TradeSalary

Carpenter salary in St. Louis, MO-IL

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Carpenters in the St. Louis, MO-IL area earn a median of $70,990 a year, or $34.13 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $99,550 a year. Across all of Missouri, the median is $60,840, so St. Louis pays 17% more than the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$70,990
Bottom 10% under$45,000Top 10% over$99,550
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$21.64/hr
Jobs in this area
7,210
After cost of living
$74,660
Median hourly pay
$34.13/hr
vs U.S. median
+17%
vs Missouri median
+17%
Mean (average) pay
$71,600 a year · $34.42 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 41180, St. Louis, MO-IL). 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 St. Louis, MO-IL 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$21.64$45,000
25th percentile$25.32$52,660
Median (50th)$34.13$70,990
75th percentile$44.28$92,100
90th percentile$47.86$99,550

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

How St. Louis, MO-IL compares

  • St. Louis has the highest carpenter median of the 8 Missouri metro areas with published pay.
  • Carpenters are more concentrated in the St. Louis area than nationally: 5.4 of every 1,000 jobs, 1.3 times the U.S. share.

Other Missouri metro areas

Other trades in St. Louis, MO-IL

Questions

Do carpenters make more in St. Louis or Kansas City?
St. Louis pays more: the median is $70,990 in St. Louis and $61,810 in Kansas City, 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 41180 (St. Louis, MO-IL). 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 (95.1, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures