How to Become a Painter: Certification, Licensing & Pay
Painters apply paint, stain, and protective coatings to the interiors and exteriors of homes, businesses, and industrial structures, as well as bridges and large equipment. Painting is one of the more accessible trades to enter: most painters learn on the job rather than through a lengthy apprenticeship or formal schooling, though union apprenticeships exist for those who want a structured path.
Apprenticeship Path
Most painters train informally, picking up surface preparation, application techniques, and safety practices from experienced painters on the job — no formal education is typically required to enter the occupation. Painters who want a structured path can enter a union apprenticeship, most commonly through the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), which typically runs about 3 years and combines roughly 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job work per year with a minimum of 144 hours of related classroom instruction.
Certification & Licensing
Painting generally isn't a state-licensed trade for individual workers. Some states and cities require a contractor's license to run a painting business, and work that disturbs paint on pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities falls under the EPA's lead-safe renovation rule — a federal requirement, separate from any state contractor license.
Whether a contractor's license is required for painting work, and when lead-safe certification applies, varies by state, locality, and the age of the building — verify current requirements with your state's contractor licensing board and the EPA before you rely on them.
Painter Pay
The median painter in the US earned $49,400 per year as of May 2025 — the middle 80% earned between $37,440 and $78,810.
Pay varies a lot by location. See the highest-paying states and highest-paying cities for painters, both ranked from BLS OEWS data.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141), May 2025.
OEWS is published once a year, not continuously — "May 2025" is BLS's label for that annual release, not a live figure. See methodology.
Job Outlook
The BLS projects employment of painters to grow 4% from 2024–34, about as fast as the average for all occupations, with about 28,100 openings projected each year on average (most from workers transferring to other occupations or retiring, not net-new growth alone).
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Painters, Construction and Maintenance, 2024–34 projections.
Keep Exploring
Sources & Last Updated
Pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141), May 2025.
Job outlook: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Painters, Construction and Maintenance, 2024–34 projections.
Certification: EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Program — certification for work on pre-1978 buildings.
Licensing and apprenticeship requirements vary by state — start with the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational license finder or apprenticeship.gov.
Full source list: methodology.
Last updated: May 2025.