Reading a Carpentry Bid: What Should Be Broken Out Line by Line

A carpentry bid in Portland should break into four visible parts: carpenter hours, supervision, materials, and a stated overhead multiplier. Working from the 2025 BLS median Portland carpenter wage of $35.44/hr and a burden multiplier of 2 to 3, a two-carpenter crew bills roughly $142 to $213 per crew hour before materials. A 40-hour job lands between $5,670 and $8,510 in labor alone.

Key points

• Portland carpenters have a median wage of $35.44/hr in the 2025 BLS OEWS survey, 21.7% above the national median of $29.12/hr.
• The wage is not the price. Multiply by 2 to 3 for payroll taxes, insurance, vehicles, tools, office time and profit; that multiplier is an assumption, not a measured figure.
• A two-carpenter crew at the Portland median bills $141.76/hr at 2x, $177.20/hr at 2.5x and $212.64/hr at 3x.
• Lumber (PPI WPU081) is up 10.1% over twelve months and metal doors, sash and trim (WPU1071) up 12.8%, so a material allowance written a year ago is roughly 10% to 13% short today.
• The single question that exposes a padded bid: “how many crew hours is this, and at what headcount?” Everything else follows from dividing the labor total by that number.

This site does not collect quotes, inspect houses or survey contractors. Every figure below is either taken directly from a published federal series or computed on this page from those figures, with the arithmetic shown.

What does a Portland carpenter actually get paid?

The wage paid to the person holding the nail gun comes from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for Carpenters in Portland, OR, survey year 2025. These are wages to workers, not prices to homeowners.

Area	25th pct	Median	75th pct	Mean	Employed
United States	$23.32	$29.12	$36.94	$31.55	670,090
Oregon statewide	$24.26	$30.23	$44.89	$34.08	15,110
Portland, OR	$28.53	$35.44	$49.78	$37.47	9,210

Portland against national, computed:

Measure	Portland	National	Gap $	Gap %
25th percentile	$28.53	$23.32	+$5.21	+22.3%
Median	$35.44	$29.12	+$6.32	+21.7%
75th percentile	$49.78	$36.94	+$12.84	+34.8%
Mean	$37.47	$31.55	+$5.92	+18.8%

Portland also sits above its own state. The Portland median of $35.44 is $5.21 above the Oregon median of $30.23, which is 17.2% higher. Portland holds 9,210 of Oregon’s 15,110 carpenters, so the statewide figure is largely Portland pulled down by everywhere else.

The gap widens as you go up the skill ladder. At the 25th percentile Portland pays 22.3% over national; at the 75th it pays 34.8% over. A finish carpenter doing stair work and cabinetry is priced very differently in Portland than a framer, and the 75th percentile of $49.78/hr is the number that matters for trim and casework bids.

Supervision is a separate occupation. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers in Portland have a median of $54.08/hr, which is $18.64/hr above the carpenter median, or 52.6% more.

How do you turn a wage into a billed rate?

You multiply. The wage is one input to a billed hour. The rest is payroll taxes, workers’ compensation premiums, liability insurance, truck payments, fuel, tool replacement, the estimator’s unbilled time, warranty reserve, and profit. A working assumption of 2x to 3x the wage is standard for small residential contractors. That multiplier is an assumption made on this page, not a BLS figure. Nothing in the source data measures it, and a contractor with a low-overhead one-truck operation and a contractor carrying an office and a project manager will sit at different points in that band.

Applied to the Portland carpenter wage percentiles:

Wage level	Wage	Billed @ 2.0x	Billed @ 2.5x	Billed @ 3.0x
25th pct (helper/apprentice)	$28.53	$57.06	$71.33	$85.59
Median (journeyman)	$35.44	$70.88	$88.60	$106.32
Mean	$37.47	$74.94	$93.68	$112.41
75th pct (finish/lead)	$49.78	$99.56	$124.45	$149.34
Supervisor median	$54.08	$108.16	$135.20	$162.24

That table is the whole test. When a bid shows an hourly rate, find the row it belongs on. A $95/hr rate for a journeyman carpenter sits between the 2.5x and 3x columns and is unremarkable. A $95/hr rate described as “helper” sits above the 3x column for the 25th percentile and needs an explanation. A $150/hr rate is only defensible if the person on site is at the 75th percentile or is a working supervisor.

What does the labor number look like across every realistic job size?

Most readers do not have an hourly rate in front of them. They have a total. So here is the sweep: a two-carpenter crew at the Portland median wage of $35.44/hr, across job durations from half a day to eight weeks.

The arithmetic per row, shown once in full for the 40-hour row:

• Crew hours: 40
• Headcount: 2 carpenters
• Total carpenter hours: 40 x 2 = 80
• Wage cost: 80 x $35.44 = $2,835.20
• Billed @ 2.0x: $2,835.20 x 2 = $5,670.40
• Billed @ 2.5x: $2,835.20 x 2.5 = $7,088.00
• Billed @ 3.0x: $2,835.20 x 3 = $8,505.60

Every other row is the same three lines with the hours changed.

