TradeSalary

Carpenter salary in Bakersfield, CA

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Carpenters in the Bakersfield–Delano, CA area earn a median of $66,540 a year, or $31.99 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $104,810 a year. That's 12% less than the California median of $75,920.

Median yearly pay$66,540
Bottom 10% under$45,120Top 10% over$104,810
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$21.69/hr
Jobs in this area
1,100
After cost of living
$65,960
Median hourly pay
$31.99/hr
vs U.S. median
+10%
vs California median
−12%
Mean (average) pay
$71,400 a year · $34.33 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 12540, Bakersfield-Delano, CA). Excludes self-employed carpenters. Cost of living: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. *Starting pay is estimated from the 10th percentile; BLS does not report pay by license level.

Pay by percentile

What carpenters in Bakersfield, CA earn at each point of the pay range, May 2025: 10% earn less than the 10th percentile, half earn less than the median, and 10% earn more than the 90th.

PercentileHourlyYearly
10th percentile$21.69$45,120
25th percentile$24.72$51,420
Median (50th)$31.99$66,540
75th percentile$38.81$80,720
90th percentile$50.39$104,810

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.

How Bakersfield, CA compares

  • Bakersfield ranks 23rd of 25 California metro areas for carpenter pay.
  • Carpenters are less concentrated in the Bakersfield area than nationally: 3.2 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.75 times the U.S. share.

Other California metro areas

Other trades in Bakersfield, CA

Questions

Do carpenters make more in Bakersfield or San Francisco?
San Francisco pays more: the median is $66,540 in Bakersfield and $89,200 in San Francisco, a 25% difference.

About this data

Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 47-2031 (Carpenters), area code 12540 (Bakersfield-Delano, CA). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed carpenters and business owners aren't included. The cost-of-living figure divides the median by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity for 2024 (100.9, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures