How much do painters make in Massachusetts in 2026?

The median painter salary in Massachusetts is $57,510 per year, which works out to about $27.65 an hour based on a 2,080-hour work year. That puts the state well above many parts of the country, driven largely by a dense construction market, high cost of living, and steady demand for both residential and commercial work.

Pay spreads wide in this trade. Painters at the 25th percentile — those with less experience or working in lower-demand markets — earn around $46,830 a year, or roughly $22.51 an hour. Workers at the 75th percentile clear $70,050 annually, about $33.68 an hour. That $23,000 gap between the bottom and top quartile tells you experience, specialty work, and geography inside the state all matter a lot.

Where you work within Massachusetts moves the needle significantly. Greater Boston — Suffolk, Middlesex, and Norfolk counties — pulls wages toward the upper end of that range. Commercial painters on large-scale new construction, hotel renovations, or institutional projects in the metro area command more than someone doing interior repaint work in a smaller town in the Pioneer Valley or on the Cape. That said, seasonal vacation-home painting on Cape Cod and the Islands can mean concentrated high-pay weeks during the busy season, even if the annual hours don't match a full-year commercial gig.

Specialty work is the fastest path to higher pay regardless of experience level. Decorative finishes, Venetian plaster, lead paint abatement (which requires state certification in Massachusetts), and industrial coatings all pay above the median. Lead paint work is especially relevant here — Massachusetts has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, and certified lead-safe renovators are in consistent demand. Picking up that credential through the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards adds a concrete line item to your hourly rate.

Overtime is real money for painters. Commercial and industrial jobs in Boston regularly run 50-plus-hour weeks during project push periods. At the median rate of $27.65 an hour, each overtime hour pays $41.48 under federal law — ten extra hours a week for eight weeks adds roughly $3,300 to a season's earnings.

Apprentices typically start below the 25th percentile while they're in training, then climb quickly once they complete their hours and demonstrate reliability. Formal apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts run three to four years and combine on-the-job hours with classroom instruction in surface preparation, application methods, color theory, and safety compliance. Completing a registered apprenticeship often means a direct jump to journeyman wages in the upper half of the range.

Some workers in Massachusetts may be covered by a collective bargaining agreement — check with your local for current rates.

These figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, published May 2025. OEWS captures base wages reported by employers and does not include overtime pay, bonuses, or the value of benefits like health insurance, retirement contributions, or paid time off. That means the true total compensation for full-time painters — especially those on large commercial crews with solid benefit packages — is higher than the headline numbers suggest.

Self-employed painting contractors are also not fully captured in this data. Owner-operators who run their own crews and carry their own insurance often bill out at rates that translate to significantly higher personal income than the wage figures reflect, though they also absorb business costs that employees don't carry.

If you're trying to move your pay up the range, the clearest levers are: adding certifications (lead abatement, OSHA 10 or 30, powder coating or specialty finishes), shifting toward commercial and industrial work from residential, targeting higher-cost metro markets, and picking up supervisory responsibilities. Foremen and working supervisors regularly earn in the upper quartile or above it.