Helpers--Carpenters
What the pay figures show
- New Hampshire comes first for helpers--carpenters on every measure. $58,090 on paper. Still first after tax. Still first at $46,376 once you adjust for what things cost. When the headline and the reality agree, say so plainly.
- For helpers--carpenters, New Hampshire's $58,090 median is the highest nominally, after tax, and after regional price adjustment, at $46,376. Concordance across all three measures is uncommon and worth stating explicitly, because the absence of a reordering is itself the finding for this occupation.
Compare this career across states
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$43,780
People doing it
21,680
Highest paid
$58,090
NH
Best off, really
$46,376
NH, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$31,660
Highest tenth
$57,670
Lowest, really
$28,331
DE
States with data
47
National average
$44,050
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
105.34%
NH, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Nationally, this job pays within a fairly narrow band. Adjust for tax and for local prices and the band tightens again, to between $28,331 and $46,376. Geography is not the main lever on pay here.
- Only 21,680 people do this job in the whole country. It is a small field, so the pay figures rest on fewer reports.
- This job is not published everywhere — 47 jurisdictions have a figure, with $43,780 in the middle. Where one is missing, it was never released. New Hampshire tops the ones that are.
- Wages for helpers--carpenters cluster comparatively tightly across states, and the clustering strengthens after tax and price deflation — a real range of $28,331 to $46,376. Occupation-level factors such as specialisation and employer type therefore explain more of an individual's pay here than location does.
- National employment in helpers--carpenters is 21,680. ⚠️ At this headcount the state-level medians rest on comparatively thin samples, and year-to-year movement in any one state reflects sampling as much as wages.
- 47 jurisdictions carry a published median for helpers--carpenters. ⚠️ Suppression is not random: it correlates with small state-level samples, so the reported set skews toward larger employers of this occupation.
Pay band: Helpers--Carpenters
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,670 |
| This salary | $43,780 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Helpers--Carpenters
The national median for this job
$43,780around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $31,660 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $43,780 |
| Top tenth | $57,670 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Helpers--Carpenters, state by state
The national median for this job
47states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | Missouri · $32,420 |
|---|---|
| Highest | New Hampshire · $58,090 |
| Spread | $25,670 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $43,950 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $45,228 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| NH | $58,090 | $48,855 | $46,376 |
| AR | $46,800 | $38,511 | $44,517 |
| ME | $50,100 | $40,374 | $41,581 |
| OH | $44,760 | $37,630 | $40,986 |
| CO | $50,900 | $41,547 | $40,981 |
| RI | $50,300 | $41,130 | $40,557 |
| CT | $50,460 | $40,699 | $39,251 |
| MT | $42,670 | $35,217 | $39,024 |
| MI | $44,960 | $36,645 | $38,908 |
| LA | $40,900 | $34,202 | $38,715 |
| TX | $43,950 | $37,494 | $38,584 |
| IN | $42,940 | $35,445 | $38,450 |
| VT | $44,550 | $36,740 | $38,019 |
| ID | $41,820 | $34,419 | $37,647 |
| IA | $39,830 | $33,282 | $37,493 |
| IL | $45,660 | $36,752 | $37,178 |
| PA | $43,880 | $36,090 | $37,016 |
| TN | $39,790 | $34,151 | $36,914 |
| CA | $49,890 | $41,081 | $36,490 |
| NE | $39,670 | $32,953 | $36,463 |
| WA | $46,060 | $39,189 | $36,098 |
| NY | $47,740 | $38,558 | $35,826 |
| MA | $48,130 | $38,766 | $35,815 |
| OK | $38,080 | $31,564 | $35,752 |
| NC | $40,540 | $33,645 | $35,740 |
| AL | $38,930 | $31,803 | $35,349 |
| VA | $43,730 | $35,563 | $35,299 |
| WI | $39,480 | $32,809 | $35,242 |
| NM | $37,100 | $31,362 | $34,698 |
| AZ | $41,540 | $34,921 | $34,540 |
| KS | $38,130 | $30,978 | $34,434 |
| GA | $40,160 | $33,043 | $34,171 |
| SD | $34,700 | $30,061 | $34,124 |
| NJ | $44,040 | $36,681 | $33,688 |
| MS | $35,360 | $29,269 | $33,530 |
| FL | $40,220 | $34,497 | $33,346 |
| HI | $44,550 | $36,002 | $33,148 |
| AK | $39,210 | $33,685 | $33,117 |
| SC | $36,090 | $30,759 | $33,011 |
| KY | $35,520 | $29,595 | $32,713 |
| NV | $36,230 | $31,291 | $32,265 |
| OR | $43,260 | $33,704 | $32,185 |
| WV | $33,760 | $28,460 | $31,703 |
| MD | $39,470 | $32,383 | $31,148 |
| UT | $35,820 | $29,367 | $30,912 |
| MO | $32,420 | $27,643 | $30,125 |
| DE | $33,920 | $28,119 | $28,331 |
Sources and assumptions
- These are middle-of-the-range figures for helpers--carpenters, not what a new starter is offered. Half the people doing this job earn under $43,780 nationally, half over. Your own experience and employer will move you well away from that midpoint in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for helpers--carpenters. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, New Hampshire keeps the most at $48,855.
- One price figure per state stands behind the real-terms numbers for helpers--carpenters. Inside any state, a big city costs far more than a small town, so this is a fair way to compare states with each other and a poor way to price a specific move. The wage figures and the price figures are also from different years. At the bottom of the range sits Delaware, on $28,331.
- All wage figures for helpers--carpenters are medians rather than entry or offer rates; the national median is $43,780. Within-state dispersion typically exceeds between-state dispersion in this data, so an individual's expected wage is determined more by experience, sector and employer than by the state comparisons presented here.
- The household modeled for helpers--carpenters is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis New Hampshire retains the most, $48,855. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms results for helpers--carpenters rest on statewide regional price parities, which average over intra-state variation that is itself larger than much of the interstate variation. They support comparison between states and not the pricing of an individual relocation; Delaware anchors the distribution at $28,331. Wage and price series are published on separate cycles and therefore carry different reference periods.