What Construction Laborers earn in St. Johns County, FL
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $43,480: the median annual pay for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $20.90 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $43,790, which is 0.7% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 7,150 people working in this occupation across the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. St. Johns County, FL has roughly 306,934 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Construction Laborers in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $30,350 a year ($14.59 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $57,700 or more ($27.74 an hour). That is a gap of $27,350 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,760 at the 25th percentile and $48,180 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.9 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL is $20.90. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $43,480, and the same salary is $3,623 a month before taxes or about $1,672 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $17.82 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Construction Laborers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Construction Laborers this way: "Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Clean or prepare construction sites to eliminate possible hazards"; "Read plans, instructions, or specifications to determine work activities"; "Signal equipment operators to facilitate alignment, movement, or adjustment of machinery, equipment, or materials"; "Dig ditches or trenches, backfill excavations, or compact and level earth to grade specifications, using picks, shovels, pneumatic tampers, or rakes".
Job outlook for Construction Laborers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,489,300 jobs in 2025 to 1,598,600 in 2035, a change of +7.3%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 120,000 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.1% of current employment each year. About 26.9% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $47,120 for this occupation; the St. Johns County, FL median of $43,480 is 7.7% below it.
How pay in St. Johns County, FL compares
Compared with the Florida average
Pay for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL is in line with the statewide figure: $43,480 locally against an employment-weighted Florida average of $43,453, a difference of only $27 (0.1%). Within Florida, the highest median we track for this job is $45,520 in Miami-Dade County, FL.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Construction Laborers is $49,249 across the contiguous United States. At $43,480, St. Johns County, FL pays $5,769 less, which is 11.7% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in St. Johns County, FL
Among the 511 occupations with published wages in St. Johns County, FL, Construction Laborers ranks number 394 by median pay, ahead of about 23% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Software Developers at $130,330 a year, which is $86,850 more than the median for Construction Laborers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $43,480 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $6,415 a year, which leaves $37,065, or $3,089 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $15 goes to taxes and $85 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 14.8%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $27,730. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $3,089, an effective 7.1% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,696 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $630. FICA totals $3,326, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Florida
There is no state income tax on wages in Florida, which means Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL keep the full $37,065 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $2,174 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $181 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for St. Johns County, FL
IRS Statistics of Income data for St. Johns County, FL show an average adjusted gross income of $148,121 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 17.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.5%, compared with the 7.1% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in St. Johns County, FL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in St. Johns County, FL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $37,065 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in St. Johns County, FL is $1,421 a month, or $17,052 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,694 a month. For Construction Laborers, a one-bedroom absorbs 46.0% of take-home pay and 39.2% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 7.9% of gross pay for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Florida residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,494 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $1,005, for $2,498 in total. Gasoline in Florida averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,427.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $24,414 a year, 66% of take-home pay. That leaves $12,651 a year, or $1,054 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 29.1% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for St. Johns County, FL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in St. Johns County, FL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for St. Johns County, FL, set beside the Florida and national medians.
Property taxes in St. Johns County, FL
Homeowners in St. Johns County, FL pay a median of $3,721 a year in real estate taxes, 36% above the Florida median of $2,730 and 19% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $489,200, the median tax bill is 0.76% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Construction Laborers median of $43,480, a tax bill of that size would equal 8.6% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in St. Johns County, FL
Renters in St. Johns County, FL pay a median gross rent of $1,922 a month in the Census survey, 15% above the Florida median of $1,669. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,421 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $489,200, 36% above the Florida median of $359,000. Median household income is $109,839, 47% above the Florida median of $74,568, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 15.5% of that income.
Commuting in St. Johns County, FL
Workers in St. Johns County, FL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.9 minutes each way, 4% below the Florida average of 28.0. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.5 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 26.7% of workers in St. Johns County, FL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Construction Laborers afford to live in St. Johns County, FL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $43,480 that ceiling is $1,087 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,421 is $334 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $27.33 an hour; the median for Construction Laborers is $20.90, which is 24% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $17.82 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 18.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,694 a month means $847 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,888 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $19,539.
How fast you can save
At $1,054 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 10 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 20 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Construction Laborers pay in St. Johns County, FL
What is the hourly wage for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL?
The median is $20.90 per hour, based on $43,480 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $14.59 at the 10th percentile to $27.74 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $43,480 becomes $37,065 a year. That is $3,089 a month, $1,426 every two weeks or $713 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL?
Total taxes are $6,415 a year, an effective rate of 14.8%: $3,089 federal income tax, $3,326 FICA and no Florida income tax.
Is pay for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL above the Florida average?
It is about the same. The local median of $43,480 is within 0.1% of the Florida average of $43,453.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Construction Laborers salary in St. Johns County, FL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,421 a month against take-home pay of $3,089, which is 46.0% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,087 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Construction Laborers in St. Johns County, FL?
About $1,054 a month ($12,651 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $24,414 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in St. Johns County, FL at the 30% guideline?
$27.33 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $17,052 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Construction Laborers is $20.90.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Florida rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.