Carpenter salary in Australia
Carpenter pay depends on the type of carpentry, the sector doing the hiring, overtime and site allowances, and whether the work is steady or project to project.
58,544 people reported under the ATO occupation “Carpenter” for 2023-24. The published median salary or wage income was $76,759.
What this page measures
The observed median uses the specific ATO occupation 331212, Carpenter. State, full-time and trend comparisons use the broader Carpenter and joiner unit group, which also contains the combined carpenter and joiner classification and wardrobe builders. As with other trades, the measure is salary or wage income, so self-employed carpenters reporting business income are largely outside it.
The ATO count includes everyone who reported this classification. Its public table does not publish the exact non-zero-income population used to calculate the median.
Related titles and specialisations
- Carpenter
- Carpenter and joiner
- Formwork carpenter
- Fixing carpenter
- Wardrobe builder
A modelled pay guide
- Lower guide
- $51,700
- Modelled low
- $60,600
- ATO median
- $76,759
- Modelled high
- $104,300
Only the median is a published statistic for this occupation. The lower and upper markers are a guide created by applying earnings-distribution ratios for technicians and trades workers as a whole to that median. The upper guide is $140,300. These are not observed percentiles for this occupation.
Why individual salaries vary
- Formwork, framing, fit-out, joinery or shopfitting specialisation
- Residential, commercial or civil construction sector
- Overtime, travel and site allowances
- Employee, subcontractor or self-employed arrangement
What full-time work pays
The tax-return median above can include part-year and part-time workers with non-zero salary or wage income. The ABS full-time benchmark is published for the broader occupation group “Carpenter and joiner”. It covers full-time, non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate and puts them at $1,760 a week, or about $91,500 a year (May 2025), over roughly 43 hours. 11% of workers in the published “Carpenter and joiner” occupation group work part-time.
Modelled carpenter pay by state
These guides apply each published state-to-national ratio for the Carpenter and joiner group to the observed national median above. They are not observed state medians for the specific carpenter occupation.
| State | State-adjusted guide | vs national |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $71,500 | −7% |
| Victoria | $79,100 | +3% |
| Queensland | $80,900 | +5% |
| Western Australia | $86,000 | +12% |
| South Australia | $69,800 | −9% |
| Tasmania | $74,000 | −4% |
| Australian Capital Territory | $78,800 | +3% |
| Northern Territory | $92,800 | +21% |
How the broader pay measure has moved
Average salary income for the “Carpenter and joiner” occupation group went from $49,456 in 2010-11 to $78,723 in 2023-24 - 3.6% a year over 13 years. That is an average rather than a median, and it moves with hours worked and who is in the occupation as well as with pay.
Other occupation guides
Explore other salary guides built from the same ATO and ABS sources.
Turn the benchmark into a decision
Estimate take-home pay from the observed median, or compare a live job advertisement with the broader occupation evidence before applying.
To search another title or change the state, return to the Australian Salary Search.
Sources: ATO Table 15, ATO Table 14B, ABS Employee Earnings and Hours and Jobs and Skills Australia occupation data. Data retrieved 17 August 2026. Page reviewed . Full method on the methodology page.
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