How much do painters make in California in 2026?

The median painter salary in California is $59,020 per year, which works out to about $28.38 per hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number sits in the middle of the range — half of California painters earn more, half earn less. The data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The bottom quarter of painters in California — those with less experience, working smaller residential jobs, or in lower-wage metro areas — earn up to $47,520 per year, or roughly $22.85 per hour. Painters in the top quarter pull in $73,040 or more annually, around $35.12 per hour. That gap of about $25,500 between the 25th and 75th percentile is wide, and it reflects real differences in skill level, project type, employer size, and geography across a state as large and varied as California.

Location inside California moves the needle significantly. Painters working in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles metro, or San Diego typically command wages closer to or above the 75th percentile, driven by higher costs of doing business and stronger demand from commercial and high-end residential clients. Inland regions — the Central Valley, High Desert, and rural areas of the Sierra Nevada foothills — tend to land closer to or below the median. If you're comparing two job offers in California, factor in cost of living alongside the hourly rate before deciding which pays better in practice.

Experience is the single biggest lever on painter pay. A first-year painter doing prep work and touch-ups will be near the bottom of the range. A journeyman with five or more years handling full commercial repaint projects, specialty finishes, or industrial coatings work can realistically reach the 75th percentile or push above it. Specialty skills — epoxy coatings, lead abatement certification, historic restoration, or high-rise exterior work — add negotiating power because fewer workers can do them.

Project type matters almost as much as experience. Residential repaint work tends to pay toward the lower end of the range. Commercial repaint, new commercial construction, and industrial painting typically pay more because the jobs are larger, the schedules are tighter, and the physical demands are higher. Painters who make the move from residential to commercial often see a meaningful bump in their hourly rate without needing any additional formal credentials.

Overtime and seasonality also shape what painters actually take home in a given year. Exterior painting in California picks up in spring and runs through early fall when the weather cooperates, so painters who accept overtime during peak season can earn meaningfully more than their base hourly rate suggests. Interior commercial work tends to be steadier year-round, which is why some painters prefer it for income stability even if the peak-season ceiling is lower.

Licensing is worth understanding if you're looking to move up. California requires a C-33 Painting and Decorating contractor license to run your own painting business or to bid jobs independently. Getting licensed opens the door to significantly higher earnings than working as an employee, though it also adds business overhead and administrative work. Many experienced painters use the C-33 as a long-term target after building their skills and client relationships as a journeyman.

Some painters in California are covered by a collective bargaining agreement — check with your local for current rates, which may differ from the BLS figures shown here.

The BLS OEWS figures reported here represent straight-time wages for wage-and-salary workers. They do not include overtime pay, benefits like employer-paid health insurance or retirement contributions, or the earnings of self-employed painters running their own contracting businesses. Your total compensation package can be meaningfully higher than the base wage number alone once those factors are counted.