BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 47-2141
How much do painters make?
Federal pay data for construction and maintenance painters, covering both interior and exterior work.
- Median pay$49,400a year
- Median hourly$23.75an hour
- Mean pay$55,420a year
- Employed225,190nationally
Paperhangers have a separate code and are not in this figure. Self-employed painters, who are a large share of the trade, are not in it either.
What painters and decorators earn, from the bottom tenth to the top
A single median hides the range, and in this trade the range is the useful part. These four figures are the published percentiles for occupation code 47-2141, not a calculation done here.
| Measure | Annual | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $37,440 | the bottom tenth earn less than this |
| Median | $49,400 | half earn more, half earn less |
| Mean | $55,420 | the average, pulled up by the top |
| 90th percentile | $78,810 | the top tenth earn more than this |
Hourly equivalents: $23.75 median, $26.64 mean
Where painters and decorators are paid most, and where there are most of them
Five highest paying states
| State | Mean annual |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | $71,310 |
| Illinois | $69,630 |
| New York | $68,070 |
| Alaska | $64,220 |
| Massachusetts | $64,080 |
Five largest employing states
| State | Employed |
|---|---|
| California | 38,430 |
| Florida | 22,450 |
| Texas | 18,330 |
| New York | 13,040 |
| Washington | 9,510 |
The two lists rarely overlap, and that is the point of showing both. A high mean wage usually tracks cost of living, while a high headcount tracks population. Neither on its own tells you where the work is.
SOC 47-2141 · 1 August 2026
What these figures actually say about painters and decorators
A construction wage record for a trade that is mostly not on a construction payroll.
Paperhangers have a separate occupation code and are not in this figure. Self employed painters, who are a large share of the trade, are not in it either, and Census stops publishing nonemployer detail above the painting code, so the size of that missing group cannot be quoted precisely from these sources. What can be said is that the employer side averages small crews, which is what a trade of owner operators with a couple of hands looks like once it registers.
The median sits above every cleaning and chairside beauty occupation on this site and below the carpentry and supervisory construction codes, which is roughly where a licensed but not credentialed trade lands. The spread is moderate: the top tenth earn around twice the bottom tenth, and the gap is largely commercial versus residential work rather than skill.
The state tables show the usual population effect on the employment side. On the pay side the leaders are high cost markets and strongly unionised ones, which is a different explanation from the one a reader usually assumes when they see a state at the top of a wage table.
Painting is the trade on this site where the photograph is most likely to lie without anybody intending it, because colour moves with light. The same corner at the same time of day with the curtains in the same position is not a stylistic preference here, it is the difference between evidence and a colour chart.
Every figure quoted above appears in the tables on this page or is arithmetic on them. Nothing here forecasts, values a business or suggests a price, because none of the three is measurable from a wage survey.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national cross industry estimates, occupation 47-2141 Painters, Construction and Maintenance. Accessed 2026-08-01.
National, cross-industry estimates for wage and salary workers. Self-employed workers, owner-operators and chair or booth renters are not in scope.
bls.gov/oes and the published series files at download.bls.gov
How many of these businesses there are
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How much do painters make?
- The median wage for painters and decorators in the United States is $49,400 a year, or $23.75 an hour. The mean is $55,420. The bottom tenth earn under $37,440 and the top tenth earn over $78,810. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation code 47-2141.
- Does this include self-employed workers?
- No, and that matters more in this trade than the number does. OEWS covers wage and salary workers only. Self-employed workers, owner-operators, chair renters and single-van businesses are outside the survey entirely, so this is what an employed person in this job is paid, not what everyone doing this work earns.
- Which state pays the most?
- Hawaii, at a mean of $71,310 a year, followed by Illinois at $69,630. The five highest paying and five largest employing states are listed above, and a high mean usually reflects cost of living as much as opportunity.
- What does this actually tell a painters and decorator running their own business?
- A construction wage record for a trade that is mostly not on a construction payroll. Painting is the trade on this site where the photograph is most likely to lie without anybody intending it, because colour moves with light. The same corner at the same time of day with the curtains in the same position is not a stylistic preference here, it is the difference between evidence and a colour chart.
- How current is this figure?
- It is the May 2025 release, which is the most recent Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data published by BLS. It was fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call, so what you see is what was checked on that date.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.