On Alaska's federal job sites, the highest-paid worker is a diver

When the U.S. Department of Labor set the required wages for construction trades on Alaska's federally funded projects this spring, one number stood out — and it belonged to a job most people never picture on a construction site. Working divers, the crews who build and repair things underwater, top the scale at $92.83 an hour before benefits. And the deeper they go, the more they make: an extra $2 for every foot below 101 feet.

Everyone else falls in line below them. Line-construction cable splicers earn $74.34 an hour, elevator mechanics $71.44, sprinkler fitters $60.67, boilermakers $58.33, and electricians $55.44 — each with fringe benefits added on top. There's a pattern in the numbers: the more dangerous or specialized the work, the higher the floor. Tunnel workers running heavy equipment, for instance, get a 10 percent bump just for working underground.

Under the federal Davis-Bacon law, any contractor on a covered federal project worth $2,000 or more must pay at least these rates, anywhere in the state — the wage floor for federally funded building and heavy construction across Alaska.