Paint, stain and coat the inside and outside of buildings. A 3-year paid apprenticeship, and no licence is needed to start.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$54,000
1st-year apprentice
$35,000
Industrial or union
$75,000
Industrial coatings crews on bridges, tanks and pipelines, and union painters in IUPAT (the painters' union), sit at the top. Residential repaint crews in small towns sit near the bottom.
$18 to $22 an hour
First-year apprentice
Apprentice pay is a percentage of the journeyperson rate and rises each year. Some residential companies pay by the job instead of by the hour, so speed matters.
$30 to $38 an hour
Journeyperson on industrial or spray coatings
Blasting rust off steel and spraying epoxy on bridges, water towers and refineries is the best-paid corner of the trade. It also means respirators, heights and travel.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship, so there is no tuition to find, only three short in school blocks at a few hundred dollars each. The low end is somebody who builds a hand tool kit slowly and pays the cheaper block rate. The high end is the pricier blocks, a fuller kit of brushes, rollers and hand tools, and the certificate exam at the end. Employers supply ladders, sprayers and lifts, the Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free up to $4,000 a block, and EI (Employment Insurance) covers you while you are in class, so most apprentices finish with little or no debt.
Employers supply ladders, sprayers and lifts. Most apprentices finish with little or no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is open now.
Union pension and health plan
IUPAT (the painters' union) locals in Ontario, Alberta and BC run pension and benefit plans for commercial and industrial painters.
Indoor work all winter
Interior repaints and new condo units keep going in January.
Low tool costs
The cheapest tool kit of any construction trade.
Easy to go self-employed
A van, ladders and a good reputation are enough to start.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A paid apprenticeship: mostly on the job, with short college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12. Art, math and shop classes help. Ontario students can start early through OYAP (the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program).
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A painting contractor, a condo builder or a union hiring hall that will register you as an apprentice.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With your provincial trades authority: Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or SkilledTradesBC.
Work and study
About 3 years
About 6,000 hours in Ontario: 5,280 on the job plus 720 hours in class, usually three blocks of about 8 weeks at a college.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Add the interprovincial Red Seal endorsement to work in any province.
Math
Measuring wall area, mixing ratios and pricing a job.
Art
Colour theory and a steady hand are the job.
Chemistry
Primers, solvents and coatings react with each other and with the surface.
Shop or technology classes
Shows employers you can use tools safely.
In Ontario, painter and decorator (registered as Painter and Decorator, Commercial and Residential) is a voluntary trade. Anyone can legally paint for pay without a licence. The Certificate of Qualification and the Red Seal endorsement are what prove you are trained, and union, commercial and industrial employers usually want them. Alberta and BC also treat it as voluntary. The Red Seal lets you work in any province without re-testing.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Industrial coatings and abrasive blasting
Spray-applied epoxy and urethane on steel. The best-paid work in the trade.
Working at heights and swing stage training
Needed for condo exteriors, bridges and water towers.
Wallcovering and specialty finishes
Wallpaper, faux finishes and plaster effects for high-end homes and hotels.
Lead and asbestos awareness
Homes built before the 1980s can have lead paint. Employers want you trained to handle it safely.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A short college program that makes a contractor more willing to sponsor you.
Driver's licence
You move between job sites with a loaded van.
Patience and a steady hand
Cutting a clean line by brush, without tape, is a skill customers pay for.
Painting has the lowest start-up cost of any construction trade, so many journeypersons go out on their own by 30. The catch is that anyone can compete with you, including people with no training, so prices are tight. You win work on reputation, clean lines and showing up on time, not on a licence.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
7am start. Cover the floors, tape the edges, fill holes and sand. Prime, then two coats: cut the edges by brush, roll the rest. On a condo tower it is the same unit layout over and over, fast. On an industrial job you might spend the morning blasting rust off steel and the afternoon in a respirator spraying epoxy. Clean the brushes, load the van, home by 4.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Painter and Decorator is one of the Red Seal trades, so a certified painter can move from Halifax to Calgary without re-qualifying.
On a steel bridge or a water tower, the coating is the only thing between the steel and the weather. That is why industrial painting is one of the most technical and best-paid corners of the trade.
Lead was common in Canadian house paint before the late 1970s. Sanding it without a respirator and containment is a real hazard, which is why lead-safe training exists.
Ontario students can bank apprenticeship hours before graduating through OYAP (the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program), a co-op placement with a real contractor.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.