Part VI · The trade · Chapter 30
What it pays
Millwork drafter pay from the US government's wage survey, a salary aggregator and an offshore vendor's price list, and why the three disagree.
8 min read
Nobody publishes a wage series for millwork drafters, so most people calibrate against a stranger's comment. This chapter uses three sources you can check: the US government's wage survey, a salary aggregator, and an offshore vendor's own price list. They disagree, and the disagreement is the useful part.
What the government measures
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. Its latest data is for May 2025. It has no code for millwork drafters. Millwork drafters are counted inside the general drafting occupations, most likely these three:
- SOC 17-3011, Architectural and Civil Drafters. O*NET defines the work as preparing "detailed drawings of architectural and structural features of buildings" or civil engineering drawings.
- SOC 17-3013, Mechanical Drafters.
- SOC 17-3019, Drafters, All Other, for drafters who do not fit a detailed code.
Which code a millwork drafter lands in depends on how their employer answered the survey. That is the first reason to treat every figure below as a range to check against, not a verdict.
National pay, May 2025
| 17-3011 Architectural and civil | 17-3013 Mechanical | 17-3019 All other | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment | 103,700 | 39,960 | 14,470 |
| 10th percentile | $46,260 | $48,360 | $43,420 |
| 25th percentile | $55,650 | $58,080 | $51,650 |
| Median | $66,150 | $71,550 | $63,520 |
| 75th percentile | $80,870 | $86,120 | $79,700 |
| 90th percentile | $99,710 | $106,580 | $99,380 |
| Mean | $70,740 | $75,060 | $68,250 |
| Median hourly | $31.80 | $34.40 | $30.54 |
The medians for 17-3011 and 17-3013 match the figures in BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook page for drafters, last modified 27 August 2026, which gives a median of $68,090 for drafters as a whole.
Read the spread, not the middle. Within one occupation, the 90th percentile earns more than double the 10th. Experience explains some of that. The rest is what this chapter is about.
Pay in the industries that make millwork
OEWS also breaks each occupation down by industry. Four industry groups matter here: the ones that contain millwork manufacture and installation, and the one where most drafters work.
| Industry (NAICS) | Occupation | Employed | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 337 Furniture and related product manufacturing (contains 337212, custom architectural woodwork and millwork) | 17-3011 | 1,300 | $62,500 | $66,630 |
| 17-3019 | 2,430 | $62,210 | $65,260 | |
| 3219 Other wood product manufacturing (contains 32191, millwork) | 17-3011 | 680 | $58,690 | $60,870 |
| 17-3019 | 140 | $58,240 | $61,150 | |
| 2383, the contractor group containing finish carpentry (238350) | 17-3011 | 1,130 | $71,200 | $81,290 |
| 17-3019 | 430 | $57,690 | $59,330 | |
| 5413, which contains architectural services | 17-3011 | 73,450 | $65,980 | $70,480 |
| 17-3019 | 2,390 | $72,100 | $74,820 |
What the table shows:
- Drafters in the two manufacturing groups earn medians below the national median for their occupation. An architectural and civil drafter in furniture and millwork manufacture has a median of $62,500 against $66,150 nationally; in other wood products, $58,690. The median hourly wage for that occupation in the furniture group is $30.05.
- The manufacturing groups are small. 1,300 architectural and civil drafters in the furniture group, against 73,450 in the group holding architectural practices. Most people with the word "drafter" in their job title draw buildings, not joinery.
- The contractor group shows the widest spread. For 17-3011 there, the 10th percentile is $46,010 and the 90th is $143,320, on 1,130 people. A small cell with a long top tail is exactly where sampling error lives. Do not quote that 90th percentile as what millwork drafters in contracting earn.
BLS publishes the same series by state and metropolitan area. Look up your own area before you negotiate. Treat small industry cells as a direction, not a number; the national figure is the most reliable one here.
What an aggregator says
Salary.com publishes a "Millwork Drafter" page. As of 1 September 2026, it gives:
| Percentile | Annual |
|---|---|
| 10th | $70,999 |
| 25th | $77,989 |
| Median | $85,666 |
| 75th | $93,696 |
| 90th | $101,006 |
Its median is $23,166 above the BLS median for architectural and civil drafters in furniture and millwork manufacture. Its range is also far narrower: from 10th to 90th percentile it spans about $30,000, where BLS spans about $46,000 in the same group.
Salary.com says its figures come from "100% employer-reported, HR-verified data" and from "employer job postings and third-party sources". It does not publish how many millwork drafters are in its sample or how it defines the job. BLS publishes its method and surveys employers directly. When the two disagree, the one that shows its method is the one to anchor on, and the other is a claim to test against postings in your area.
Other aggregators publish millwork drafter figures too. The one this book tried to check, ZipRecruiter, refused automated access, so its figure is not reported here.
What an offshore vendor charges
The number your employer may be pricing against is not on any salary site. It is on outsourcing vendors' price lists. One Indian CAD outsourcing firm, UR CAD Services, publishes its own prices:
- CAD conversion "start at $7/hour".
