Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters

Overview

Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters has a national median salary of $42,360 per year, with +2.4% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Help plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, or pipelayers by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

Work Values

• Support
• Relationships
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Fit or assist in fitting valves, couplings, or assemblies to tanks, pumps, or systems, using hand tools.
• Mount brackets and hangers on walls and ceilings to hold pipes, and set sleeves or inserts to provide support for pipes.
• Perform rough-ins, repair and replace fixtures and water heaters, and locate, repair, or remove leaking or broken pipes.
• Cut pipe and lift up to fitters.
• Measure, cut, thread and assemble new pipe, placing the assembled pipe in hangers or other supports.

Work Activities

• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
• Getting Information
• Handling and Moving Objects
• Thinking Creatively
• Performing General Physical Activities
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Controlling Machines and Processes
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge

Detailed Work Activities

• Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).
• Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished an associate's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Associate's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters:

Video Resources