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Trade Playbook
Masonry is old-school, weather-bound, physically honest work — and the questions are honest too: is the body worth it long-term, new construction or restoration, union or not, and whether heritage restoration is the smarter, less-brutal money. Bricklaying rewards skill and stamina in equal measure, and the good ones plan for the day the stamina fades.
Where it starts
$20–26/hr
Mason tender (labourer)
Where it tops out
$100k–250k+
Masonry contractor
Union route
IUBAC Local 2
Ontario figures for masonry, from the first day on site to the top of the trade. Approximate, and worth checking against current collective agreement rates and job postings in your region.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Mason tender (labourer) | $20–26/hr | You mix mud and carry block before you ever touch a trowel. |
| Bricklayer / mason (401A) | $35–48/hr | IUBAC union sits at the top with a pension. |
| Foreman | More + truck | |
| Masonry contractor | $100k–250k+ | Owner income, and seasonal — cold stops the trowel. |
Two masons with the same ticket can be twenty dollars an hour apart because they picked different work.
Brick and block veneer and structural work on homes and commercial buildings — production-paced, scaffolding, and weather-bound.
Best for: People who want volume and the straightforward path to a contracting business.
Repointing with lime mortars, stone matching, Dutchman repairs, and conservation. Skilled, year-round-ish, and far less brutal than throwing block all day.
Best for: Craftspeople who want premium, lower-volume, less body-punishing work.
Every figure above is what masons get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a masonry business. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobOff the wall: foreman, estimator, restoration specialist, building-envelope/masonry consultant, or owning a masonry company. The body (the lifting, the kneeling, the cold) and the seasonality push masons toward restoration, supervision, or ownership. Heritage restoration in particular is the move a lot of veteran masons make — higher skill, higher margin, easier on the back.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places masons talk about money openly.
The rates above are the market. The live feed is the market this week: which builders and contractors just pulled a permit or won a contract in Ontario, what they are about to need, and who to call.
Masonry Jobs in Ontario: Who Is Hiring Right NowAEC Stack handles incorporation, WSIB, insurance certificates, quoting, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a masonry business runs like one with an office behind it.
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