The construction industry offers rewarding careers to women. Jobs in construction are projected to grow at all levels and apprenticeships offer well-established pathways to skilled, well-rewarded jobs in the trades.

Led by Leah Rambo, a veteran sheet metal worker and the program’s first female apprenticeship director, local 28 has seen dramatic improvements in women’s participation in apprenticeship, increasing the overall percentage from 3 percent at the beginning of 2011 to 11 percent in 2017, and achieving a rate of 16% for new apprentices entering the program in 2017.

A highly skilled trade, unionized ironworkers begin their careers as apprentices, benefiting from a combination of on-the-job training and related classroom instruction. Over the course of a three-year apprenticeship, an ironworker in Chicago will go from an hourly wage of $27.72 to $46.20. A hefty benefit package adds almost another $35 per/hr. to cover health and retirement benefits.

Read about how the Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues and its partners have transformed opportunity for women in construction through a comprehensive supply and demand strategy.

Read about how women’s committees are supporting recruitment and retention of women in apprenticeship.

The ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings was 80.5 percent for full-time, year-round workers in 2016, an improvement of 0.9 percentage points since 2015.

Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women.