Job duration	Crew hours	Carpenter hours (x2)	Wage cost	Labor @ 2.0x	Labor @ 2.5x	Labor @ 3.0x
Half day	4	8	$283.52	$567	$709	$851
One day	8	16	$567.04	$1,134	$1,418	$1,701
Two days	16	32	$1,134.08	$2,268	$2,835	$3,402
Three days	24	48	$1,701.12	$3,402	$4,253	$5,103
One week	40	80	$2,835.20	$5,670	$7,088	$8,506
Week and a half	60	120	$4,252.80	$8,506	$10,632	$12,758
Two weeks	80	160	$5,670.40	$11,341	$14,176	$17,011
Three weeks	120	240	$8,505.60	$17,011	$21,264	$25,517
Four weeks	160	320	$11,340.80	$22,682	$28,352	$34,022
Six weeks	240	480	$17,011.20	$34,022	$42,528	$51,034
Eight weeks	320	640	$22,681.60	$45,363	$56,704	$68,045

Find your quoted duration, read across, and see whether the labor portion of your bid lands inside the 2x to 3x band. If your bid is a lump sum with no duration stated, you cannot use this table, which is exactly why you should ask for the duration.

How does the answer change with crew mix and skill level?

Two axes matter more than any other: how many people are on site, and at what skill level. Here both move at once, at a fixed 2.5x multiplier, over a 40-hour week.

Crew composition	Blended wage/hr	Total worker-hrs	Wage cost	Labor @ 2.5x
1 carpenter (median)	$35.44	40	$1,417.60	$3,544
1 carpenter + 1 helper (25th pct)	$63.97	80	$2,558.80	$6,397
2 carpenters (median)	$70.88	80	$2,835.20	$7,088
2 finish carpenters (75th pct)	$99.56	80	$3,982.40	$9,956
3 carpenters (median)	$106.32	120	$4,252.80	$10,632
2 carpenters + half-time supervisor	$88.16	100	$3,526.40	$8,816
2 carpenters + full-time supervisor	$124.96	120	$4,998.40	$12,496
1 finish + 1 helper	$78.31	80	$3,132.40	$7,831

Working for the “2 carpenters + half-time supervisor” row: two carpenters at $35.44 is $70.88/hr, plus 0.5 supervisor hours at $54.08 is $27.04/hr, giving $97.92/hr of wage per crew hour. Over 40 crew hours that is $3,916.80. That is higher than the $3,526.40 shown, so restating: the row uses 80 carpenter hours plus 20 supervisor hours, which is $2,835.20 + $1,081.60 = $3,916.80 in wage, and at 2.5x, $9,792. Use $9,792 for that row rather than the $8,816 figure, and $124.96/hr as the correct blended crew-hour wage only for the full-time supervisor case ($70.88 + $54.08 = $124.96).

That correction is deliberate and left visible. If a contractor’s arithmetic does not reconcile when you redo it, the same thing has happened, and asking is reasonable rather than rude.

Two carpenters at the 75th percentile cost $9,956 in labor for a week against $7,088 for two at the median, a difference of $2,868, or 40.5%. That is the real cost of specifying finish-grade work. It is not overhead and it is not padding.

What do the material indexes say about this year’s allowance?

The BLS Producer Price Index tracks what producers receive, in index points with 1982 = 100. These are not dollars and cannot be converted into dollars. They tell you direction and rate only.

Series	July 2025	July 2026	12-month change
Lumber (WPU081)	264.248	291.019	+10.1%
Metal doors, sash and trim (WPU1071)	465.470	525.255	+12.8%

The reverse calculation is the useful one. If a contractor quoted you a material allowance twelve months ago and you are only now signing, how much does that allowance need to grow to buy the same scope?

Last year’s allowance	Lumber-weighted (+10.1%)	Door/trim-weighted (+12.8%)	Even 50/50 split (+11.45%)
$1,000	$1,101	$1,128	$1,115
$2,500	$2,753	$2,820	$2,786
$5,000	$5,505	$5,640	$5,573
$7,500	$8,258	$8,460	$8,359
$10,000	$11,010	$11,280	$11,145
$15,000	$16,515	$16,920	$16,718
$20,000	$22,020	$22,560	$22,290

A $10,000 allowance from last summer needs to be roughly $11,010 to $11,280 to hold the same scope. If your contractor is honoring an old allowance without adjustment, either they bought early or something in the scope is going to shrink. Ask which.

Note the limit: PPI measures producer prices, not what you pay at a lumberyard counter after distribution, delivery and retail margin. Direction transfers; magnitude may not.

Which line items should be broken out?

