---
title: "Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher"
description: "Smooth and finish surfaces of poured concrete, such as floors, walks, sidewalks, roads, or curbs using a variety of hand and power tools. Align forms for…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-2051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-2051.00

Smooth and finish surfaces of poured concrete, such as floors, walks, sidewalks, roads, or curbs using a variety of hand and power tools. Align forms for sidewalks, curbs, or gutters; patch voids; and use saws to cut expansion joints.

Also advertised as: Cement Finisher; Cement Mason; Concrete Finisher; Concrete Mason; Finisher; Mason.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $57,020 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $27.41/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,190 to $85,480, with the middle half between $47,010 and $66,870
- **Total US employment:** 206,170
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 64/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 206,170 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,190 |
| 25th | $47,010 |
| 50th (median) | $57,020 |
| 75th | $66,870 |
| 90th | $85,480 |
| Mean (average) | $60,050 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $95,890 | $87,212 | 650 |
| AK | $92,960 | $90,818 | 240 |
| IL | $78,170 | $78,203 | 5,890 |
| WA | $77,520 | $72,440 | 4,440 |
| OR | $68,530 | $66,302 | 2,170 |
| MN | $66,830 | $67,764 | 3,070 |
| WI | $64,250 | $68,282 | 4,490 |
| NY | $64,040 | $59,340 | 9,060 |
| MA | $63,840 | $60,365 | 1,590 |
| OH | $62,990 | $67,896 | 6,060 |
| RI | $62,950 | $61,547 | 250 |
| CA | $62,700 | $56,629 | 28,700 |
| DC | $61,680 | $56,123 | 320 |
| MT | $61,620 | $65,106 | 780 |
| PA | $61,610 | $63,143 | 5,180 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 206,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 210,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,800 jobs, or +1.8%. Slower than average: 1.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 51.7% |
| High School Diploma | 35.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 12.7% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Check the forms that hold the concrete to see that they are properly constructed.
- Spread, level, and smooth concrete, using rake, shovel, hand or power trowel, hand or power screed, and float.
- Set the forms that hold concrete to the desired pitch and depth, and align them.
- Signal truck driver to position truck to facilitate pouring concrete, and move chute to direct concrete on forms.
- Produce rough concrete surface, using broom.
- Wet surface to prepare for bonding, fill holes and cracks with grout or slurry, and smooth, using trowel.
- Chip, scrape, and grind high spots, ridges, and rough projections to finish concrete, using pneumatic chisels, power grinders, or hand tools.
- Mold expansion joints and edges, using edging tools, jointers, and straightedge.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.27 |
| I — Investigative | 2.29 |
| A — Artistic | 1.66 |
| S — Social | 1.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 85.1 |
| ISTP | 79.0 |
| ISFJ | 69.1 |
| INTJ | 67.7 |
| ESTJ | 66.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Terrazzo Worker and Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/terrazzo-worker-and-finisher) — median $76,170
- [Construction Laborer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-laborer) — median $47,120
- [Brickmason and Blockmason](https://nuecareer.com/careers/brickmason-and-blockmason) — median $62,120
- [Segmental Paver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/segmental-paver) — median $49,910
- [Helpers--Brickmason, Blockmason, Stonemason, and Tile and Marble Setter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-brickmason-blockmason-stonemason-and-tile-and-marble-setter) — median $47,550
- [Tile and Stone Setter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tile-and-stone-setter) — median $55,690
- [Stonemason](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stonemason) — median $57,390
- [Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paving-surfacing-and-tamping-equipment-operator) — median $53,340
- [Floor Layer, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles](https://nuecareer.com/careers/floor-layer) — median $56,460
- [Plasterer and Stucco Mason](https://nuecareer.com/careers/plasterer-and-stucco-mason) — median $57,660

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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