How To Become A Painting Contractor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a painting contractor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a painting contractor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.86 an hour? That's $41,303 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 4,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePainting ContractorUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $41,303

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.12%

Asian 1.47%

Black or African American 6.14%

Hispanic or Latino 19.97%

Unknown 3.93%

White 67.36%

Gender

female 13.66%

male 86.34%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a painting contractor

Explore painting contractor education requirements

Most common painting contractor degrees

Bachelor's

35.1 %

High School Diploma

32.4 %

Associate

16.8 %

Start to develop specific painting contractor skills

Skills	Percentages
Caulking	11.70%
Drywall Repair	11.43%
General Contractors	8.17%
Payroll	6.97%
Surface Preparation	6.48%

Complete relevant painting contractor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New painting contractors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a painting contractor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real painting contractor resumes.

Research painting contractor duties and responsibilities

Manage employees while performing daily painting tasks; schedule and run jobs from beginning until the end.
Manage and decide all remodel activities.
Experience in tape, bed and texture, Sheetrock installation and repair.
Job bidding, billing, A/R, employee supervision, scheduling, material management.

Prepare your painting contractor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your painting contractor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a painting contractor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable painting contractor resume templates

Build a professional painting contractor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your painting contractor resume.