How much do painters make in Minnesota in 2026?

The median painter salary in Minnesota is $57,270 a year, which works out to roughly $27.53 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half of painters in the state earn more, half earn less. If you're just starting out or picking up residential repaint work, expect to land closer to the 25th percentile at $43,600 a year ($20.96/hr). Experienced painters doing commercial, industrial, or specialty coatings work push into the 75th percentile at $69,340 a year ($33.34/hr). These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The $25,740 spread between the 25th and 75th percentile tells you something important: painting is not a flat-wage trade in Minnesota. What you paint, where you paint it, and how long you've been doing it all move the number significantly.

Entry-level painters — those in their first one to three years — typically fall in the $43,600 range or below. At this stage, most workers are doing prep work, rolling interiors, and learning brush technique. Employers in this bracket include residential contractors, property management companies, and general painting services outfits. The pay is real, but it's a starting point, not a ceiling.

Mid-career painters with five or more years of experience tend to cluster near or above the $57,270 median. At this level, workers often have the skills to handle lacquers, epoxies, and specialty finishes — products that carry more responsibility and more pay. Commercial painters working on office builds, warehouses, and multi-unit housing projects in the Twin Cities metro frequently sit in this range.

The top quartile — $69,340 and above — is where industrial and specialty coating work shows up. Painters who work on bridges, water towers, tanks, or other steel structures, as well as those certified to handle lead abatement or apply fire-retardant coatings, consistently earn at the higher end. This work often requires additional certification and sometimes includes hazard pay components negotiated into contracts.

Geography within Minnesota matters. The Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro concentrates the most commercial and industrial painting work in the state, which generally means higher wages and steadier year-round work compared to outstate markets. Painters in Duluth and Rochester can find solid commercial work but typically deal with a smaller pool of large-scale projects. Rural Minnesota skews toward residential and agricultural painting, where rates are more variable and often tied to seasonal demand.

Seasonality is a real factor for painters in Minnesota. Exterior painting work slows hard from November through March due to temperature and humidity requirements for most coatings. Painters who want to maximize annual income need to plan for this — either by shifting to interior commercial work in winter months or by building a relationship with a contractor who has consistent year-round project flow. Overtime in the summer and fall can add meaningfully to annual earnings if your contractor is running tight schedules on exterior projects.

Certifications and licensing also move the needle. Minnesota does not require a statewide painter's license, but EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) certification opens doors to renovation work on pre-1978 buildings, which is a significant slice of the housing stock in older metro neighborhoods. OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 cards are increasingly expected on commercial job sites. Painters who hold both RRP certification and OSHA credentials are a more attractive hire, and that often translates directly into starting wages above the $43,600 floor.

Some painters in Minnesota are covered by a collective bargaining agreement — check with your local for current rates.

The BLS figures here represent wages only. They do not capture the value of benefits such as employer-paid health insurance, retirement contributions, or paid time off. A painter earning $57,270 in base wages with a full benefits package is in a materially better position than one earning the same figure with no benefits. When evaluating a job offer, factor in those additions before comparing headline numbers.