The Datum Report

Occupation 5312 · Skilled trades occupations

Stonemasons and related trades

Half of full-time stonemasons and related trades in the UK earn more than £33,938 a year, and half earn less.

Stonemasons erect and repair structures of stone and similar materials and cut, shape and polish granite, marble, slate and other stone for building, ornamental and other purposes.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, though GCSEs/S grades are advantageous. Entry is typically through an approved apprenticeship programme or college course in conjunction with on-the-job training, leading to a NVQ/SVQ level 2/3 qualification, or through building up work experience supplemented with short courses.

What the work involves

• examines drawings, photographs and specifications to determine job requirements
• marks and cuts stone using hammers, mallet and hand or pneumatic chisels
• uses hand and power tools to shape, trim, carve, cut letters in and polish stone
• levels, aligns and embeds stone in mortar, concrete or steel frame with stone to make and repair structures

Also called

Dry stone waller · Monumental mason · Stone mason

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for stonemasons and related trades, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 2 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Bricklayers · Carpenters and joiners · Construction and building trades n.e.c. · Glaziers, window fabricators and fitters · Plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers · Roofers, roof tilers and slaters · Steel erectors