What is a Finish Carpenter?

Pursuing a career in carpentry requires delicate hands with crafting skills, and the same is the case for a Finish carpenter role. A finish carpenter is a professional who performs the final touches on a house after the structure is completely constructed. Adding designs to doors, windows, and cabinets, building bookshelves, and installing entrances are some of the tasks these carpenters carry out.

Normally, a Finish carpenter has a high school diploma and goes for an apprenticeship, which typically lasts for a year. The carpenter learns the trade on the job. Vocational courses such as stair layout and safety, exterior and interior trim, and cabinet making can help the finish carpenters to grow and excel quickly.

On average, working as a finish carpenter, you can expect to earn around $20 an hour and make more than $40,000 per year. Job opportunities in the US are gradually increasing for finish carpenters, and the career is growing steadily.

What Does a Finish Carpenter Do

There are certain skills that many finish carpenters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, detail oriented and math skills.

Learn more about what a Finish Carpenter does

How To Become a Finish Carpenter

If you're interested in becoming a finish carpenter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 24.3% of finish carpenters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.3% of finish carpenters have master's degrees. Even though some finish carpenters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Finish Carpenter
Top Finish Carpenter Jobs Near You

Finish Carpenter Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a finish carpenter can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as foreman, progress to a title such as superintendent and then eventually end up with the title project superintendent.

Finish Carpenter

Average Salary for a Finish Carpenter

Finish Carpenters in America make an average salary of $46,987 per year or $23 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $63,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $34,000 per year.
Average Finish Carpenter Salary
$46,987 Yearly
$22.59 hourly
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Roles and Types of Finish Carpenter

The role of a finish carpenter includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general finish carpenter responsibilities:

  • Assist the foreman in estimating costs of projects read
  • Installing stages at the utah performing center
  • Shaping and cutting materials to specific measurements, using hand tools, machines, or power saws building or repairing cabinets, doors, frameworks, floors, finishing interior

There are several types of finish carpenter, including:

Carpenter

Role:

How much wood would a carpenter.. Wait, that's not how that goes. Speaking of carpenter's though, they do cut a lot of wood. That's how they're able to construct, repair and install building frameworks.

With only a high school diploma, you could be making an average of $48,330 a year by becoming a carpenter. The range of projects they work on range from installing kitchen cabinets to building highways and bridges.

  • Average Salary: $41,748
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Journeyman

Role:

The term journeyman came about during the middle ages from the establishment of guilds, akin to the modern-day professional association. Through the guidelines provided by a guild, workers can build their skills by moving up three rank orders: apprenticeship, journeyman, and masters. Each level requires a period of work experience, as well as professional work, to be submitted to the guild for evaluation. The trade certificate earned by a journeyman would qualify him to operate as an employee, but to be self-employed, he/she would need to earn a master's certificate.

Daily, a journeyman is tasked with manual work involving areas such as plumbing, electrical, and carpentry. This includes developing maintenance procedures, repairing electrical control systems, and conducting plumbing installations. Besides that, they also perform machinery operations, develop quality assurance methods, and facilitate material management activities.

Employers require a minimum high school diploma for a journeyman, with the remaining education happening on the job. A journeyman will also need to demonstrate 1-2 years of work experience. This role earns an average of $22 per hour.

  • Average Salary: $57,682
  • Degree: Associate Degree

Framer

Role:

A framer reads blueprints to assemble the framework structures which are used in the construction of houses and other facilities. It is the framer's job to assemble a team, devises working plans, gathers the appropriate materials, and then construct the framework.

Framers participate in a broad range of projects which might include roofing, excavation, and gutters. Framers also build, maintain and repair foundations, exterior doors, walls, and roofs. You might also be required to assist in the installations of plumbing and electrical systems. You can choose to be self-employed as a framer or to be employed by home builders framing contractors, and construction companies.

Framers earn $37,287 a year from making $17.93 an hour. You can become a framer with only a high school diploma. Previous work experience is always appreciated, especially in building and construction. Highly rated skills for framers are attention to detail, proficiency in the use of tools, strong verbal communication skills, and good math and analytical skills.

