We use cookies to keep you signed in and to see what's working and what breaks. No advertising cookies, nothing sold. Details in our Cookie Policy.
Trade Playbook
Cabinetmaking is the trade that's really a manufacturing business — and the questions reflect the leap: bench skills vs running a shop, the capital wall (a CNC changes everything), install-only as the bootstrap, custom vs production economics, and whether to compete with IKEA and the big-box semi-customs (you don't — you go where they can't).
Where it starts
$18–26/hr
Shop hand / assembler
Where it tops out
Business income
Cabinet/millwork shop owner
Ontario figures for cabinetry & millwork, from the first day on site to the top of the trade. Approximate, and worth checking against current collective agreement rates and job postings in your region.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Shop hand / assembler | $18–26/hr | Learning the bench, the machines, and the workflow. |
| Cabinetmaker (438A) | $26–40/hr | |
| Lead / shop foreman | More | |
| Cabinet/millwork shop owner | Business income | Manufacturing economics — throughput, materials buying, and backlog drive it. |
Every figure above is what cabinetmakers get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a cabinetry and millwork business. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobOpen your own shop (deliberately, with committed work), specialize into high-end custom or commercial millwork, or move into design and shop management. The business is manufacturing — it scales on throughput, machinery, and systems, not just craft — so the owners who do well are as much operators as woodworkers. A shop with a backlog, equipment, and a reputation is a real, sellable asset.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places cabinetmakers talk about money openly.
The rates above are the market. The live feed is the market this week: which builders and contractors just pulled a permit or won a contract in Ontario, what they are about to need, and who to call.
Carpenter Jobs in Ontario: Who Is Hiring Right NowAEC Stack handles incorporation, WSIB, insurance certificates, quoting, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a cabinetry and millwork business runs like one with an office behind it.
Start your business