Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between structural welders and combination welders can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a structural welder and a combination welder. Additionally, a combination welder has an average salary of $45,432, which is higher than the $42,868 average annual salary of a structural welder.
The top three skills for a structural welder include SMAW, FCAW and MIG. The most important skills for a combination welder are arc welding, tack, and minor maintenance.
| Structural Welder | Combination Welder | |
| Yearly salary | $42,868 | $45,432 |
| Hourly rate | $20.61 | $21.84 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 2% |
| Number of jobs | 9,651 | 7,117 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 46% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
The job of structural welders is to design, layout, and fabricate the metal framework for industrial and commercial buildings. They work for a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, shipbuilding, and construction. Their duties and responsibilities include testing welding and safety equipment, cutting, assembling, repairing building components such as girders and beams, and checking for gap and angle allowances. They either use manual or automated equipment to perform some of these tasks, such as power saws for cutting metals. Structural welders are also responsible for assessing the condition of the equipment.
Combination welders are the ones who prepare the welding materials to weld together metal components and maintain their equipment, such as a welding torch, grinder, or thermal cutters. They should know the various processes like oxy-fuel welding, arc welding, etc., to weld various metal components. Before starting their torches, they position the metals to stay in place using clamps. These welders work to fabricate or repair cracks, holes or increase the size of metal products like machine parts, plant equipment, automobiles, etc.
Structural welders and combination welders have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Structural Welder | Combination Welder | |
| Average salary | $42,868 | $45,432 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $58,000 | Between $32,000 And $62,000 |
| Highest paying City | Philadelphia, PA | Bremerton, WA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Wyoming |
| Best paying company | Turner Construction | Maxum Enterprises, LLC |
| Best paying industry | Construction | Construction |
There are a few differences between a structural welder and a combination welder in terms of educational background:
| Structural Welder | Combination Welder | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 46% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Most common major | Precision Metal Working | Precision Metal Working |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between structural welders' and combination welders' demographics:
| Structural Welder | Combination Welder | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 94.9% Female, 5.1% | Male, 96.7% Female, 3.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.1% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 22.1% Asian, 2.6% White, 59.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6% | Black or African American, 9.8% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 24.3% Asian, 2.6% White, 57.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 3% | 3% |