Occupation / job
Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
The $40,470 midpoint for Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons sits $9,550 under the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is a real living across much of the country and a thin one in expensive metros, so geography decides this more than seniority does.
National employment of 7,490 makes this a small field. Small fields are relationship markets: the people already in Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons tend to know who is hiring before the posting exists.
Helper roles are the paid entrance to a trade. They suit people who will trade a low starting rate for time on a site next to someone who already knows how the work is done.
No verified preparation time is on file for Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
The quarters sit at $36,830 and $49,090, $1,021 a month apart at a ratio of 1.3x. Narrow enough that what you can expect is close to what everyone else gets.
The 25th percentile is $36,830 — $17.70 an hour, and $13,190 below the $50,020 typical American job. Entry-level in this field means that number, not the midpoint, so budget against it.
Avoid it if you need the entry rate to be liveable immediately — the helper year is deliberately the cheap one.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 7,490 people employed as Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x ratio from $36,830 to $49,090 makes $40,470 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
In cash terms the middle half of Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons runs $36,830 to $49,090 — $12,260 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $40,470.
Getting to $49,090, the 75th percentile, is worth $8,620 a year more than the $40,470 midpoint and $12,260 more than the $36,830 a quarter of Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons settle for.
From $40,470 the drop to $36,830 is $3,640 and the climb to $49,090 is $8,620. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $19.45 at the midpoint for Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons, $17.70 at the 25th percentile and $23.60 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $40,470 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons, the hourly figure is $40,470 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else