Carpenter Salary in New York City, NY 2026,
$74,300 Median | BLS + Market Data

New York City carpenters earn a BLS MSA median of $74,300/yr ($35.72/hr), about 2.7% above the New York state median and 22.6% above the national figure. The metro range is the widest in the trade, running from roughly $46,860 (P10) on small non-union work to $123,810 (P90) for union foremen and superintendents.

The New York City District Council of Carpenters negotiates journeyman scale plus a benefit fund covering pension, annuity and health. Union high-rise and commercial work medians about $112,400 in this market, well above the $74,300 metro median, and the union tiers occupy essentially the whole top quartile of the distribution.

There is no New York State journeyman carpenter licence. What NYC requires is safety credentialing: a Department of Buildings Site Safety Training (SST) card is mandatory for workers on most city construction sites. Separately, anyone contracting directly with homeowners needs a Home Improvement Contractor licence from NYC DCWP.

Because two labour markets share one city. Non-union residential renovation and small interior work fills the bottom of the distribution near the $46,860 P10, while District Council high-rise, formwork and commercial work at union scale plus benefits occupies the top, pushing the P90 to $123,810. Almost nothing about those two jobs is the same except the SOC code.

Both apply. New York State levies a graduated income tax, and carpenters living in the five boroughs also pay a New York City resident income tax of roughly 3.1% to 3.9%. On a union journeyman's $105,600 that city tax alone runs to several thousand dollars a year, and it is the main reason a NYC gross does not stretch as far as the same figure in a no-tax state.

New York's $74,300 median is high but not the highest per hour; what makes the market exceptional is its ceiling. The $123,810 P90 is among the top of the trade nationally, driven by District Council scale plus benefit-fund contributions and the sheer volume of high-rise work. The gap between the P25 ($60,160) and the P75 ($98,080) is nearly $38,000, which no other carpenter market matches.

It is the main route to the top of the distribution. Union scale plus the pension, annuity and health funds is what separates the $112,400 union high-rise median from the $52,300 non-union small-scale figure. The apprenticeship pays while you train, and dispatch feeds the high-rise and commercial projects that pay the most.

No. The BLS MSA numbers are base wage only. Union carpenters add a substantial benefit-fund package on top of scale, and NYC project schedules commonly add overtime at 1.5x or more. Counting the funds, total compensation for a District Council journeyman on a Manhattan high-rise runs well above the published $98,080 figure for that tier.