Drywall Installer Wages and Cost Per Sheet by Metro 2026

The data and its limits

The occupation is Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers (SOC 47-2081) in the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 release, the latest available, published at bls.gov/oes. Tapers and finishers are a separate BLS occupation, so the figures here describe hangers most directly, though many residential crews do both. Drywall is also a trade with a large share of piece-rate and subcontract labor that the employer survey captures imperfectly, and it is suppressed in more metros than electricians or plumbers: only 168 metros have a published median, and Boston is missing from the top-20 table below for that reason.

Drywall installer wages in the 10 largest metros

The last column prices 17 crew-hours, roughly the hang-and-finish labor for a 12×12 room with 8-foot ceilings, at the metro median.

The top-10 spread is narrower for drywall than for electricians. New York ($34.29, +21%) and Chicago ($33.23, +17%) lead; Los Angeles ($30.19) is only 7% above the median, and Washington ($28.40), Philadelphia ($29.46) and Atlanta ($28.69) are within 4% of it. Atlanta is notable: its drywall installers earn 1% above the national median while its carpenters ($24.37) and electricians ($28.20) earn well below it. The Texas and Florida metros are consistently cheap: Houston ($22.89, −19%), Dallas ($23.18, −18%) and Miami ($24.12, −15%). Seventeen crew-hours of wages is $583 in New York and $389 in Houston.

Metros 11 through 20

The West Coast dominates the second tier: San Francisco ($39.50, +39%), San Diego ($36.68, +29%) and Seattle ($36.33, +28%) are the three highest of all 20 metros, ahead of New York. Minneapolis ($30.81), Riverside ($29.53) and Detroit ($28.89) are close to the median. Orlando ($22.96), Tampa ($23.83) and Austin ($24.28) join the Texas and Florida low group. Boston shows a dash because BLS did not publish a metro estimate for this occupation; the Massachusetts state median is not a substitute for it in this table.

Wage cost per sheet, per room, per house

This is the conversion most cost guides skip. HammerIO's planning assumption is one crew-hour per 4×8 sheet to hang, tape and apply three coats to a Level 4 finish; experienced production crews are faster on open walls and slower on ceilings, closets and rooms full of penetrations.

Read the house column against the board itself: 200 sheets of half-inch drywall is a materials line that varies far less by city than the $5,666 (national) to $7,900 (San Francisco) wage line beside it. That is why installed per-sheet prices are quoted as ranges in our drywall cost guide and why the low end of the range belongs to Houston and Dallas, not to a national average. For sheet counts on your own rooms, the drywall calculator handles wall and ceiling area, waste and fastener quantities.

Scenario table: cheapest vs. priciest large metro

The basement row shows the stakes of a common remodel: 100 crew-hours is $2,833 of wages at the national median, $3,323 in New York and $2,289 in Houston. If you are weighing DIY, that wage line is the ceiling of what you can save on labor; the compound, tape, corner bead and rented lift are the same either way, and our how to hang drywall guide is honest about how much longer a first-timer takes to reach a Level 4 finish.

Highest- and lowest-wage states

Hawaii's $50.40 median is the most extreme state figure for any construction trade on HammerIO, 78% above the U.S. median and $14 above second-place New Jersey ($36.09). Alaska ($35.43), Oregon ($35.35) and Washington ($35.16) round out the top five. At the bottom, Mississippi ($17.94, −37%), Kansas ($19.18, −32%), Idaho ($21.05), Wyoming ($21.15) and Arkansas ($21.42) are all more than 24% below the median. Only 20 of the 49 states with published data are above the national median, so most of the country's drywall labor is cheaper than the headline number suggests; the median is pulled up by the big coastal metros.

From wage to installed price

A drywall contractor's installed price per sheet or per square foot has to cover the board, joint compound, tape, screws, corner bead, dust control, disposal of offcuts, the delivery and boom truck, workers' compensation and liability insurance, the estimator, and profit, as well as the wage. HammerIO does not publish a fixed multiplier from wage to installed price; the drywall installation guide and drywall cost guide carry the installed planning ranges. Drywall in a finished basement or addition is usually part of a permitted project; verify with your local building department.

2026 context

The May 2025 OEWS medians are a floor for late-2026 quotes: BLS average hourly earnings for all construction employees (CES2000000003) reached $41.66 in August 2026, up from $41.50 in July, while consumer prices rose 3.40% year-over-year. Drywall is also the trade most exposed to new-housing cycles, since nearly every sheet in the country goes into new construction or major remodels; when housing starts slow, drywall crews become available and quotes soften faster than in service trades like plumbing.

More BLS wage guides

• Electrician hourly rates by metro and plumber cost per hour by state.
• Roofer rates by metro.
• Cost to build a house: labor vs. materials, where drywall is one of seven trades compared.

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