Pick a trade and state to see real hourly rates.
Montana carpenter wages use the latest published statewide data for SOC 47-2031. Entry reflects the 10th percentile, Median the 50th percentile, and Top the 90th percentile.
Last updated October 22, 2026. Rates are market estimates, not guarantees.
Hiring guide · Montana
Find qualified carpenters, verify contractor requirements, and connect with talent.
Montana carpenters build, install, repair, and finish framing, floors, doors, cabinets, forms, trim, and wood components. Strong candidates combine accurate measuring, blueprint reading, tool control, material knowledge, and safe habits. This guide helps employers assess practical experience, verify contractor requirements, find trained candidates, and compare hiring pathways statewide.
Candidate availability moves week to week. What does not move is the screening: the certifications below are what decide whether someone can be badged onto your site at all.
The levels are separated by what the state allows a person to do unsupervised, not by how good they are. Hiring the wrong level is the most common and most expensive mistake on a trade requisition.
Productive under supervision and cheap, but they cannot be left on a task the state licenses, and they need someone qualified with them.
Works unsupervised and can carry a helper. This is the level almost every requisition is actually describing.
Runs crews across sites, owns compliance outcomes, and where the trade allows, pulls permits and qualifies the work.
Budget $28.28 an hour for a qualified carpenter in Montana, from $20.68 at entry level to $37.09 at the top. Add a quarter to a third on top for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment, and price overtime at time and a half.
See the full carpenter salary guide →Montana requires construction contractors to hold a state license, with important exemptions for certain employees and independent contractors.
Use programs with published duration and cost information.
Certificates get a candidate past the first filter. These are the questions that separate the ones who can do the work from the ones who have the paperwork, and they change by level.
Certifications listed with no issuing body or date
A licence described as 'in progress'
No supervisor anyone can call
Three or four employers inside a year
Long gaps with no explanation offered
Cards that lapsed and were never renewed
A realistic schedule for a certified carpenter, from writing the requisition to a badged start. The screening steps are where time is actually lost.
Montana does not publish comparable statewide carpenter wages by industry sector. The statewide median is used where market sector data is unavailable.
Framing, additions, remodeling, and finish work.
Larger projects require coordinated crews.
Covered public works may use prevailing wage schedules based on location and classification.
Post a role and reach OSHA-certified candidates in your area.
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