BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 47-2031
How much do carpenters make?
The carpentry wage record, from framing through to finish work, across 670,000 employed carpenters.
- Median pay$60,580a year
- Median hourly$29.12an hour
- Mean pay$65,630a year
- Employed670,090nationally
One code covers framers, formwork carpenters and finish carpenters alike, which is part of why the spread from the tenth percentile to the ninetieth is close to sixty thousand dollars.
What carpenters earn, from the bottom tenth to the top
A single median hides the range, and in this trade the range is the useful part. These four figures are the published percentiles for occupation code 47-2031, not a calculation done here.
| Measure | Annual | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $40,410 | the bottom tenth earn less than this |
| Median | $60,580 | half earn more, half earn less |
| Mean | $65,630 | the average, pulled up by the top |
| 90th percentile | $99,910 | the top tenth earn more than this |
Hourly equivalents: $29.12 median, $31.55 mean
Where carpenters are paid most, and where there are most of them
Five highest paying states
| State | Mean annual |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | $87,480 |
| Alaska | $80,460 |
| Illinois | $80,320 |
| Massachusetts | $79,680 |
| Washington | $79,170 |
Five largest employing states
| State | Employed |
|---|---|
| California | 100,750 |
| New York | 40,630 |
| Florida | 39,300 |
| Texas | 33,540 |
| Pennsylvania | 30,630 |
The two lists rarely overlap, and that is the point of showing both. A high mean wage usually tracks cost of living, while a high headcount tracks population. Neither on its own tells you where the work is.
SOC 47-2031 · 1 August 2026
What these figures actually say about carpenters
One code covers framers, formwork carpenters and finish carpenters alike, which is why the range is so wide.
The gap between the tenth percentile and the ninetieth is close to sixty thousand dollars a year, one of the widest on the site outside the supervisory and theatrical codes. A single occupation title spanning structural framing and cabinetry is going to produce that, because the two ends of it are different jobs sold to different buyers at different rates.
The median is the highest of the trade codes on this site that are neither supervisory nor theatrical, which is consistent with a long apprenticeship and a genuine skill ladder. It is also a national cross industry figure: carpenters working for commercial contractors and carpenters working on residential renovations are averaged together, and the residential renovation market is the one this site is about.
The Census side splits what the wage code merges. Finish carpentry contractors are a separate industry with their own establishment count and a payroll of more than ten billion dollars a year, and it is a different business from framing. If you are reading this page as a finish carpenter, that industry page is the closer match.
Finish carpentry produces the most photogenic before and after on any renovation job, and it is routinely buried inside a whole room reveal that credits the kitchen company. Shooting the trim, the cabinetry and the door line as their own pair is the cheapest positioning move available in this trade.
Every figure quoted above appears in the tables on this page or is arithmetic on them. Nothing here forecasts, values a business or suggests a price, because none of the three is measurable from a wage survey.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national cross industry estimates, occupation 47-2031 Carpenters. Accessed 2026-08-01.
National, cross-industry estimates for wage and salary workers. Self-employed workers, owner-operators and chair or booth renters are not in scope.
bls.gov/oes and the published series files at download.bls.gov
How many of these businesses there are
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How much do carpenters make?
- The median wage for carpenters in the United States is $60,580 a year, or $29.12 an hour. The mean is $65,630. The bottom tenth earn under $40,410 and the top tenth earn over $99,910. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation code 47-2031.
- Does this include self-employed workers?
- No, and that matters more in this trade than the number does. OEWS covers wage and salary workers only. Self-employed workers, owner-operators, chair renters and single-van businesses are outside the survey entirely, so this is what an employed person in this job is paid, not what everyone doing this work earns.
- Which state pays the most?
- Hawaii, at a mean of $87,480 a year, followed by Alaska at $80,460. The five highest paying and five largest employing states are listed above, and a high mean usually reflects cost of living as much as opportunity.
- What does this actually tell a carpenter running their own business?
- One code covers framers, formwork carpenters and finish carpenters alike, which is why the range is so wide. Finish carpentry produces the most photogenic before and after on any renovation job, and it is routinely buried inside a whole room reveal that credits the kitchen company. Shooting the trim, the cabinetry and the door line as their own pair is the cheapest positioning move available in this trade.
- How current is this figure?
- It is the May 2025 release, which is the most recent Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data published by BLS. It was fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call, so what you see is what was checked on that date.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.