Employment
208,201
Total employees (Census CBP)
Construction ·NAICS 238320
NAICS 238320 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors - Industry Benchmarks
$55,165/yr average annual pay, with 2,028 SBA loans on record for NAICS 238320.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin
- 208K
- Workers employed
- $55,165/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $468M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 238320
California leads Painting and Wall Covering Contractors activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin.
- 6.3%
- Construction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 208K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $55,165/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $468M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors sits inside Construction, a sector that runs a 6.3% net margin overall.
38,280 establishments employ 208,201 workers (5.4/location) at $55,165/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$55,165/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
38,280
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 10,494; establishment count increased by 317. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $11.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 5.4
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 33,206 |
| Texas | 23,652 |
| Florida | 17,838 |
| New York | 10,664 |
| Washington | 9,144 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,221 |
| Virginia | 6,137 |
| Illinois | 6,093 |
| Arizona | 5,183 |
| Ohio | 4,863 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,028
Total Loan Volume
$468M
Avg Loan Size
$231K
Jobs Supported
13,935
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,953 (96%)
504 75 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
296 loans in this industry
New Business Share
29.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 235
2021 188
2022 256
2023 356
2024 444
2025 480
2026 69
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 238320 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Construction sector runs a 6.3% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
38,280 business establishments. Together they employ 208,201 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Painting and Wall Covering Contractors?
$55,165/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 5.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Painting and Wall Covering Contractors employment?
California leads with 33,206 workers. Texas (23,652) and Florida (17,838) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Painting and Wall Covering Contractors receive?
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors businesses received 2,028 SBA loans totaling $468 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $231K. These loans supported 13,935 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 86% of that same 801-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Shoe Stores 202,988
- Civic and Social Organizations 201,423
- Roofing Contractors 215,242
Benchmarking Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Construction
- 38,280 establishments, 208,201 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 2,028 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 238320 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.