It’s not a bad time to be a tradesman or construction worker in Australia with a list by Service Seeking revealing the Australia’s wealthiest trades by hourly rates and region.

While dropping down a little each year, the entry mark into the Tradie Rich List was $68.58 per hour in 2016.

Western Australian plumbers topped the list, making the most money by charging an average of $87.68, a 9.5 percent decline from 2015.

Trailing not far behind and taking second place are Western Australian electricians, earning on average $87.33 per hour. New South Wales builders ranked third with earnings around $77.85 per hour, an improvement of 27.7 percent from last year.

ABS figures show that the construction industry generated $305 billion in total income, contributed $99 billion to the Australian economy. The data shows that construction services comprise 77 percent of these small businesses, and small construction firms employ more than 500,000 Australians. A third of all employees in this sector are tradespeople.

“Two-thirds of the jobs in the industry were in construction services – that’s the carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, and other tradespeople while the rest were split between building construction and civil engineering,” said William Milne, Director of Integrated Collections at the ABS.

The results showed that across all industries, the average tradesman is bringing in $60.88 per hour, up slightly from last year.

The state with the highest earning tradies, plumbers and electricians was Western Australia, banking $87.67 and $87.33 per hour on average. But, New South Wales has the best earnign builders and Queensland is home to the highest earning landscape gardeners.

“Like many industries it’s all about how complex the work is and where you work. Get a licence or learn a complex trade and you’ll be paid more,” said Jeremy Levitt from Service Seeking.

“Set up your business in an area where there is lots of construction and you’ll obviously drive up your earnings.”

Tradie Rich List 2016

1. WA Plumbers make $87.67 per hour
2. WA Electricians earn $87.33 per hour
3. NSW Builders average $77.85 per hour
4. NSW Plumbers bring in $77.42 per hour
5. VIC Plumbers make $77.03 per hour
6. QLD Electricians earn $75.23 per hour
7. WA Builders make $71.52 per hour
8. QLD Landscapers make $70.57 per hour
9. VIC Electricans make $68.68 per hour
10. QLD Plumbers make $68.58 per hour