Drywall Cost Calculator for California - Free 2026 Cost Estimates

California Drywall Labor Costs — Verified from BLS OEWS (2025)

Every figure on this page is a published U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics value. Last verified 2026-06-20.

In California, drywall & ceiling tile installers — the core trade for drywall work — earn a mean wage of $35.91/hr ($74,680 per year) in the 2025 BLS OEWS release. That is 17% above the national average (national mean $63,600 per year). California employs about 27,280 drywall & ceiling tile installers statewide. Related trades that price into a typical drywall job include construction laborers ($64,870/yr), first-line supervisors of construction trades ($103,760/yr). Because labor is the largest variable cost on most drywall projects, these published state wage levels are the biggest single reason drywall costs differ between California and other states. Every figure here is a mean value published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and is refreshed automatically when BLS releases new OEWS data.

Across the trades that touch a typical drywall job in California, BLS reports mean wages of drywall & ceiling tile installers at $74,680 per year ($35.91/hr); construction laborers at $64,870 per year ($31.19/hr); first-line supervisors of construction trades at $103,760 per year ($49.89/hr). The spread between first-line supervisors of construction trades ($103,760) and construction laborers ($64,870) reflects differences in skill, certification, and supervisory responsibility on California job sites, and it is why a detailed, line-item estimate beats a single blended rate when you are budgeting drywall work.

Half of California drywall & ceiling tile installers earn less than the median of $65,880 per year — below the $74,680 mean, which a smaller number of higher earners pulls upward. For budgeting, the median is often the more realistic figure for routine drywall crews. BLS counts roughly 27,280 drywall & ceiling tile installers, 88,240 construction laborers, 71,750 first-line supervisors of construction trades employed across California, a measure of how deep the local drywall-trade labor pool is and how much competition for crews you can expect when scheduling work.

When you budget a drywall job in California, treat these BLS wage levels as the labor-rate floor: a crew's billed rate adds overhead, insurance, equipment, and margin on top of the $35.91/hr mean wage shown above. Because California's drywall & ceiling tile installers wages sit 17% above the national average, a drywall quote that comes in far below these published rates is worth a second look — labor that cheap usually signals a different scope, materials, or crew experience. Use the calculator on this page to combine these California labor rates with your project's material quantities for a complete estimate.

Wages are statewide means published by BLS and reflect labor cost only — not the total installed cost of a project. Use the calculator below for a full materials-and-labor estimate, and always obtain written bids from licensed California contractors.