How much do painters make in Texas in 2026?

Painters in Texas earn a median wage of $45,460 per year, which works out to roughly $21.86 per hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half of all painters in the state earn more, half earn less. The numbers come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The 25th percentile sits at $39,070 annually, or about $18.78 per hour. If you're just starting out, coming back to the trade after time off, or working in a slower market, this is the range you're likely to land in. It's a real wage for real work, but it leaves limited room to absorb slow weeks or gaps between jobs.

The 75th percentile comes in at $49,390 per year, around $23.75 per hour. Painters hitting this mark typically have several years of consistent experience, a specialty — think industrial coatings, epoxy flooring, or high-end residential finishes — or they're working in a metro area with strong commercial demand. The spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is about $10,320 annually, which is a meaningful gap. Getting from the bottom of that range to the top is largely a matter of specialization, reliability, and where in Texas you're working.

Texas is a big state with real geographic variation in pay. The Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex and Houston both run large volumes of commercial construction and industrial painting work. Those metros generally push wages toward the upper end of the range. Smaller markets in West Texas or the Panhandle tend to land closer to the median or below. Austin has seen heavy construction activity, which creates steady demand for commercial and residential painters alike. San Antonio sits in the middle of the pack.

Specialty work shifts the numbers significantly. Painters who are certified for industrial coatings, SSPC or NACE-rated surface preparation, or who hold a Texas commercial applicator license for lead or hazardous materials can command rates above the 75th percentile. Residential repaint work is the most common entry point, but it's also the most price-competitive segment. Moving into commercial or industrial work — new construction, tilt-wall buildings, manufacturing facilities, tank farms — is where Texas painters tend to see the biggest wage jumps.

Self-employment and contractor status also affect take-home pay in ways that hourly rates alone don't capture. A painter running their own small crew in DFW billing $30 to $40 per hour for labor may clear more net income than the BLS figures suggest, but also absorbs overhead, slow periods, and no employer contributions to benefits or retirement.

Union scale data is not available for painters in Texas. The state has a relatively low union density in the building trades compared to states like Illinois or California, so most painters here work under individual or open-shop contractor arrangements. That means wage negotiation is largely one-on-one, and your rate will depend on what you've demonstrated on the job.

For painters looking to push past the median, the clearest paths in Texas are earning manufacturer certifications for coatings products, building a track record on commercial work, and positioning in the metros with the most active construction pipelines. The data shows a $10,000-plus annual difference between painters at the 25th and 75th percentile — that gap is real, and it rewards specific skills over time served.