Frame houses, form concrete towers or finish trim. The broadest trade on any site, paid from day one.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$62,000
1st-year apprentice
$40,000
Union or foreperson
$90,000
Union carpenters with the Carpenters' District Council of Ontario (the carpenters' union) and on Alberta industrial sites sit at the top. Formwork on towers pays more than framing houses.
$20 to $26 an hour
First-year apprentice, about 50 to 60% of the journeyperson rate
Your rate rises with each level you finish. By year four most apprentices earn 80 to 90% of full rate. Residential framers often start lower than commercial crews.
$30 to $45 an hour
About $60,000 to $90,000 a year at full-time hours
Overtime at time and a half is common on commercial sites. Forepersons and site superintendents, who usually started as carpenters, earn more again.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Apprentices earn while they train, so most carpenters finish with no student debt at all. The low end is an employer who pays for the three in school levels, a basic tool belt built up over four years, and about $150 for the Certificate of Qualification exam. The high end is paying for all three levels yourself at the top provincial rate and buying a full kit of hand and power tools. The Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to $4,000 per school block interest free, and EI (Employment Insurance) can cover part of your income while you are in class.
Most carpenters finish with no student debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is open now.
Union pension and benefits
The Carpenters' District Council of Ontario (the carpenters' union) and its counterparts in other provinces run pension, health and dental plans.
Overtime at time and a half
Travel and living-out allowances
On remote industrial or camp jobs.
Tool allowance
Written into some collective agreements.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship, not a degree. Most of it is paid work on site.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and a shop class. OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) or RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program) in Alberta let you start in Grade 11 or 12.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A builder, a formwork contractor, a renovator or the union hiring hall. A pre-apprenticeship program helps you get noticed.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's equivalent.
Work and study
4 years
About 7,200 hours in Ontario: roughly 6,500 on the job plus three in-school levels of 8 to 10 weeks at a college.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work in any province.
Math
Fractions, geometry and trig. Roof cuts and stairs are all triangles.
Construction technology or woodworking
Shows you can use tools safely.
Physics
Loads, spans and why a beam holds.
English
You read drawings, specs and the building code every day.
Carpenter is not a compulsory trade in Ontario, Alberta or BC. You can legally work without a certificate. Certification still matters: union sites, government projects and many contractors want it, and it pays more. Quebec is different, most construction work there needs a competency card from the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). The Red Seal endorsement lets you move between provinces without retesting.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra interprovincial exam. Employers across Canada recognise it.
Formwork
Building the moulds that concrete towers and bridges are poured into. Heavy, fast, and among the best-paid carpentry.
Finish carpentry
Trim, stairs and built-ins. Precise, indoor and steady through winter.
Scaffolding tickets
Short courses that let you erect and inspect scaffolds.
Gold Seal supervisor certification
From the Canadian Construction Association, for moving into foreperson and superintendent roles.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A college semester or two that makes sponsors more willing to take you.
Driver's licence and a vehicle
Sites move. Nearly every employer expects you to get yourself there.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses. Some employers will not let you on site without them.
Basic fitness
You lift, carry and climb all day.
Framing crews build houses fast, often paid by the square foot. Formwork crews build and strip concrete forms on towers, usually union and highest paid. Finish carpenters work indoors on trim and stairs, slower and more precise. Many carpenters switch between them over a career, and the certificate covers all three.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site by 7am. Read the drawings, lay out walls, cut and nail framing, set floor joists or roof trusses. On a tower, build and strip formwork for the next pour. On a renovation, tear out and rebuild while the homeowner watches. Lunch on a bucket. Clean up and charge tools before 3:30 or 4pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Wood-frame construction is the standard for houses and low-rise buildings across Canada. Carpenters build the skeleton of almost every new home in the country.
Brock Commons at UBC (University of British Columbia) was 18 storeys of mass timber when it opened in 2017, one of the tallest wood buildings in the world at the time. Tall wood buildings are now allowed under the national building code.
On a concrete tower, carpenters build the forms for each floor, the concrete is poured, and then they strip the forms and move them up a level. The building rises one floor at a time this way.
Carpenters become site supervisors, estimators, building inspectors, renovation contractors and cabinetmakers. Few other trades lead into as many different careers.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.