Hiring a carpenter in Australia

What the role really costs to employ, what the market is paying, and which licences actually gate it. Written for the employer doing the hiring.

This page is about taking a carpenter onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. A carpenter on the award floor of $31.95 an hour costs about $72,986.77 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $63,133.20. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.

What it actually costs you

The wage is the smallest honest answer. Worked at the award floor, full time, 38 hours a week:

Award floor from the Fair Work P.A.C.T summary for the Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020), effective 1 July 2026. Superannuation 12 per cent for 2026-27, ATO. Leave loading 17.5 per cent of four weeks, Fair Work Ombudsman. Workers compensation 1.85 per cent, ReturnToWorkSA scheme average, which varies by state and industry so use your own insurer's rate. Payroll tax is excluded because most employers sit below the threshold. Checked 5 August 2026. Full method on what an employee really costs.

That is the floor, not the offer. The market band above is what the role is actually advertised at, and an offer pitched near the legal minimum is the one experienced people scroll past. The full rate detail for this role has the classification ladder.

What gates this role

No trade licence as such, but a construction induction card, the white card, is mandatory before anyone sets foot on site, and it is issued through registered training organisations. High risk work licences are separate and specific: working at heights, elevated work platforms and scaffolding each have their own ticket, and a carpenter who does not hold the relevant one cannot do that part of the work.

Which rung you are actually hiring on

This award splits every rung four ways: residential against non-residential, and daily hire against weekly hire. The residential and non-residential gap comes from the industry allowance and runs about thirty six cents an hour at every level. Daily hire pays more because it carries the follow-the-job loading, which compensates for the job ending when the job ends.

Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020), adult full-time minimums effective 1 July 2026, from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides. Casual loading of 25 per cent sits on top. Which classification applies is decided by the work actually performed, not by the job title.

Roles that overlap with this one

Widening or narrowing the brief by one role often does more for a stalled vacancy than raising the rate. The nearest neighbours:

• Site supervisor: the usual step up, and the supervisor rungs sit inside this same award
• Electrician: a different award with a higher floor, on the same sites

Why the good ones are hard to reach

Four year apprenticeship, and a strong pull toward self employment. A large share of qualified carpenters end up subcontracting rather than taking wages, which thins the pool available for employed roles well below the number of qualified carpenters in the country.

What employers get wrong hiring this role

Advertising residential rates for a non-residential site, or the reverse. The award difference looks small at thirty six cents, and the market difference is much larger, so the advertisement reads as underpriced to exactly the people you want. The second is not saying whether the role is daily hire or weekly hire, which materially changes both the rate and the security on offer. The third is asking for tickets the job does not need.

How we fill it

Four checks before a name reaches you: licences verified, screened against your brief, history checked, rate locked. If one step fails, the name never reaches you. The whole process is written out here, including where reference checks actually sit.

You pay nothing until your hire starts, and if they leave inside the first 90 days we replace them free.

Questions