How much do painters make in New York in 2026?

The median painter salary in New York is $59,570 per year, which works out to about $28.64 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That puts New York painters well above the national median for the trade. But the spread across the pay scale is wide, and where you land on it depends on experience, specialty, and where in the state you're working.

At the 25th percentile, painters earn $48,820 annually, or roughly $23.47 an hour. That's the range for workers who are newer to the trade, still building speed and skill, or picking up work in lower-demand areas. It's a livable wage, but there's real room to grow from there.

The 75th percentile sits at $79,320 a year — about $38.13 an hour. Painters at this level have typically been in the trade for several years, handle commercial or industrial work, or have developed a specialty like decorative finishes, epoxy coatings, or spray application on large-scale projects. The gap between the 25th and 75th percentile is over $30,000 a year, which tells you this is a trade where experience and specialization genuinely pay off.

New York City and its metro area drive a lot of the higher wages in this dataset. Commercial repaint contracts on high-rises, new construction in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the steady demand from hospitality and retail renovations keep experienced painters busy and their rates strong. Outside the city — in the Capital Region, the Southern Tier, or the North Country — wages are lower, but so is the cost of living, and a busy season can still stack up solid hours.

Seasonality matters here. Exterior work slows in winter, and painters who can shift to interior commercial projects, finish work on new construction, or pick up industrial maintenance painting keep their annual hours — and their annual income — higher. A painter doing 2,080 hours at median pay earns $59,570. Drop to 1,600 hours due to winter slowdowns and that same hourly rate produces only $45,856 for the year.

Overtime can meaningfully lift annual earnings. At the median rate of $28.64 an hour, a painter picking up 10 hours of overtime weekly for 20 weeks adds roughly $8,592 in gross overtime pay (at 1.5x), pushing total annual earnings past $68,000.

Licensing in New York varies by locality. New York City requires a Home Improvement Contractor license for certain residential work, and some counties have their own requirements. Holding the right license opens access to larger contracts and protects your ability to bid independently. If you're working for a contractor, this is less of a day-to-day concern, but painters who want to run their own operation need to get this sorted early.

Specialty certifications also move the needle. EPA Lead-Safe Certification is federally required for work on pre-1978 housing, and in a state with as much older housing stock as New York, being certified keeps you eligible for a broad swath of the available work. OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 cards are expected on most commercial and public jobsites, and having them costs little compared to the doors they open.

Some painters in New York work under collective bargaining agreements. If that applies to you, your wage rate and benefits are set by your local's agreement — check that document directly for your exact scale, because the BLS figures here represent a broad average that includes both union and non-union workers across the state.

These figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, published May 2025. The OEWS covers wages paid by employers and doesn't capture cash jobs, self-employed painter income directly, or the value of benefits like health insurance and retirement contributions. Your total compensation package may look different from what these numbers show, but as a benchmark for what employers are paying across New York, the data is solid.

All figures on this page are sourced from BLS OEWS May 2025.