Profit Margin
4.5%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 3255
NAICS 3255 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks
$76,867/yr average annual pay, with 131 SBA loans on record for NAICS 3255.
- 4.5%
- Net margin
- 78K
- Workers employed
- $76,867/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $102M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 3255
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing runs a 4.5% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 2K establishments employing 78K workers.
- 4.5%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 78K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,867/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $102M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 4.5% net margin (below the national median), $55.8B in aggregate receipts across 1,633 returns, averaging $34.2B per establishment.
1,664 establishments employ 77,815 workers (46.8/location) at $76,867/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Illinois.
Total Receipts
$55.8B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$2.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
77,815
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$76,867/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,664
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 5,368; establishment count decreased by 17. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing margin vs national reference points
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing net margin 14.9%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
1,633 returns 100%
Margin: 4.5% · Receipts: $55.8B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 1,633
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $34.2B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $6.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 46.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Adhesive Manufacturing NAICS 32552 | N/A |
| Paint and Coating Manufacturing NAICS 32551 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 6,901 |
| California | 6,400 |
| Illinois | 6,380 |
| Pennsylvania | 4,159 |
| North Carolina | 3,681 |
| Kentucky | 2,959 |
| Georgia | 2,879 |
| Missouri | 2,598 |
| South Carolina | 1,758 |
| Florida | 1,394 |
Showing top 10 of 44 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
131
Total Loan Volume
$102M
Avg Loan Size
$777K
Jobs Supported
1,353
Program Breakdown
7(a) 101 (77%)
504 30 (23%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
16.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 16
2021 35
2022 20
2023 10
2024 35
2025 12
2026 3
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing?
$55.8B in total annual receipts across all Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $34.2B.
How profitable is Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing?
4.5% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing?
1,664 business establishments. Together they employ 77,815 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing?
$76,867/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 46.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing employment?
Texas leads with 6,901 workers. California (6,400) and Illinois (6,380) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing receive?
Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing businesses received 131 SBA loans totaling $102 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $777K. These loans supported 1,353 jobs at origination. Most lending (77%) 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: Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing reports a higher net margin than 43% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 25% of that same 259-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 reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Paint, Coating, and Adhesive Manufacturing
- Net margin: 4.5% vs sector. Browse Manufacturing
- 1,664 establishments, 77,815 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 131 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 3255 · 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.