  • Average Salary: $34,298
  • Degree: High School Diploma
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States With The Most Finish Carpenter Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active finish carpenter jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where finish carpenters earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Finish Carpenter Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1Florida612$39,650
2Texas579$42,545
3California519$59,104
4North Carolina399$35,998
5Virginia359$38,376
6Pennsylvania302$45,103
7Ohio285$43,470
8Georgia281$39,020
9New York260$59,167
10Tennessee253$37,754
11Washington229$58,221
12Maryland203$49,485
13Colorado195$44,531
14Illinois193$50,029
15South Carolina192$43,814
16Minnesota192$43,266
17Wisconsin186$39,358
18Indiana179$46,637
19Iowa176$40,248
20Massachusetts172$63,822
21Michigan165$41,298
22Oregon150$49,778
23Alabama147$35,978
24Utah144$36,241
25New Jersey143$60,727
26Arizona142$47,587
27Missouri135$43,019
28Louisiana131$42,331
29Oklahoma122$41,243
30Montana117$43,796
31Kansas117$39,449
32Kentucky109$40,211
33Connecticut93$54,329
34Nebraska90$28,592
35Idaho87$35,445
36Maine79$50,327
37Nevada70$51,030
38New Hampshire70$49,398
39Mississippi66$38,321
40Arkansas63$40,040
41South Dakota61$31,162
42West Virginia58$35,122
43North Dakota54$46,253
44Alaska53$47,416
45New Mexico53$40,394
46Wyoming42$44,574
47Delaware42$49,120
48Hawaii38$48,488
49Vermont35$51,654
50Rhode Island30$52,774

Finish Carpenter Education

Finish Carpenter Majors

Business
22.7 %
General Studies
9.3 %
Construction Management
8.4 %

Finish Carpenter Degrees

High School Diploma

36.1 %

Bachelors

24.3 %

Associate

22.1 %

Top Skills For a Finish Carpenter

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 19.4% of finish carpenters listed hand tools on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and detail oriented are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Finish Carpenter Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Finish Carpenter templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Finish Carpenter resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Finish Carpenter Resume
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Finish Carpenter diversity

Finish Carpenter Gender Distribution

Male
Male
97%
Female
Female
4%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among finish carpenters, 3.5% of them are women, while 96.5% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among finish carpenters is White, which makes up 62.1% of all finish carpenters.

  • The most common foreign language among finish carpenters is Spanish at 54.8%.

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Best States For a Finish Carpenter

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a finish carpenter. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and California. Finish carpenters make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $63,822. Whereas in New Jersey and New York, they would average $60,727 and $59,167, respectively. While finish carpenters would only make an average of $59,104 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Vermont

Total Finish Carpenter Jobs: 35
Highest 10% Earn:
$73,000
Location Quotient:
1.53

$51,654

Avg. Salary

View 35 Finish Carpenter Jobs In VT

2. Maine

Total Finish Carpenter Jobs: 79
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
2

$50,327

Avg. Salary

View 79 Finish Carpenter Jobs In ME

3. Washington

Total Finish Carpenter Jobs: 229
Highest 10% Earn:
$77,000
Location Quotient:
1.05

$58,221

Avg. Salary

View 229 Finish Carpenter Jobs In WA
Full List Of Best States For Finish Carpenters

How Do Finish Carpenters Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Finish Carpenter Employers

Most Common Employers For Finish Carpenter

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Skanska$55,674$26.773
2Sterling Construction$51,978$24.995
3H.J. Martin and Son$51,896$24.953
4Dondlinger Construction$51,072$24.553
5Trillium Staffing$49,972$24.024
6ISEC$48,752$23.4424
7Champion Homes$48,545$23.347
8Peterson Holding$48,206$23.183
9Independent Contractor$46,858$22.536
10Schwieters Companies$46,286$22.2510
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Updated April 6, 2023