Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers Salary and Pay
How much do Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers make?
Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers pay a median of $40,860 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $44,130 across 8,470 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $34,540 and $50,700.
One page for the whole Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers pay distribution: national ladder first, then all 36 state rows and the metro rankings, every figure from BLS OEWS May 2024.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $40,860 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $28,490 | $13.70 |
| 25th percentile | $34,540 | $16.61 |
| Median (50th) | $40,860 | $19.64 |
| 75th percentile | $50,700 | $24.38 |
| 90th percentile | $62,770 | $30.18 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($28,490) to the 90th ($62,770). BLS suppresses cells that fail its reliability rules (n/p here) and caps the highest wages at $239,200+ a year or $115.00+ an hour; in this ladder that top code appears at the very top rows only.
Employment and concentration
May 2024 employment stood at 8,470, or 0.01% of the U.S. total. Texas leads the state table with 1,110 jobs; the top three states sum to 34.9% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: Mississippi posts a location quotient of 2.59, so a worker there is far more likely to meet a colleague in this field than the national pattern suggests.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $34,540 at the 25th percentile, $40,860 at the middle, $50,700 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $34,280, a ratio of 2.2 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
New York posts the highest median annual wage in the state table at $68,140, and Texas the largest headcount. The full table, sorted by employment:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 1,110 | 0.1 | 1.47 | $30,350 | $28,570 |
| California | 930 | 0.1 | 0.94 | $50,170 | $44,420 |
| Florida | 920 | 0.1 | 1.70 | $39,880 | $35,710 |
| New York | 510 | 0.1 | 0.97 | $63,040 | $68,140 |
| Indiana | 390 | 0.1 | 2.21 | $45,810 | $44,730 |
| Tennessee | 380 | 0.1 | 2.10 | $34,510 | $35,620 |
| Pennsylvania | 360 | 0.1 | 1.08 | $44,940 | $41,600 |
| Michigan | 270 | 0.1 | 1.12 | $37,260 | $37,550 |
| Virginia | 260 | 0.1 | 1.18 | $46,570 | $46,190 |
| Massachusetts | 250 | 0.1 | 1.27 | $50,580 | $52,320 |
| Missouri | 200 | 0.1 | 1.26 | $44,860 | $45,120 |
| New Jersey | 200 | 0.0 | 0.88 | $53,320 | $50,700 |
| North Carolina | 200 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $46,480 | $45,080 |
| Iowa | 170 | 0.1 | 1.95 | $46,670 | $45,390 |
| Ohio | 170 | 0.0 | 0.56 | $43,770 | $44,380 |
| Mississippi | 160 | 0.1 | 2.59 | $41,460 | $35,710 |
| South Carolina | 160 | 0.1 | 1.25 | $44,260 | $43,920 |
| Georgia | 150 | 0.0 | 0.56 | $48,090 | $48,940 |
| Utah | 150 | 0.1 | 1.59 | $45,360 | $42,020 |
| Minnesota | 130 | 0.0 | 0.78 | $49,940 | $38,650 |
| Colorado | 120 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $46,130 | $44,090 |
| Oklahoma | 110 | 0.1 | 1.21 | $38,480 | $38,300 |
| Wisconsin | 110 | 0.0 | 0.69 | $41,000 | $39,950 |
| Kansas | 100 | 0.1 | 1.22 | $45,390 | $45,160 |
| Washington | 100 | 0.0 | 0.51 | $62,430 | $61,270 |
| Kentucky | 90 | 0.0 | 0.82 | $47,880 | $47,630 |
| Connecticut | 80 | 0.1 | 0.92 | $39,970 | $36,200 |
| Maryland | 80 | 0.0 | 0.53 | $49,000 | $45,910 |
| Arkansas | 70 | 0.1 | 0.95 | $40,830 | $38,560 |
| Alabama | 60 | 0.0 | 0.55 | $42,130 | $42,620 |
| Louisiana | 60 | 0.0 | 0.56 | $36,500 | $37,140 |
| Nebraska | 60 | 0.1 | 1.07 | $48,380 | $45,350 |
| Illinois | 50 | 0.0 | 0.16 | $60,540 | $51,270 |
| South Dakota | 30 | 0.1 | 1.27 | $38,610 | $36,810 |
| Arizona | n/p | n/p | n/p | $37,790 | $35,790 |
| New Hampshire | n/p | n/p | n/p | $42,410 | $45,410 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers stands number 705 by employment and number 691 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Production Occupations, the group median wage is $46,020 across 105 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 11% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 8,743,430 jobs. In 23 of the 36 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $40,860, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ is the largest metro employer with 440 jobs, 5.2% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 440 | $67,350 | $78,620 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 430 | $50,600 | $46,510 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 330 | $30,890 | $28,570 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 320 | $31,000 | $27,740 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 210 | $39,330 | $34,620 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 180 | $38,020 | $35,660 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 140 | $39,200 | $35,210 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 140 | $49,120 | $48,530 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 110 | $38,380 | $38,260 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 110 | n/p | n/p |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
As a household number, $40,860 a year is $3,405 a month gross, $1,572 every two weeks, $786 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($34,540) to the 75th ($50,700) is worth $16,160 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. The next step from a gross figure is a net one: run the $3,405 monthly figure through the paycheck calculator applies your state's taxes, the salary calculator compares two offers in any unit, and the raise vs inflation calculator tells you whether a nominal raise is a real one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $44,946 would sit between the median ($40,860) and the 75th percentile ($50,700), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $34,540, is $6,320 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Production Occupations
Pay for the neighboring roles in the same BLS major group: Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders, Model Makers, Metal and Plastic, Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers, Sewers, Hand, Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic. The full directory is on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average salary for Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers?
BLS publishes both centers: the mean annual wage is $44,130 and the median is $40,860 (May 2024). The median is usually the better answer to what a typical worker makes, because the mean is pulled by the highest earners.
Where do Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers earn the most?
At state level, New York posts the highest median at $68,140. At metro level, BLS publishes no metro estimates for this occupation.
How many Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers jobs are there?
8,470 nationally in May 2024. The biggest metro employer is New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ with 440 jobs.
Is $40,860 a good salary for Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers?
It is the exact middle of the occupation: half of the 8,470 counted workers earn more, half earn less. Against the occupation's own ladder, an offer above $50,700 is a top-quartile offer and one below $34,540 is a bottom-quartile one.