Rates
How much do painters charge per hour?
Painters in the United States earn a mean of $24.46 an hour according to federal wage data. A painting contractor bills you around $53.81 an hour for that same labour. The difference is payroll tax, insurance, overhead, unbillable time and profit, not markup for its own sake.
The confusion in almost every discussion of painter rates comes from mixing two different numbers. What a painter earns and what a contractor charges you are not the same figure, and they are not close.
Where the gap goes
Take a painter earning the national mean of $24.46. Before the business has made a cent, that hour also carries employer payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance, which is expensive in a trade that works at height, general liability cover, vehicle and fuel, equipment and consumables, and the office time nobody bills for: quoting, scheduling, chasing payment.
Then there is unbillable time. A painter is not on your wall for eight hours of an eight hour day. Loading, travel, setting up and breaking down, and waiting for a coat to dry are all real and none of them are billable to you directly, so they are recovered in the rate.
Across the trades a multiplier of roughly two to two and a half times the base wage is normal. This site uses 2.2, applied consistently, and states it openly on the methodology page so you can argue with it.
Wages by metro, with the percentile spread
The mean hides a lot. The 25th and 75th percentile columns below tell you how wide the local market is: a narrow spread means fairly uniform pricing, a wide one means the difference between the cheapest and dearest crew in town is genuinely large.
| Metro | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Billed rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | $22.85 | $28.41 | $33.00 | $65.36 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City | $24.46 | $29.53 | $39.94 | $73.96 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | $19.38 | $23.31 | $27.26 | $53.53 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | $23.54 | $29.68 | $46.08 | $74.80 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont | $27.13 | $30.58 | $37.68 | $74.60 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | $23.86 | $29.06 | $33.64 | $66.00 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | $19.04 | $22.18 | $23.91 | $49.79 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | $18.84 | $21.90 | $24.05 | $49.43 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria | $22.85 | $24.31 | $28.43 | $58.81 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad | $22.71 | $26.91 | $31.96 | $63.27 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler | $22.23 | $23.49 | $28.46 | $57.16 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario | $21.40 | $23.51 | $30.01 | $60.17 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | $22.75 | $25.62 | $30.44 | $59.58 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | $23.21 | $27.60 | $30.69 | $61.14 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $23.30 | $27.80 | $33.92 | $68.66 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | $20.25 | $22.87 | $24.00 | $50.95 |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas | $22.57 | $27.58 | $33.34 | $64.64 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | $17.54 | $21.73 | $23.19 | $48.64 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | $21.28 | $29.26 | $36.41 | $63.82 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom | $22.53 | $28.61 | $36.86 | $66.53 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | $27.30 | $29.79 | $37.66 | $73.26 |
| St. Louis | $23.19 | $28.75 | $37.07 | $66.33 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn | $20.93 | $27.08 | $34.65 | $62.66 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | $19.81 | $22.38 | $23.59 | $49.70 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial | $23.59 | $27.92 | $28.87 | $63.14 |
Wage percentiles are BLS OEWS May 2025. The billed rate is the mean wage × 2.2, covering payroll burden, overhead, insurance and profit. How that multiplier is set.
What the percentiles mean for you
If your metro has a wide gap between the 25th and 75th percentile, quotes will vary a lot and it is worth getting more of them. A narrow gap means the market is efficient and a very low quote should make you ask what is being left out.
Either way, remember the mean wage is not your rate. Multiply by roughly 2.2 to get the number that should appear on an invoice, and expect the low end of the local range to come with fewer coats, lighter prep, or a crew without full cover.
Related: what a whole job costs, cost per square foot, and the calculator.
Common questions
What is the average hourly rate for a painter?
The mean wage for painters in the United States is $24.46 an hour in the BLS May 2025 release. What a contractor charges for that labour is closer to $53.81 an hour once payroll burden, insurance, overhead and profit are included.
Why is the contractor rate double the wage?
Payroll taxes, workers compensation, liability insurance, vehicles, equipment, unbillable travel and setup time, quoting and admin, and profit. A multiplier of two to two and a half times base wage is normal across the building trades.
Should I pay a painter hourly or by the job?
By the job, in almost every case. A fixed price puts the risk of a slow day on the contractor rather than on you, and it forces the scope to be written down before work starts.
Do painters charge more in some cities?
Substantially. Mean painter wages range from $12.48 an hour to $36.62 across US metro areas, a spread of nearly three times.
What this page does not tell you
- The 2.2 multiplier is a trade convention, not a figure published by BLS.
- BLS wage data covers employed painters. It under-represents sole traders and cash work.
- Percentiles describe wages in the metro, not the quotes you will personally receive.
- The May 2025 release lags the current market, particularly in fast-moving metros.