Carpenter / Joiner Salary 2026/27: ONS + Self-Employed Take-Home
ONS classifies carpenters and joiners as SOC 2020 unit group 5316. The full-time median for employee carpenters was £34,014 in ASHE 2025, with a quarter below £28,900 and a quarter above £40,477. ASHE surveys employee jobs only, so a self-employed carpenter working under the Construction Industry Scheme is outside these figures.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £34,014
- ASHE 2025, 25th to 75th percentile
- £28,900–£40,477
- Take-home at median
- £28,010 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn 13% below the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 25th percentile (£29,262) and the 50th percentile (£39,039) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences carpenter / joiner pay
There is no single national pay rate for carpenters, so this page anchors on the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. For SOC 2020 5316, the April 2025 full-time median was £34,014, with the 10th percentile at £23,458, the lower quartile at £28,900 and the upper quartile at £40,477. ONS did not publish a reliable 90th percentile and does not split the group by region or specialism.
Many carpenters work as self-employed subcontractors. Under the Construction Industry Scheme a contractor deducts 20% from a registered subcontractor's payments, or 30% if the subcontractor has not registered, and passes it to HMRC; the deductions count as advance payments towards the subcontractor's Income Tax and National Insurance, and are settled against the real bill in Self Assessment. A subcontractor with gross payment status has nothing deducted.
Apprentices can be paid the apprentice rate of the National Minimum Wage, £8.00 an hour from 1 April 2026, if they are under 19 or in the first year of the apprenticeship; after that the age-based rates apply, up to the £12.71 National Living Wage from age 21.
Career progression
- ASHE does not publish carpentry pay by experience. These are points in the April 2025 full-time pay distribution for SOC 2020 5316, employees only.
- 10th percentile: £23,458.
- Lower quartile: £28,900.
- Median: £34,014.
- Upper quartile: £40,477.
- Self-employed subcontracting under CIS is outside ASHE; income depends on rate, days worked and costs.
Frequently asked questions
- What take-home should a carpenter on the £34,014 median expect?
- With no pension contribution, take-home in England in 2026/27 is about £28,010 a year, or £2,334 a month, after £4,289 Income Tax and £1,716 National Insurance, all at the 20% basic rate and 8% main NI rate. With a 5% pension contribution by salary sacrifice it is about £26,785.
- Does CIS take 20% tax on top of Income Tax?
- No. The 20% (or 30% if unregistered) a contractor deducts is an advance payment towards your Income Tax and National Insurance, not a separate tax. At the end of the tax year your Self Assessment works out the real bill on your profits, after allowable expenses, and the CIS deductions are set against it; if more was deducted than you owe, the difference is repaid.
- How does tax compare for a self-employed carpenter on the same figure?
- On taxable profits of £34,014, the same as the employee median, a sole trader keeps about £28,439 after £4,289 Income Tax and £1,287 Class 4 National Insurance, against £28,010 for an employee, because Class 4 is 6% where employee Class 1 is 8%. No Class 2 is payable on profits above the £7,105 Small Profits Threshold. Profit is what is left after tools, van, insurance and other allowable costs, and there is no employer pension, sick pay or paid holiday, so a day rate has to cover all of those.