Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $38K, rent takes 61.3% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,573/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $800/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new painting, coating, and decorating workers typically earn — is $38K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,258/month. At HUD’s $1,573/month FMR, rent would take 70% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Pay here is roughly in line with the national average — $38K locally vs. $42K nationally, a 10% difference.

Rochester pays $38K median vs. the U.S. average of $42K — that’s -10%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 97), the purchasing-power equivalent is $39K — below the national median.

The median is $37,630 a year, that works out to about $18 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $37,630, and experienced painting, coating, and decorating workers can clear $49,640. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $2,567/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,573/month, which eats 61.3% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Rochester has a Regional Price Parity of 100 (100 is the national average). That's right at the national average. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median painting, coating, and decorating workers salary is worth about $38,794 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.