Carpenters in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,203
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$11,637
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,518
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$49,203
Worth in national money
$48,518
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Rhode Island pays carpenters around $60,840 at the midpoint, 23 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 247 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $60,840, tax leaves $49,203, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,518 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $64,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- For carpenters the Rhode Island median is $60,840, ranking 23 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Carpenters ranks 247 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for carpenters — median $60,840 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,203 retained, $48,518 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $64,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Carpenters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $89,670 |
| 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 Rhode Island | $49,203 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,065 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,031 |
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 | $58,523 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,875 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $60,840 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,840 and the ninetieth is $89,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,203 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $60,840. 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 247 of 452.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $48,518 uses one figure for the whole of Rhode Island. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 452 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 247.
- The Rhode Island median of $60,840 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,840 to $89,670. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $49,203, from $60,840, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 247 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $48,518, 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 Rhode Island address, on work sitting at 247 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $64,320 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $47,840 and the top tenth $89,670, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $48,518 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Rhode Island then takes its own share, leaving $49,203.
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 Rhode Island is $64,320. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($47,840 to $89,670) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $48,518 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,203 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.