TradeSalary

Carpenter salary in Bowling Green, KY

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Carpenters in the Bowling Green, KY area earn a median of $52,680 a year, or $25.33 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $61,520 a year. Across all of Kentucky, the median is $52,680, so Bowling Green pays about the same as the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$52,680
Bottom 10% under$37,600Top 10% over$61,520
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$18.08/hr
Jobs in this area
480
After cost of living
$58,420
Median hourly pay
$25.33/hr
vs U.S. median
−13%
vs Kentucky median
0%
Mean (average) pay
$52,450 a year · $25.21 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 14540, Bowling Green, KY). 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 Bowling Green, KY 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$18.08$37,600
25th percentile$22.62$47,060
Median (50th)$25.33$52,680
75th percentile$25.33$52,680
90th percentile$29.58$61,520

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

How Bowling Green, KY compares

  • Bowling Green ranks 3rd of 9 Kentucky metro areas for carpenter pay.
  • Carpenters are more concentrated in the Bowling Green area than nationally: 5.8 of every 1,000 jobs, 1.3 times the U.S. share.

Other Kentucky metro areas

Other trades in Bowling Green, KY

Questions

Do carpenters make more in Bowling Green or Cincinnati?
Cincinnati pays more: the median is $52,680 in Bowling Green and $60,110 in Cincinnati, a 12% 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 14540 (Bowling Green, KY). 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 (90.2, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures