Washington · BLS May 2025

How much do helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons make in Washington?

Helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington earn a median of $39,360 a year ($18.92 an hour), about $2,817 a month after federal and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 160 of these jobs in Washington in May 2025.

Median pay · Washington

$39,360A year, or $19 an hour.
Take-home a month$2,817After federal and FICA tax at 14.1%
Worth at national prices$36,781Prices here sit at 107 against 100
Against the nation2.7% belowNational median $40,470
What helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons earn in Washington, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$35,800$17
25th percentile$37,340$18
MedianHalf earn more, half less$39,360$19
75th percentile$52,060$25
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$56,820$27
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$44,240$21

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in WashingtonBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$39,360
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$18.92
  3. Take-home after federal and FICA tax$2,817 a month at an effective rate of 14.1%.$33,806 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Washington sit at 107 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$36,781
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $40,470.2.7% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.91 against the nation's 1.00.160
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $39,360 in Washington, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$39,360
$35,000$60,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$39,360
Net 86%
Fed 6%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$33,806After all taxes
Monthly deposit$2,817Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$1,300Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate14.1%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$2,543 / yr
Washington state income taxNo state wage tax$0
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$3,011 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $39,360 is worth in Washington

Prices in Washington sit at 107 against a national average of 100, so $39,360 earned here buys what $36,781 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 126 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Washington takes in $98,141, so this occupation's median is 0.4 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 9% less concentrated in Washington than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington

Washington does not tax wages, so the take-home figure above loses only federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.

Rents in Washington index at 126 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 107, a gap of +19 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

The median for this job is 0.4 times the median household income in Washington ($98,141). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.

Pay is tightly grouped: the 90th percentile ($56,820) is only 1.6 times the 10th ($35,800), so most helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons here earn within a narrow band.

Common questions

Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons pay in Washington, answered

How much do helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons make in Washington?

The median wage for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington is $39,360 a year, or $18.92 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons salary in Washington?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington is $44,240 a year. The median is $39,360.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington?

The median hourly wage is $18.92. At a full-time year that lines up with about $39,360 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Washington, the lowest-paid 10% of helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons earn under $35,800 a year and a quarter earn under $37,340 ($17.21 and $17.95 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington?

The overall salary range for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington spans from $35,800 for the bottom 10% to $56,820 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $37,340 and $52,060 a year, with the overall median at $39,360.

What is the take-home pay for helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons in Washington?

On the median wage of $39,360, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $33,806 a year, or roughly $2,817 a month.

That is after federal and FICA tax, an effective rate of 14.1%.

Washington levies no state income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld for it.

How much does helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons make a month in Washington?

On the median annual salary of $39,360, estimated take-home pay is roughly $2,817 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $1,300 net.

Do helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons earn more in Washington than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Washington is 2.7% below the national median of $40,470.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Washington sit at 107 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $39,360 a good salary in Washington?

It is 0.4 times the median household income of $98,141. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Washington run at 107 against a national average of 100, with rents at 126, so $39,360 here buys about what $36,781 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons earn in Washington?

The top tenth earn $56,820 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $35,800.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Washington someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons are there in Washington?

The survey counted 160 of these jobs in Washington for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 9% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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