Everhour turns painter time, rates, expenses, and invoices into one billing workflow after you set the right labor price.
Find the right rate based on your annual expenses, desired profit margin, and available billable hours. Stop guessing.
Rent, software, gear, salary
Time lost to admin, marketing, etc.
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A painter hourly rate calculation answers the minimum labor price you need before materials, paint markup, or square-foot pricing. The result helps you quote small repair jobs, compare subcontractor rates, and check whether a fixed-price interior or exterior estimate covers labor time. For self-employed painters, the calculation has to include vehicle costs, equipment, insurance, marketing, benefits replacement, tax reserves, and nonbillable hours.
BLS May 2025 OEWS reports SOC 47-2141 Painters, Construction and Maintenance at a $23.75 median hourly wage and a $26.64 mean hourly wage for wage-and-salary jobs. OEWS wage estimates exclude self-employed owners and partners, overtime pay, and employer supplementary benefits, so that figure is a payroll benchmark rather than a contractor bill rate.
The core formula is `(target income + overhead + benefits substitute + tax reserve) / billable hours`. Billable hours should be lower than total working hours because painters spend time on estimates, supply runs, cleanup, customer messages, scheduling, training, callbacks, and unpaid travel. A rate built on 2,080 annual hours understates the price when only a portion of the year becomes client-billable labor.
For example, a self-employed painter who wants $62,000 in income, expects $18,500 in overhead, budgets $9,600 for benefits replacement, sets aside $14,900 for tax reserves, and can bill 1,500 hours needs $70.00 per billable hour. That labor rate still sits apart from paint and supplies. HomeAdvisor estimates professional painting costs are mostly labor, with an 85% labor and 15% paint and supplies split.
Painter pricing often shifts from hourly math to square-foot or project pricing at the estimate stage. HomeAdvisor's reviewed painter cost guide says professional painters more commonly price by square foot, with $2 to $6 per square foot cited as a common range, while hourly rates are less common and often run from $20 to $50 per hour. High-cost areas sometimes exceed $100 per hour.
The useful decision is where the hourly rate belongs. Use it to price labor time, test whether a room or exterior quote clears your cost floor, and compare crews across jobs. Keep paint, sundries, masking supplies, lift rental, disposal, and specialty materials visible as separate job costs or marked-up material lines. Blending everything into one labor number hides margin loss.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need a quick floor for a small repaint, a subcontractor comparison, or a sanity check on a fixed quote. Use the result as the labor rate, then add materials and job-specific costs. Covered EPA RRP work in pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities, Davis-Bacon projects, and recurring client work need tighter records than a single calculator note.
A managed workflow matters once multiple painters, tasks, rates, or invoices are involved. Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices, calculates invoice amounts from rates while excluding non-billable tasks, and exports invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks. That handoff keeps painter labor, expenses, and invoice status connected after the rate is set.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Use the BLS May 2025 OEWS painter median of $23.75 per hour as an employee-pay reference, then load contractor costs on top. OEWS covers wage-and-salary straight-time pay and excludes self-employed owners and partners, overtime pay, and employer supplementary benefits, so it does not represent a self-employed painter's bill rate.
Keep paint and supplies separate from the labor rate unless your estimate format deliberately bundles them. HomeAdvisor estimates professional painting costs are mostly labor, with an 85% labor and 15% paint and supplies split. Separate line items make it easier to mark up materials, compare jobs, and see whether labor hours stayed profitable.
A U.S. sole proprietor or independent contractor generally reports business profit or loss on Schedule C and uses Schedule SE for Social Security and Medicare taxes. For 2026 estimated tax, self-employment tax applies at 15.3% on 92.35% of net self-employment earnings, with Social Security capped at the $184,500 wage base and Medicare uncapped.
They change the cost floor and compliance requirements for covered jobs. EPA's RRP rule requires paid firms, including sole proprietorships, working in pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities to be certified when covered work exceeds the minor repair limits. Davis-Bacon labor standards apply to federal or federally assisted construction, alteration, or repair contracts over $2,000, including painting and decorating.
Project pricing fits how many customers buy painting work, especially when the estimate is based on rooms, surfaces, prep, and square footage. The hourly rate still matters because it tests the project price against the painter's labor cost floor. A $1,400 room job that takes 24 billable hours equals $58.33 per hour before materials and overhead adjustments.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into client invoices using project or member rates, while excluding non-billable tasks. Invoices can be customized, grouped into client-facing line items, and exported to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks with invoice status synced back to Everhour.
Everhour tracks billable and non-billable time by project and task, so estimate visits, callbacks, admin, and internal cleanup can stay visible without inflating client invoices. Admin reports can show billable time, non-billable time, billable amount, and cost by member or task.
Set the painter labor rate, track billable hours and expenses, then generate client invoices from approved work. Everhour keeps labor, non-billable time, expenses, and invoice status connected.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
