How much do painters make in South Carolina in 2026?

The median painter salary in South Carolina is $40,840 a year, which works out to about $19.63 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number sits in the middle of the range — half of painters in the state earn more, half earn less.

The bottom quarter of earners — the 25th percentile — take home around $36,000 a year, or roughly $17.31 an hour. These are typically painters who are newer to the trade, working residential repaint jobs, or picking up seasonal and part-time work. If you are just starting out or switching from a helper role to a journeyman position, this is the range you are likely to see on your first offer.

The 75th percentile sits at $48,550 a year, about $23.34 an hour. Painters at this level have usually been in the trade for several years, carry specialized skills — think epoxy flooring, spray application, industrial coatings, or lead abatement certification — and often work for commercial or industrial contractors rather than small residential shops. Commercial painting work on warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and multi-family housing developments tends to pay more per hour than single-family residential, and South Carolina's continued growth in the manufacturing and logistics sectors means demand for that kind of work is real.

Geography inside South Carolina plays a role in what you can expect to earn. The Charleston metro area, Greenville-Spartanburg, and Columbia tend to pay more than rural counties, partly because of the volume of commercial construction and partly because labor demand is higher in those areas. A painter working on new hotel builds or mixed-use developments in Charleston is likely pulling closer to or above the 75th percentile, while someone doing house repaints in a smaller market may stay near the median or below.

Overtime is a real lever here. Painters on commercial projects often work 50-plus hours a week during busy stretches, particularly in the spring and summer months. At the median hourly rate of $19.63, ten hours of overtime per week adds roughly $4,900 to $5,800 in gross annual pay, assuming time-and-a-half. Over a full busy season, that kind of overtime can push a median-wage painter well past the 75th percentile on a total earnings basis.

Licensing in South Carolina matters more than in some other states. South Carolina requires painters working on residential projects over a certain dollar threshold to hold a contractor's license through the South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board. Painters who earn their own license can take on their own jobs and significantly increase their take-home pay beyond what an employee would see. Even without going independent, holding specialty certifications — OSHA 10 or 30, lead-safe certification through the EPA's RRP program, or manufacturer-specific coatings training — makes a meaningful difference in what an employer will pay.

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

The BLS OEWS data used here captures wages reported by employers, which means it includes base hourly pay but does not account for tips, cash jobs, or off-the-books work that exists in parts of the residential painting market. It also does not directly factor in benefits like health insurance or retirement contributions, which can represent thousands of dollars in additional compensation — particularly for painters working for larger commercial contractors who offer full benefit packages.

The clearest path to the top of the pay range in South Carolina involves three things: move toward commercial and industrial work, stack specialized certifications, and build a long enough track record that a foreman or estimator role becomes available to you. Foremen typically earn above the 75th percentile, and estimators — who often come up from the field — can move well beyond it. Source: BLS OEWS May 2025.