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Skilled trades · Building & Making

Bricklayer: what the job actually is

Building walls, chimneys and fireplaces from brick, block and stone, course by course, outdoors, whatever the weather says.

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Bricklayer: quick facts

Bricklayer salary in Ontario: the median pay is $38.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is good. The job usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years.

Median pay in Ontario
$38.00 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$25.00 to $50.83 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Good
People working in it in Ontario
6,650
Usually needs
Usually a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 72320. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Skilled Trades Ontario describes the Brick and Stone Mason trade as erecting, installing, maintaining, repairing and altering walls, floors, arches, pavings, partitions, fireplaces, chimneys, smokestacks and other structures, in brick, natural stone, manufactured stone, tile, concrete block and glass block.
  • Skilled Trades Ontario lists the trade as code 401A and non-compulsory. It is a Red Seal trade, where the Red Seal title is Bricklayer.
  • The work is laying one course at a time to a line, level and plumb, with mortar, and then doing it again. Every wall is built from the bottom, and each course depends on the one below.
  • Most of it is outdoors on construction sites, on scaffold, in all seasons. Job Bank's Ontario outlook names construction, particularly foundation, structure and building exterior contractors and residential construction, as the main employers.
  • Job Bank says construction activity is expected to be favourable across Ontario over the forecast period. The outlook rating is on this page.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 6:30 — On site, boots on. Check the weather, the scaffold and the day's wall.
  2. 7:00 — Mix mortar and stock the scaffold with brick. The labourers and you carry a lot of weight before a single course is laid.
  3. 7:45 — String the line and lay the first course. You check the level, the plumb and the gauge after every few bricks.
  4. 9:30 — Break, outdoors. Your hands are wet with mortar and your back has noticed already.
  5. 9:45 — Lay the corner leads. Corners go up first because the whole wall will be built to them.
  6. 11:30 — Fill in between the corners at pace, working to the line.
  7. 12:00 — Lunch on a pile of pallets.
  8. 12:30 — Tool the joints. If the mortar is too wet or too dry the joint will not look right, and you have a short window.
  9. 14:30 — Raise the scaffold, carry brick up, keep going. Heavy work, and the wall grows by a few courses.
  10. 15:30 — Brush down the wall, clean the tools, cover the work against rain.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like building something you can see from the street, that will be there for decades.
  • You are patient, precise and happy to do the same careful motion thousands of times.
  • You do not mind being outside, and you accept that weather decides some of your days.
  • You want a trade where an apprenticeship leads to a Red Seal, recognised across Canada.
  • You would one day like to run your own crew or business. Job Bank reports a high share of self-employment in this group.
You may hate this if
  • You dislike heavy lifting. Brick, block, stone and mortar are heavy, you do it all day, and your back, knees, wrists and shoulders will pay.
  • Weather bothers you. Heat, cold, wind and rain affect the work and your hours, and brick laying is paused when the weather is wrong, including the mortar.
  • Heights bother you. Much of the work is on scaffold, and falls are a real risk.
  • You want steady all-year work. Construction follows the season, and winter can be thin.
  • You do not like being checked. A wall that is out of plumb or level is obvious to everyone, and has to be taken down and redone.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Know the trade

    Skilled Trades Ontario lists Brick and Stone Mason as trade code 401A. It is non-compulsory, which means you can work in it without being certified. The Red Seal title is Bricklayer, so the qualification is recognised across Canada.

  2. Find a masonry contractor to sponsor you

    You need an employer who will register you and sign off your hours. Ask local masonry contractors what they look for in a first-year apprentice, and expect to start by labouring: mixing mortar, carrying brick and keeping the bricklayers supplied.

  3. Work the hours and go to school

    Skilled Trades Ontario lists the apprenticeship as 5,600 hours, described as approximately three years: 4,880 hours on the job and 720 hours in school.

  4. Write the certifying exam

    After the apprenticeship you write the certifying exam to earn a Certificate of Qualification. Check the Skilled Trades Ontario page for the current process.

  5. Start through school if you can

    Ontario says OYAP lets students in Grade 11 or 12 earn co-op credits through a placement in a skilled trade. Ask your co-op teacher whether a local masonry contractor takes students.

Where this comes from: Skilled Trades Ontario — Brick and Stone Mason (401A) · Ontario — Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program

The money

Bricklayer salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$25.00
Low (hourly)
$38.00
Median (hourly)
$50.83
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 72320. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Bricklayer wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Good4 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to several new positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Construction activity is expected to be favourable across Ontario over the forecast period, supporting opportunities in this occupation
  • Steady demand for new housing to meet population growth
  • Investments in infrastructure such as transit, health care and other public facilities

Who hires for it

  • Majority work in construction, particularly as foundation, structure and building exterior contractors and in residential building construction
6,650
people work in this job in Ontario
less than 5%
are women (48% across all jobs)
30%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Bricklayers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 72320). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take construction technology and maths. Layout, level and quantity are all arithmetic.
  • Ask about OYAP, co-op and an SHSM in a related sector. Starting a masonry apprenticeship before you graduate is the most direct route.
  • Go to a skills competition or event, if one is near you, and watch masons. Ten minutes shows you the pace.
  • Look closely at brick walls in your own town. Notice the patterns, the joints, the corners and where the work is uneven.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Lay a dry wall of bricks or blocks, and feel how heavy the day is

About 75 minutes
  1. Find a few bricks or paving blocks you are allowed to move, such as a pile in your own garden or from a neighbour who says yes. Stack and restack them into a straight, level, square wall, a few courses high. No mortar.
  2. Use a string line and a level from the shed or borrowed. Check each course, and fix any that is off. Notice how a small error at the bottom grows at the top.
  3. Count how many times you bend down and lift in twenty minutes. Multiply by an eight-hour day, and think about how you would feel.
  4. Phone or email one masonry contractor and ask what a first-year apprentice does and what they look for.

What it tells you. If you liked checking a line and getting a course right, and the lifting felt like honest work rather than punishment, this trade may suit you. If you were bored by the repetition, or your back complained after twenty minutes, take that seriously: it is the trade, every day, for years.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What does your body feel like after ten years of this?”
  2. “How do you work in winter, and what happens to your pay?”
  3. “What does a first-year apprentice actually do?”
  4. “How did you find your sponsor?”
  5. “What is the difference between a good bricklayer and an average one?”
  6. “What would you tell someone starting now?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes. Job Bank reports a high share of self-employment in this group. Masonry contractors need tools, scaffold, a truck, insurance and crews, and the hard part is quoting jobs correctly and finding steady work through the winter. Work for a good contractor first, and learn how they price.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a bricklayer make in Ontario?

The median pay for a bricklayer in Ontario is $38.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $25.00 to $50.83 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a bricklayer in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as good for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to several new positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a bricklayer in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Know the trade; Find a masonry contractor to sponsor you; Work the hours and go to school.

Where does a bricklayer work in Ontario?

Majority work in construction, particularly as foundation, structure and building exterior contractors and in residential building construction. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as a bricklayer in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 6,650 people working in this job in Ontario. Less than 5% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Skilled trades hub: kids, teens and adults The highest-paying skilled trades OYAP: start in high school SHSM: the Specialist High Skills Major Women in the skilled trades What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Read next

Apprenticeships in Ontario OYAP in Ontario Women in the trades Highest-paying trades All careers guides

Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.