State guide

Painting Cost in California

Painters in California average $30.03 an hour, 23% above the national mean. This page covers all 25 California metro areas the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data for, each with its own cost breakdown.

Metro areas in California

Ranked by mean painter wage, highest to lowest. Every metro links to its own interior, exterior and cabinet cost breakdown.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont$33.91San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara$33.30Vallejo$32.35Santa Rosa-Petaluma$32.02Bakersfield-Delano$30.95Napa$30.85Santa Cruz-Watsonville$30.35Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom$30.24San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles$30.05Hanford-Corcoran$29.93Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim$29.71Salinas$29.06El Centro$28.80San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad$28.76Redding$28.55Santa Maria-Santa Barbara$28.09Yuba City$28.01Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura$27.97Merced$27.92Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario$27.35Fresno$27.10Stockton-Lodi$26.75Modesto$26.74Chico$25.24Visalia$23.82

Why the wage varies within one state

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont is the highest-paying metro in California at $33.91 an hour. A state average blends every local labour market into one number, which is useful for a state-level sense of cost but not for a specific job: the metro pages above use each area’s own wage rather than this state figure, because a state can easily contain both its most and least expensive metro at the same time.

See the full painting cost guide for every state, or the calculator to price a specific job.

Common questions

How much do painters charge per hour in California?

The California state average is $30.03 an hour, 23% above the national mean. Individual metros vary: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont is the highest at $33.91.

Which California metro has the highest painting cost?

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, where painters average $33.91 an hour. See its dedicated cost breakdown above.

Does this cover every part of California?

It covers every metro area the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data for in California u2014 25 in total. Rural areas outside a metro area are not separately tracked in this dataset.

What this page does not tell you

  • The state figure is a weighted blend across every metro in the state, not a single local market.
  • Rural and non-metro areas of the state are not separately tracked in the BLS release this site uses.
  • For an actual job, use the specific metro's own page or the calculator rather than the state average.