Carpenters Pay Wages – Massachusetts 1850

In 1850, a Massachusetts carpenter earned about $1.59 per day, amounting to just under $500 annually—a figure that reminds us how dramatically wages and living costs have changed over time. To put this into perspective, a carpenter’s yearly income was barely enough to buy 15 acres of farmland, whereas today, the equivalent of a day’s wages might only cover a single cup of coffee in a major city.