Construction ·NAICS 23822

NAICS 23822 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors - Industry Benchmarks

$73,693/yr average annual pay, with 6,791 SBA loans on record for NAICS 23822.

3.4%
Construction sector margin
1.2M
Workers employed
$73,693/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$3.2B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 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 3.4% net margin.

3.4%
Construction sector margin (IRS SOI)
1.2M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$73,693/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$3.2B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.

Source: IRS SOI (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023

Benchmarking Insights for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors

Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors sits inside Construction, a sector that runs a 3.4% 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.

Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors sits in the 97th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Employment

1,214,761

Total employees (Census CBP)

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.

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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 FY2020–2026

SBA 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

View SBA lending rankings →

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 3.4% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
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.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors ranks #19 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.

Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Construction · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI

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.