What Is the Hourly Wage for Carpentry?
Carpenters go against the grain – or, indeed, with it, depending on the wood with which they are working. They fabricate and install wooden components in buildings, such as partitions, joists, door frames and flooring, as well as building wooden furniture and fittings. They use a variety of hand tools, both manual and electric to cut, shape, join and fix components.
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Average Pay
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During its May 2010 national survey of employment, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gathered wage data from more than 620,000 individual carpenters working throughout the nation. It calculated the mean hourly pay rate for the occupation at $21.10. This extrapolates into an annual salary of $43,890. Those in the top 10 percent of earners received a mean in excess of $34.45, while their counterparts in the bottom 10 percent earned less than $11.85.
Pay by Industry
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The most carpenters work within residential building construction, according to the bureau’s analysis. It gave the mean hourly pay rate within this sector of the industry as $19.72. Within nonresidential building construction, the wage was $23.19. Individuals working for building finishing contractors earned a mean of $22.04, while foundation, structure and building exterior contractors received $19.85 an hour. Specialists working in the motion picture and video industries earned an hourly mean of $29.52.
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Pay by Location
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Location also influences a carpenter’s pay. The bureau listed Hawaii as the state in which, across all industry sectors, a practitioner was likely to earn the highest wage, with a mean of $31.81 an hour. Alaska and Nevada were also listed as comparatively lucrative locations, with respective means of $29.14 and $27.62. Pay rates were almost identical between New Jersey and California -- $26.67 and $26.25, respectively -- as they were between Florida and Montana, at $17.15 and $17.13. South Dakota had one of the lowest means, just $14.81 an hour.
Prospects
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment opportunities for carpenters to grow by around 13 percent over the decade from 2008 to 2018. This is in line with the top estimate for growth across all occupations in the country, between 7 and 13 percent over the same time. Population growth will spur a rise in construction projects, which will, in turn drive demand for carpenters, as will remodeling buildings to enhance energy efficiency. As such, hourly pay for the profession should remain competitive.
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References
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