California carpenter prevailing wage, area by area

Two counties need the job address. Footnote a of the Northern California determination puts the parts of Placer and El Dorado counties "west of and including Highway 49," plus the city of Placerville, in Area 3, and the rest of both counties in Area 4. A carpenter in Auburn or Placerville gets $103.53; one working near Lake Tahoe in the same counties gets $102.18. The difference is $1.35 an hour. Our Placer County and El Dorado County pages show both rates.

Areas belong to one determination. The laborer determination draws a different map, with Fresno in its Area 2 and only six counties in Area 1, so a contractor bidding several trades in one county can land in a different area for each. The laborer guide covers that map.

The lowest Northern California area beats Southern California by $17.86 an hour in total and $8.62 in base wage. Among the employer payments the biggest gap is health and welfare: $15.87 in the north, $10.25 in the south. Pension is $11.70 against $6.41. The south puts more in vacation and holiday ($7.57) and other ($4.89).

San Diego publishes two carpenter rates. Its "Carpenter" row, the one our San Diego page leads with, is $80.71. Its "Carpenter (Heavy and Highway Work)" row is $84.32, the same as Southern California's main rate.

All four Northern California areas rose by the same $10.39 over the two years, $5.07 in 2025-2 and $5.32 in 2026-2. Southern California rose $6.50 and San Diego $7.50. Every change landed in an August release; in 2025-1 and 2026-1 DIR's files carry the same figures as the August before. In Northern California's case the 2026-1 set republished determination NC-23-31-1-2025-1, issued August 22, 2025.

The overtime columns multiply only the base wage and add the employer payments flat, so Area 1's time-and-a-half rate is 1.5 × $70.26 + $39.15 = $144.54. The hour rules sit in footnotes. In the Northern California file, footnote e applies the 1½× daily rate to "the first 4 hours daily overtime," and footnote g applies the 1½× Saturday rate to "the first 8 hours for building construction and for the first 10 hours worked on heavy, highway and engineering construction." Southern California's footnote c pays 1½× for the first four overtime hours Monday to Friday and double time "for work performed after twelve (12) hours." Its Saturday footnote d pays the first eight hours at 1½× and the rest at double time.

Both regions let a crew make up a day lost to weather on Saturday at straight time. The northern wording (footnote f) covers "inclement weather or major mechanical breakdown," and the employees "may voluntarily make up such day."

Northern California also prints second and third shift tables, with shorter paid days. On the second shift Area 1 carpenters work 7.5 hours at a $114.09 total rate, against 8 hours at $109.41 on the day shift.

Take four journeyman carpenters on a 40-hour straight-time week, 160 hours in all. At the Area 1 rate that is $17,505.60; in Area 4 it is $16,348.80, $1,156.80 less. The same crew in Los Angeles County costs $13,491.20, which is $2,857.60 below Area 4. Moving a bid from Fresno to Bakersfield changes the carpenter line more than moving it from Fresno to Oakland.

Those are labor rates only. Travel and subsistence rules come from separate DIR documents linked beside each determination, and the Southern California rates have increases scheduled from July 2027 (below), while no Northern California increase has been published yet.

Southern California and San Diego carpenter rates expire June 30, 2027 with a double asterisk, which means DIR has already set what comes next and work after that date must be paid at the new rate (FAQ Q8). Both files list the same three increases:

The Northern California determination has a single asterisk and the same June 30, 2027 expiration. No increase is published for it yet. A Northern California job bid while it is in effect keeps these rates for the life of the project (FAQ Q7), and the next DIR release is due February 22, 2027.

"Carpenter" is the main line, but the same determinations price related work. In Northern California, bridge builders and highway carpenters have one rate, $109.41, with no areas, so a highway carpenter in Fresno County is paid the Area 1 figure. Millwrights are $106.28 in Area 4. Hardwood floorlayers, power saw operators, shinglers and steel scaffold erectors are 15 cents above the carpenter rate in each area. In Southern California the file also covers divers, pile drivers and scaffold builders; Los Angeles lists 17 carpenter classifications.

Drywall installers and lathers, and modular furniture installers, have their own determinations: see drywall installer rates and furniture installer rates. Apprentice carpenters are paid from DIR's apprentice wage sheets; in Area 1 the scale runs from 60% to 95% of the journeyman base (apprentice guide).