Carpenters in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,143
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$11,697
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,555
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$60,840
Kept after tax
$49,143
Worth in national money
$53,555
State rank
22
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Missouri is 22 of 51 states for carpenters, with a middle wage of $60,840. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 202 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $60,840 the take-home is $49,143; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $53,555 would nationally. The average comes to $65,000, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Missouri ranks 22 of 51 for carpenters at $60,840. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Carpenters ranks 202 of 488 occupations in Missouri by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for carpenters in Missouri, on $60,840, is $49,143 — equivalent to $53,555 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $65,000 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $38,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,310 |
| This salary | $60,840 |
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 Missouri | $49,143 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,065 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,005 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $58,448 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,216 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $60,840 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,700 and the ninetieth is $96,310 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Missouri the take-home figure of $49,143, from $60,840, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 202 of 488 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $53,555 uses one figure for the whole of Missouri. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 202.
- The Missouri median of $60,840 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,700 to $96,310. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Missouri is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $49,143 from $60,840. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 202 of 488 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $53,555, worked from $60,840, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Missouri address, on work sitting at 202 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $65,000, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,700, the highest tenth $96,310, 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 $53,555.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,143 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Missouri is $65,000. 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 ($38,700) and the ninetieth ($96,310) 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?
Missouri'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 $53,555 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 $49,143 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.