TradeSalary

Carpenter salary in Nashville, TN

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Carpenters in the Nashville–Davidson––Murfreesboro––Franklin, TN area earn a median of $55,770 a year, or $26.81 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $69,680 a year. Statewide, carpenters earn a median of $50,830; Nashville is 10% above it.

Median yearly pay$55,770
Bottom 10% under$40,120Top 10% over$69,680
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$19.29/hr
Jobs in this area
3,040
After cost of living
$57,890
Median hourly pay
$26.81/hr
vs U.S. median
−8%
vs Tennessee median
+10%
Mean (average) pay
$56,730 a year · $27.27 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 34980, Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN). 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 Nashville, TN 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$19.29$40,120
25th percentile$23.80$49,510
Median (50th)$26.81$55,770
75th percentile$29.35$61,050
90th percentile$33.50$69,680

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

How Nashville, TN compares

  • Nashville has the highest carpenter median of the 10 Tennessee metro areas with published pay.
  • Carpenters are less concentrated in the Nashville area than nationally: 2.8 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.64 times the U.S. share.

Other Tennessee metro areas

Other trades in Nashville, TN

Questions

Do carpenters make more in Nashville or Chattanooga?
Nashville pays more: the median is $55,770 in Nashville and $50,760 in Chattanooga, a 10% 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 34980 (Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN). 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 (96.3, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures