Employment
1,214,761
Total employees (Census CBP)
Construction ·NAICS 23822
NAICS 23822 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors - Industry Benchmarks
$73,693/yr average annual pay, with 6,791 SBA loans on record for NAICS 23822.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin
- 1.2M
- Workers employed
- $73,693/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $3.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 23822
California leads Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.2M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $73,693/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $3.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors sits inside Construction, a sector that runs a 6.3% net margin overall.
111,207 establishments employ 1,214,761 workers (10.9/location) at $73,693/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$73,693/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
111,207
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 38,002; establishment count increased by 1,606. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $89.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 10.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors NAICS 238220 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 126,947 |
| Texas | 105,623 |
| Florida | 94,859 |
| New York | 65,999 |
| North Carolina | 45,037 |
| Pennsylvania | 44,585 |
| Illinois | 41,112 |
| Ohio | 37,781 |
| Virginia | 34,582 |
| Georgia | 33,250 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
6,791
Total Loan Volume
$3.2B
Avg Loan Size
$465K
Jobs Supported
66,475
Program Breakdown
7(a) 6,128 (90%)
504 663 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
638 loans in this industry
New Business Share
21.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 821
2021 837
2022 846
2023 1,103
2024 1,451
2025 1,527
2026 206
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 23822 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors?
111,207 business establishments. Together they employ 1,214,761 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors?
$73,693/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 10.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors employment?
California leads with 126,947 workers. Texas (105,623) and Florida (94,859) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors receive?
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors businesses received 6,791 SBA loans totaling $3.2 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $465K. These loans supported 66,475 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 97% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Elementary and Secondary Schools 1,176,824
- Engineering Services 1,260,577
- Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services 1,297,995
Benchmarking Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Construction
- 111,207 establishments, 1,214,761 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 6,791 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 23822 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.