Painters, Construction and Maintenance in Arkansas

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$33,368

after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax

Tax takes

$6,722

16.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$38,572

Arkansas costs less than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$40,090

Kept after tax

$33,368

Worth in national money

$38,572

State rank

51

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays painters, construction and maintenance a middle wage of $40,090, 51 of 51 states and about 18.85% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 331 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Arkansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $40,090 the take-home is $33,368; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $38,572 would nationally. The average comes to $42,180, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • Arkansas's $40,090 median for painters, construction and maintenance places it 51 of 51 states, about 18.85% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
  • Painters, construction and maintenance ranks 331 of 489 occupations in Arkansas by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
  • Post-tax income for painters, construction and maintenance in Arkansas, on $40,090, is $33,368 — equivalent to $38,572 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $42,180 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Painters, Construction and Maintenance

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$31,150
Half earn under$40,090
Top tenth earn over$54,610
This salary$40,090

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
+$1,025take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Arkansas$33,368
Take-home in Texas$34,392
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$3,180

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0$43,935
$43,935in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$38,815
Raise you would need+$3,845
Prices in Texas97 vs 87

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of painters, construction and maintenance in Arkansas earn under $40,090 and half over. The published range runs $31,150 at the tenth percentile to $54,610 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $33,368 take-home in Arkansas comes from $40,090. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 331 of 489.
  • Two cautions on $38,572, the adjusted value of that $40,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 331 of 489 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for painters, construction and maintenance in Arkansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,150 to $54,610; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • Retained pay of $33,368, from $40,090, assumes a single Arkansas filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 331 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 51 of 51 for it.
  • This $38,572 adjusted figure, worked from $40,090, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 331 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 331 of 489 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $42,180, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,150 and the top tenth $54,610, so most people doing this work in Arkansas sit within a fairly tight band.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $38,572.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arkansas's own levy, $33,368 remains.

Can I compare this job across every state?

Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.

How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?

The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arkansas is $42,180. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,150 to $54,610) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Arkansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $38,572 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $33,368 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.

Is this occupation's state coverage complete?

State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.