Digital design pay pulled away; trade wages rose steadily
Across U.S. national wage benchmarks for 2021–2025, the digital-design proxy rose fastest, reaching $104,000. Brand design, plumbing and general handyman work climbed more gradually. Because federal statistics do not publish separate UX, UI and product-designer series, those titles use the closest consistent occupation, Web and Digital Interface Designers.
$104k
2025 digital-design median
+30%
digital proxy, five-year rise
$63.8k
2025 plumber median
6 roles
compared across five years
Annual median salary trend
U.S. dollars, 2021–2025; role titles grouped where they share a federal occupation proxy
UX / UI / productBrandPlumberHandyman
UX, UI and product overlap exactly because each is represented by BLS SOC 15-1255. Brand uses Graphic Designers (27-1024); handyman uses Maintenance and Repair Workers, General (49-9071).
What changed
1
Digital design added about $24,000. The Web and Digital Interface Designers benchmark moved from roughly $79,900 in 2021 to $104,000 in 2025. orbytjobs.ai
2
Brand-design pay rose about 24%. Its graphic-design proxy increased from about $50,700 to $63,000, but remained well below digital-product work. jobcannon.io
3
Plumbing stayed ahead of brand design until the end. The two benchmarks converged near $64,000 in 2025 after plumbing’s steadier path. smarfle.com
4
Handyman work remained the lowest-paid benchmark. General maintenance and repair reached $49,590 in 2025, still rising every year. gerajobs.com
highest 2025 pay
UX / UI / product design
$104,000
Best represented consistently by the federal web and digital interface occupation.
closest finish
Brand design vs plumber
$63.0k / $63.8k
The 2025 gap narrowed to less than $1,000.
steady climber
Handyman proxy
$49,590
General maintenance and repair pay rose by roughly 15% over the period.
Five-year salary series
| Role | Comparable occupation | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand designer | Graphic designers | $50,710 | $57,990 | $58,910 | $61,300 | $62,960 | bls.gov |
| UX designer | Web & digital interface | $79,890 | $80,730 | $92,750 | $98,090 | $104,000 | orbytjobs.ai |
| UI designer | Web & digital interface | $79,890 | $80,730 | $92,750 | $98,090 | $104,000 | orbytjobs.ai |
| Product designer | Web & digital interface | $79,890 | $80,730 | $92,750 | $98,090 | $104,000 | orbytjobs.ai |
| Plumber | Plumbers, pipefitters & steamfitters | $59,880 | $60,090 | $61,550 | $62,970 | $63,800 | salary-atlas.com |
| Handyman | Maintenance & repair, general | $43,180 | $44,980 | $46,700 | $48,620 | $49,590 | gerajobs.com |
Method: live web research across BLS pages and salary pages that reproduce BLS OEWS releases, accessed 26 August 2026. Values are U.S. national median annual wages for May 2021–May 2025, rounded only in chart labels. “Designer” titles do not map one-to-one to federal occupations, so the report uses stable SOC proxies rather than mixing incompatible private salary surveys.