- Hourly rates by type of work from $13 to $16, in two tables. In the first, architectural drafting, civil drafting, structural detailing and 3D modelling are $13 and traffic engineering CAD $14. In the second, architectural drawings are $14 and other work $15 to $16. The page does not say what separates the two tables.
- Per-sheet prices by original sheet size, from $40 (A size) to $150 (E size).
- Projects from $100 to $20,000.
Its millwork shop drawing page gives no price. These are the vendor's own advertised rates, not a survey, and not what any client paid.
Worked comparison, and what it leaves out
| Source | Hourly figure | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| BLS, 17-3011, furniture and related manufacturing, median | $30.05 | What the employee is paid |
| BLS, 17-3011, national median | $31.80 | What the employee is paid |
| UR CAD Services, architectural drafting or drawings | $13 to $14 | What the vendor advertises it charges a client |
On the face of it, the advertised offshore rate is roughly 40 to 47 percent of the median employee's hourly wage. That comparison is not like for like, in both directions:
- The employee's wage is not the employer's cost. Benefits, payroll taxes, software, desk and management sit on top. No source for this book measures those costs for a millwork shop, so no figure is given.
- The vendor's rate is not the buyer's cost either. The buyer still reviews every sheet, answers the vendor's questions, and pays for rework when a drawing reaches the floor wrong. The vendor's hour also sits outside the shop: it cannot walk to the saw (chapter 28).
Chapter 31 does these sums from the buyer's side. For a drafter, the point is simpler: the part of your job an offshore vendor can do is the part priced at their rate. The part it cannot do, knowing how this shop builds and answering the floor in person, is the part worth being paid for.
Why the spread is so wide
The journal article "What millwork drafters get paid" names four things that move the number. Here is what the evidence says about each.
| Factor | What moves | Evidence found |
|---|---|---|
| Who carries the engineering | A drafter tracing an approved design versus a detailer deciding how it gets built | None measured. The job title rarely says which one you are. |
| Commercial or residential | Schedules, submittals, published standards | None measured. No wage data found separates the two. |
| Software | Drawings that go to machines versus drawings a person re-enters | None measured (chapter 27). |
| Where the competition is | Offshore price lists | One vendor's advertised rates, above. |
| Industry | Manufacturing, contracting or design practice | BLS OEWS, above. Measured. |
| Occupation code | Mechanical versus architectural drafting | BLS OEWS: a $5,400 gap in national medians. Measured, but the code is chosen by the employer. |
Only the last two are measured. The first four are plausible and argued, and nobody has published data to test them. If you have a posting with a rate on it, the journal article asks you to send it.
Employed, freelance, outsourced
- Employed. The BLS figures above. The most reliable data in this chapter.
- Freelance. No published survey of freelance millwork drafting rates was found. A book launched on r/TheMillworkDrafter, The Freelancer's Guide to Millwork Drafting Using AutoCAD, shows someone thinks freelancers want guidance; it gives no rates in its announcement. Freelancers set a rate against both of the other two: above the offshore list, and high enough to cover what an employer would otherwise pay on top of a wage.
- Outsourced. One vendor's advertised rates above. Chapter 31 covers buying it.
The outlook
For drafters as a whole, BLS projects employment growth of 1 percent from 2025 to 2035, which it calls "slower than the average for all occupations", with about 14,400 openings a year. It publishes no projection for millwork drafting on its own.
Checklist: before you name a number
- Look up the BLS OEWS figure for your occupation in your state or metro area, and the national figure for the industry the employer is in.
- Note what the aggregator says, and that its method is not published.
- Find two or three live postings in your area with rates on them.
- Ask what your output feeds: sheets for a reviewer, or data for machines.
- Ask who owns the engineering: do you decide how it is built, or trace someone else's decision?
- Ask about unpaid overtime around submission deadlines. Unpaid hours lower your real hourly rate, and the salary figure does not show them.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national and industry estimates for SOC 17-3011, 17-3013 and 17-3019, retrieved 21 September 2026 through the BLS public data API (series OEUN…, data year 2025). The bls.gov table pages refused automated access; the API returned the same series. Primary.
- BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Drafters", bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/drafters.htm, last modified 27 August 2026 — median pay by type, confirming the OEWS medians; 2025–2035 outlook. Primary.
- O*NET OnLine, 17-3011.00, onetonline.org — occupation definition. Primary.
- NAICS definitions for 337212, 321918 and 238350, as reproduced by siccode.com — which industry groups contain millwork. Primary text via a secondary site; the Census Bureau's NAICS pages refused automated access.
- Salary.com, "Millwork Drafter Salary", as of 1 September 2026 — percentiles and the site's own description of its data. Claimed.
- UR CAD Services, pricing page, urcadservices.com, mirrored 20 September 2026 — hourly, per-sheet and project prices. An offshore vendor on its own prices. Claimed.
- "What millwork drafters get paid", this site's journal, 20 September 2026 — the four factors. Reasoning, not data.
- r/TheMillworkDrafter, book launch post. Reported.
Dropped for lack of a source: any freelance millwork drafting rate; any pay premium by software, sector or engineering responsibility; employer on-costs; the ZipRecruiter figure (page refused access); two Reddit salary figures the journal article already removed because they were read only in search snippets. Not attempted: pay outside the United States.