in stage 2, $839.33 in stage 3 and $984.81 in stage 4. Adult apprentices, those aged 21 or over when they start, begin at $895.28 a week. Our separate guide to boilermaker apprenticeships covers the pathway, the Certificate III in Engineering, Fabrication Trade, and the government support available.
Is Boilermaking Still a Good Career
Demand for fabrication and welding trades remains strong. Jobs and Skills Australia identifies structural steel and welding trades workers as the largest employing occupation in Australian manufacturing, and employers across the sector report difficulty filling vacancies. Welder and metal fabricator both appear on national apprenticeship priority lists.
The work is physical and it is not for everyone. But it is a trade where skill is visible, where a good tradesperson can always find work, and where the path into supervision, inspection, estimating or running your own shop is well worn.
Boilermaking in Food and Beverage Manufacturing
Fabrication for beverage and FMCG plants is a distinct corner of the trade. The material is mostly stainless, the welds have to be cleanable as well as strong, and the job is usually a modification to a line that has to be back in production by a fixed time. It rewards tradespeople who are tidy, accurate and comfortable working to a deadline alongside fitters and electricians.
BevTech is a family owned engineering business in Richlands, Brisbane, with more than 25 years in manufacturing. Our workshop combines TIG and MIG welding with guillotines, a brake press, lathes, mills and CNC machining, and our fabricators work with our drafting and automation teams on turnkey projects for some of the largest manufacturers in Australia. If you want to put your trade to work in that environment, current openings are listed at bevtech.com.au/hiring.
A Note on the Figures
Award rates in this article apply from July 2026 and are reviewed every year. The earnings median is the most recent published by Jobs and Skills Australia and is a guide to the market, not an entitlement. To check the minimum rate for your own classification and roster, use the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool.
