• While overall employment in the State of Iowa increased 4.06% between 1997 and 2002, employment within the construction industry rose by 8.15%, creating 5,067 new construction jobs as well as creating 597 new construction establishments in 5 years.

• While the average worker in Iowa brought home $28,329 in pay in 2002, the state’s construction workers made on average $33,362, an increase of 15.09% more than the average worker in Iowa. 

• In the five years between 1997 and 2002, the average salary for employees in Iowa increased by 19.30%, while the average salary for construction workers in Iowa increased by 19.56%. 

• Construction workers in Iowa saw a salary increase of 19.56% from 1997-2002, compared to the average salary increase construction workers across the United States, which increased by 14.97%. 

• The number of businesses in Iowa grew from 61,633 in 1997 to 62,324 in 2002, an increase of 1.12%.  Construction establishments in Iowa however, increased by 7.52% from 7,941 in 1997 to 8,538 in 2002.

• Of the 691 new businesses established between 1997 and 2002 in Iowa, 597 or 86.40% of those establishments were in the construction industry.

• According to Union Membership and Coverage Database, available at www.unionstats.com, in 2006, only 15.3 percent of Iowa’s private construction workforce belonged to a construction trade union.  That means that approximately 85 out of 100 Iowa’s private construction workers do not belong to a labor union.

Data are from the U.S. Bureau of the Census except where noted.

• Iowa does not have a state prevailing wage law