Carpenter Salary in Illinois 2026,
$79,000 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Illinois figure is $79,000 a year, or $37.98 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $39,890 at the 10th percentile to $117,660 at the 90th. That is 30.4% above the national median of $60,580 — the largest state premium in this unit. Illinois employs 19,570 carpenters at a location quotient of 0.74, below the national rate.

Kankakee at $95,280, then Decatur $87,220, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin $80,440, Springfield $76,970 and Bloomington $75,470. Kankakee and Decatur leading is a small-sample effect in markets dominated by industrial and institutional projects on negotiated scale — Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $80,440 describes far more of the state's carpenters.

No. Illinois does not license carpentry, and there is no statewide trade credential. Contractor licensing exists at municipal level — cities including Chicago license general contractors and certain building trades — but that regulates the business, not the individual carpenter. What functions as the credential in practice is the apprenticeship and the negotiated wage scale, which determine the rate for commercial and industrial work across the Chicago area and much of northern Illinois.

Because the wage is negotiated rather than set by an open labour market. The regional carpenters' council bargains wage and benefit scales covering the Chicago area and much of northern Illinois, and those rates apply to commercial, institutional and industrial projects regardless of what an individual would accept. The corollary is visible in the same data: a location quotient of 0.74 means Illinois employs fewer carpenters per job than the country as a whole. The scale holds and the headcount adjusts.

Through an apprenticeship, in practice. Illinois requires no licence, so anyone can be hired as a carpenter, but the well-paid half of this occupation runs on negotiated scale and entry to it is via the joint labour-management apprenticeship programme — several years combining paid work at a rising percentage of journey scale with classroom instruction. That is the route from the $39,890 tenth percentile to the $106,950 seventy-fifth; the alternative residential path largely stays in the lower half of the band.

Because it contains two distinct labour markets. Residential and small-contractor carpentry in Illinois is priced like carpentry anywhere — the $39,890 tenth percentile and $56,160 twenty-fifth describe it. Commercial, institutional and industrial carpentry under negotiated scale is priced by agreement, and the $106,950 seventy-fifth percentile and $117,660 ninetieth describe that. There is very little movement between the two on a given day, and the statewide median of $79,000 sits in the gap between them rather than describing either.

It is not the wage an Illinois homeowner's carpenter earns, and it is not the wage a Chicago high-rise carpenter earns — it is the midpoint between two populations. It also does not capture seasonality: Illinois construction is weather-exposed, and annualised OEWS figures blend heavy summer schedules with slower winters. A carpenter evaluating this page should identify which market an opportunity belongs to and read the corresponding quartile rather than the median.

Getting onto scale, then hours, then responsibility. Completing an apprenticeship and working journey-level commercial and industrial projects is the single largest step available, and it accounts for most of the distance from the $56,160 twenty-fifth percentile to the $106,950 seventy-fifth. Overtime on large projects is the next component, taxed at Illinois's same flat 4.95% with no city surcharge. Above that, foreman and superintendent responsibility and specialist work — formwork, interior systems, millwork — reach the $117,660 top decile.