Carpenters in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,459
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$13,471
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,287
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$64,930
Kept after tax
$51,459
Worth in national money
$52,287
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Minnesota pays carpenters a middle wage of $64,930, ranking 8 of 51 states and sitting about 7.18% above the national middle.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 490 occupations Minnesota reports figures for, this is number 240.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,930, tax leaves $51,459, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,287 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $70,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- Minnesota's median for carpenters is $64,930, about 7.18% above the national figure and 8 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- In Minnesota's occupational distribution, carpenters sits at 240 of 490 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for carpenters — median $64,930 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $51,459 retained, $52,287 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $70,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Carpenters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,130 |
| This salary | $64,930 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Minnesota | $51,459 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,351 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,644 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $61,331 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,407 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Minnesota earn less than $64,930. The published range is $46,590 up to $99,130, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $51,459 take-home in Minnesota comes from $64,930. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 240 of 490.
- Two cautions on $52,287, the adjusted value of that $64,930 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 240 of 490 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for carpenters in Minnesota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,590 to $99,130. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $51,459, from $64,930, assumes a single Minnesota filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 240 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 51 for it.
- This $52,287 adjusted figure, worked from $64,930, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 240 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 240 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $70,320, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $46,590, the highest tenth $99,130, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $52,287.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Minnesota's own levy, $51,459 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Minnesota is $70,320. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($46,590) and the ninetieth ($99,130) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $52,287 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $51,459 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.