- The middle half earn between $48.00 and $63.62 an hour.
- South Dakota ranks 18th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- South Dakota pays more than 5 of its 6 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 1,070 general contractors on payrolls in South Dakota.
- At the state median wage, a general contracting business needs to bill about $170.53 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
General Contractor pay in South Dakota, bottom to top
BLS has no separate wage figure for general contractors. These are its numbers for construction managers, the group BLS files general contractors under. They count managers on a payroll, so owners who run their own contracting business are not in them.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $43.37 | $90,210 | $33.50 |
| 25th percentile | $48.00 | $99,830 | $42.57 |
| Median | $56.91 | $118,380 | $55.28 |
| 75th percentile | $63.62 | $132,330 | $72.91 |
| 90th percentile | $77.61 | $161,440 | $91.08 |
| Average (mean) | $59.29 | $123,320 | $59.79 |
Pay is bunched up in South Dakota. The top tenth earn $77.61 an hour or more, about 1.8 times the $43.37 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 2.7 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
The floor is higher than nationally ($43.37 against $33.50) but the ceiling is lower ($77.61 against $91.08), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average, $59.29, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How South Dakota compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $118,380 in South Dakota against $114,990 nationally, $3,390 more.
In the state ranking, South Dakota sits 18th, between Virginia ($57.26) and Nevada ($55.41). The range runs from $41.50 in Arkansas to $74.69 in New York.
Against its neighboring states, South Dakota is in the middle: Minnesota pays more, and Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming pay less.
| Neighboring state | Median hourly | Median yearly | Against South Dakota |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $56.91 | $118,380 | |
| Iowa | $47.73 | $99,280 | −$9.18 an hour |
| Minnesota | $59.33 | $123,400 | +$2.42 an hour |
| Montana | $50.23 | $104,480 | −$6.68 an hour |
| Nebraska | $48.47 | $100,820 | −$8.44 an hour |
| North Dakota | $49.07 | $102,070 | −$7.84 an hour |
| Wyoming | $44.39 | $92,320 | −$12.52 an hour |
How many general contractors work in South Dakota
About 1,070 general contractors work on payrolls in South Dakota, 0.3% of the 380,360 nationwide, the 44th largest count among the states.
That is 2.3 of every 1,000 jobs in South Dakota, close to the trade's share of jobs nationally.
What a general contracting business in South Dakota should charge
Say you run a general contracting business in South Dakota and pay the state median of $56.91 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on its starting numbers: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $56.91 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $127,428 |
| Break-even rate | ($127,428 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $144.95 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $144.95 ÷ 0.85 | $170.53 |
That is $170.53 per billable hour, 3 times the wage, and $2.86 more than the $167.67 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $63.62 in South Dakota, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $182.32.
At this wage the pay itself is the biggest part of the price, so every raise shows up in the rate: a dollar more an hour adds about $1.76 per billed hour.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a general contractor in South Dakota
- Licensing. What South Dakota asks for before you can work on your own: General contractor license in South Dakota.
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how general contractors run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 11-9021, construction managers, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: general contractor salary by state.