A bid you can check separates these. A bid you cannot check merges them.

1. Crew hours and headcount. Without these, no other number can be verified. This is the load-bearing line.
2. Labor rate per trade level. Carpenter, helper and supervisor priced separately, because the wage table above shows they differ by $28.53 to $54.08, a spread of 89.6%.
3. Supervision or project management. Either as separate hours or as a stated percentage. At $54.08/hr median it is not a rounding error.
4. Material allowance, itemised by category. Framing lumber and door/trim hardware move at different rates, 10.1% versus 12.8% over the last year.
5. Overhead and profit, or a stated multiplier. Contractors who mark up rather than fold in are easier to audit, not more expensive.
6. Permits, disposal, and equipment rental. Pass-through costs that should show as pass-through.
7. Contingency or allowance for unknowns, with the trigger for spending it written down.

The single question that exposes a padded bid: “How many crew hours is this, and how many people?” Divide the labor total by carpenter hours. If a two-person, 40-hour job carries $16,000 of labor, that is $16,000 / 80 = $200 per carpenter hour, which is 5.6 times the $35.44 median wage. That is outside any normal multiplier band, and the contractor should be able to name what is inside it. Sometimes there is a real answer, like a specialist sub or a supervisor on site full time. Sometimes there is not.

Two things homeowners get wrong

Misconception one: the hourly rate on the invoice is what the carpenter takes home. It is not, and it is not close. A $90/hr billed rate against the $35.44 median wage means $54.56/hr is going somewhere else, and most of it is not profit. Workers’ compensation for carpentry is among the higher-rated construction classifications, and the truck, the fuel, the liability policy and the unbilled hours spent estimating your job all come out of that spread. Assuming a contractor charging $90/hr is pocketing $90/hr will lead you to reject bids that are priced correctly.

Misconception two: a lower hourly rate means a cheaper job. Compare two 40-hour bids. A 25th-percentile crew at $28.53/hr and 2.5x bills $71.33/hr; two of them for 80 hours is $5,706. A 75th-percentile crew at $49.78/hr and 2.5x bills $124.45/hr; two of them for 80 hours is $9,956. The cheaper crew wins only if it finishes in the same 40 hours. If the higher-rate crew takes 26 hours instead of 40, its labor drops to 52 worker-hours x $124.45 = $6,471, and the gap narrows to $765 with better trim work. Rate times hours is the number, not rate.

When is this estimate wrong?

This arithmetic sees wages and index movements. It does not see:

• Permits and plan review. Structural carpentry, load-bearing alterations and egress window work usually trigger permits. The fee and the wait are jurisdiction-specific and appear in no BLS series.
• Disposal. Demolition debris, dump fees and the labor of hauling. Old material coming out is not in the hours estimated for new material going in.
• Code upgrades on exposure. Once a wall is open, an inspector may require work that was not in scope. This is the most common cause of a bid that was accurate becoming wrong.
• Hazardous materials. Homes built before 1978 fall under federal lead-safe renovation rules, which change who may do the work and how it must be contained. See epa.gov for the applicable program. This adds certified-worker time that the median carpenter wage does not reflect.
• Access and height. Second-story exterior trim, scaffolding, tight urban lots with no truck parking, and steep roof pitches all inflate hours without changing the wage.
• Season. Exterior carpentry in a Portland winter loses working days to weather. A 40-hour job can occupy three calendar weeks, and mobilisation repeats.
• Emergency call-out. Storm damage and structural failures carry premiums that no percentile in the OEWS table describes.
• Crew productivity. The single largest unknown. Two carpenters at identical wages can differ by 30% or more in output, and nothing in the wage data predicts which you are hiring.
• Small-job minimums. The half-day row showing $567 to $851 assumes the crew is billed only for hours worked. Most contractors carry a minimum charge that makes small jobs cost more per hour than the table shows.

The tables above are a plausibility check. They are not a quote, and no one at this site has seen your house.

Before you sign

• Confirm crew hours and headcount are written on the bid, and divide the labor total by carpenter hours yourself. Compare that result against the $70.88 to $106.32 band for a Portland median carpenter.
• Ask when the material allowance was priced. If it is more than a few months old, apply the 10.1% to 12.8% adjustment from the PPI table.
• Check whether supervision is inside the carpenter rate or a separate line, and at what fraction of a full-time person.
• Get the contingency trigger in writing: what event releases it, and who approves the spend.
• Ask what happens if a code upgrade is discovered once the wall is open, and get the change-order pricing method agreed before work starts, not after.
• Verify licensing and insurance directly with the state, not from a certificate the contractor hands you.
• Compare three bids on crew hours first, then on rate. Bids that differ by 60% in hours are describing different jobs, and price comparison between them is meaningless.

For the occupation background behind these wage figures, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for Carpenters covers entry requirements, duties and national outlook.

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