Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender Salary (2026), outlook and how to become one

Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earn a median of $48,250 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), 5% below the $50,980 median for all US occupations. That works out at $23.20/hr. The middle half earn between $40,590 and $59,680. The top 10% earn $74,730 or more.

The median hourly wage for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders is $23.20 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). On a full-year basis the $48,250 annual median works out to about $4,020 a month before tax.

BLS does not publish a starting salary. The nearest measure is the low end of the pay range: the lowest-paid 10% of coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders earn less than $36,260 a year and the bottom quarter less than $40,590 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). New workers often start near that end, but where a particular job starts depends on the employer, the state and the credentials you bring, so read these as the bottom of the range rather than a guaranteed entry wage.

Rarely. Even the 90th percentile is $74,730, so fewer than 10% of coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders earn $100,000 or more (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No state's median reaches $100,000; the highest is Alaska at $69,910.

The highest state medians for Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders are Alaska ($69,910), Washington ($59,980), New Jersey ($58,240) (BLS OEWS, May 2025).

BLS does not split coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders' pay by specialty or employer, but its range shows how far the top end runs: the highest-paid 10% earn more than $74,730, against a median of $48,250 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Location moves pay the most in the published data: the best-paying states are Alaska ($69,910), Washington ($59,980), New Jersey ($58,240).

No. A bachelor's degree is not the norm: BLS reports a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders. BLS also lists moderate-term on-the-job training as typical on-the-job training. In O*NET's survey of people already doing the job, 62.7% hold high school diploma or the equivalent (such as a ged).

BLS does not publish a fixed length; it depends on the route. What it does publish: the typical way in for coating is a high school diploma or equivalent. Once hired, BLS lists moderate-term on-the-job training as typical. O*NET classes the work as needing some preparation.

It is stable rather than fast-growing: employment is projected to change 2.5% over 2025–2035, about the same as the 3.5% projected across all occupations (BLS EP, 2025–2035). BLS still projects about 15,300 openings a year, mostly from workers retiring or moving to other work.

Painting and coating workers apply finishes, often using machines, to products such as cars, jewelry, and ceramics. A core O*NET task: clean equipment and work areas. Employers most often ask for Electronic mail software, Office suite software, Spreadsheet software.

Yes, for most. In O*NET's survey of people in the job, 34% of coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders usually work more than 40 hours a week, 51% work exactly 40 and 16% work fewer. 77% say their schedule is regular and 22% irregular. Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, Work Context.

O*NET scores Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders highest on the Realistic and Conventional interest areas, so the work mixes hands-on, practical work with tools, machines or the outdoors with organising, following procedures and working precisely with data. On NueCareer's MBTI-to-interest mapping that lines up most closely with ISTJ personalities. Personality is a fit signal, not a gate. The free NueCareer quiz scores your own profile against all 1,731 careers in the bank.

Women make up 8.9% of coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, against 47.1% of all employed people: a heavily male-dominated occupation. 21.4% are 55 or older, close to the 23.2% across all jobs. The median worker is 41.8 years old (all workers: 42.1). Source: BLS Current Population Survey, 2025 annual averages, for the Census group "Painting workers".