Commercial Painter
We place this role between $50,000 and $72,000 a year at mid experience, before overtime, bonus and on-call.
What this role pays.
That band is mid experience, built from our own engagement history. Experience and region move it - the salary calculator applies both.
The federal occupation this role reports under is Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141), May 2025. Nationally it reports a median of $49,400 , with the middle of the market between $37,440 and $78,810. BLS counts this job inside that occupation rather than publishing it separately, so the figures cover a slightly wider group than this exact title.
Where it pays most.
Painters, Construction and Maintenance across the metros we cover, May 2025. BLS publishes a median for 100 of them and withholds the rest, where the local sample was too small to be reliable.
| Metro | Median | Employed there |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $63,600 | 5,310 |
| San Jose | $61,970 | 2,410 |
| Chicago | $61,740 | 5,480 |
| New York | $61,420 | 11,930 |
| Minneapolis | $60,850 | 2,710 |
| Seattle | $60,440 | 5,140 |
| St. Louis | $59,810 | 2,350 |
| Bridgeport | $59,590 | 480 |
| Myrtle Beach | $36,040 | 280 |
| El Paso | $36,280 | 250 |
| Winston-Salem | $37,950 | 350 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. The last three rows are the lowest-paying metros in the same set. Headcount is metro-wide across every industry, not this trade alone.
Commercial Painter vs Commercial Painting Foreman.
The painter is production: surface prep, brush, roller and spray on commercial interiors and exteriors, and the finish is the output. The foreman is measured on a crew and a schedule instead. BLS counts them separately - painters of construction and maintenance here, first-line supervisors of construction trades there - so the two pages carry different federal tables. Our own bands split the same way: $50,000 to $72,000 for this seat against $65,000 to $95,000 for the foreman.
Commercial Painting Foreman: what it pays and what the search takes
Credentials that move an offer.
No single credential reliably moves an offer in this seat. Employers screen on demonstrated commercial experience instead, which makes the resume harder to read and the reference check worth more.
Licensing is a state question, not a national one. The Commercial Painting hiring page carries the state-by-state position, and every market page names the authority for that state.
What the search actually takes.
We have closed 0 commercial painting searches in 2026 year to date, which is below the 8 we require before publishing a median. We would rather print the count than a number the sample cannot carry. The Hiring Index shows what we do and do not have.
Keep reading.
- 2026 Commercial Painting Salary Guide - the full benchmark by role.
- Commercial Painting recruiting - how we run this trade.
- Salary calculator - the band by experience and region.
- Commercial Painting hiring in Houston - one market in detail.
- Hiring Index - how long our searches actually take.
Other Commercial Painting roles we recruit
All 56 roles we recruit - every trade, every seat.