How much do plasterers make in Minnesota in 2026?

Minnesota plasterers at the median earn $102,530 a year, which works out to $49.29 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's a strong number for a skilled trade, and it reflects the specialized nature of plastering work — from three-coat stucco systems on commercial exteriors to ornamental finish work in historic restoration projects. The spread across experience levels is wide enough to matter when you're planning a career or negotiating your next job.

The 25th percentile sits at $66,990 annually, or about $32.21 an hour. Workers at this level are typically newer to the trade — apprentices wrapping up their training, helpers who've moved into journeyman roles recently, or plasterers working smaller residential jobs with less complexity. If you're early in your career in Minnesota, $66,990 is roughly where you'll land until you've built a track record on the tools.

The 75th percentile reaches $108,160 a year, or about $52.00 an hour. The jump from median ($102,530) to the 75th ($108,160) is relatively compressed — only about $5,600 a year separates them. That compression at the top tells you that once you're a well-established journeyman plasterer in Minnesota, pay bands don't stretch dramatically wider. Getting to the median is the big climb; from there, the gains are steadier but smaller. Top earners in this bracket tend to be lead plasterers or foremen on large commercial or institutional projects, or specialists in restoration and ornamental work who can command premium rates.

Overtime is a meaningful factor in this trade. Plastering is deadline-driven — a building envelope or interior finish has to be done before other trades can follow — so project-end crunches often push hours beyond 40 per week. At the median hourly rate of $49.29, a single overtime hour pays $73.94 (time-and-a-half). A plasterer putting in 10 hours of overtime a week for just four weeks adds roughly $2,957 to gross pay. Seasonality also plays a role in Minnesota. Exterior stucco and EIFS work slows in winter, so plasterers who can pivot to interior work — veneer plaster, hard-coat finishes, fireproofing applications — tend to log steadier annual hours and keep their yearly totals up.

Geography within Minnesota matters too. The Twin Cities metro — Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding suburbs — concentrates the majority of commercial and institutional plastering work in the state. Larger project volumes, tighter timelines, and more competitive contractors all support higher pay in that corridor. Plasterers working in Greater Minnesota may find fewer large projects but can still command solid rates on restoration work, particularly on the older building stock found in cities like Duluth, Mankato, and Rochester.

The BLS OEWS figures used here represent wage and salary workers and capture base hourly rates. They do not include the value of employer-paid benefits — health insurance, retirement contributions, paid leave — which can add meaningfully to total compensation. Nor do they capture performance bonuses, per-diem travel pay, or tool allowances that some contractors provide. Your real take-home picture is likely better than the raw wage number alone.

Some plasterers in Minnesota work under a collective bargaining agreement. If that applies to you, check with your local for current negotiated rates, as those are set through separate contract cycles and are not reflected in BLS data.

The path to higher pay in plastering runs through specialization. Plasterers who add EIFS (exterior insulation and finish systems) certification, historic preservation credentials, or fireproofing application experience consistently land at the upper end of the pay range. Contractors who need those skills have a narrower pool to hire from, and that scarcity pushes pay up. Taking on foreman or project lead responsibilities is the other main lever — supervisory roles command higher rates and often include salary structures that push total compensation above the hourly ceiling for field workers.

All figures on this page come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 release.