TradeSalary

Carpenter salary in Los Angeles, CA

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Carpenters in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, CA area earn a median of $75,740 a year, or $36.41 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. One in ten earns more than $117,430. Across all of California, the median is $75,920, so Los Angeles pays about the same as the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$75,740
Bottom 10% under$46,860Top 10% over$117,430
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$22.53/hr
Jobs in this area
30,600
After cost of living
$66,690
Median hourly pay
$36.41/hr
vs U.S. median
+25%
vs California median
0%
Mean (average) pay
$78,600 a year · $37.79 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 31080, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 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 Los Angeles, 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$22.53$46,860
25th percentile$28.59$59,470
Median (50th)$36.41$75,740
75th percentile$48.37$100,620
90th percentile$56.46$117,430

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

How Los Angeles, CA compares

  • Los Angeles ranks 9th of 25 California metro areas for carpenter pay.
  • Carpenters are more concentrated in the Los Angeles area than nationally: 4.9 of every 1,000 jobs, 1.1 times the U.S. share.

Other California metro areas

Other trades in Los Angeles, CA

Questions

Do carpenters make more in Los Angeles or San Francisco?
San Francisco pays more: the median is $75,740 in Los Angeles and $89,200 in San Francisco, a 15% 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 31080 (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 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 (113.6, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures