Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

Overview

Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders has a national median salary of $48,250 per year, with +2.5% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Set up, operate, or tend spraying or rolling machines to coat or paint any of a wide variety of products, including glassware, cloth, ceramics, metal, plastic, paper, or wood, with lacquer, silver, copper, rubber, varnish, glaze, enamel, oil, or rust-proofing materials. Includes painters of transportation vehicles such as painters in auto body repair facilities.

Work Values

• Support
• Relationships
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Dispose of hazardous waste in an appropriate manner.
• Hold or position spray guns to direct spray onto articles.
• Spray prepared surfaces with specified amounts of primers and decorative or finish coatings.
• Monitor painting operations to identify flaws, such as blisters or streaks, and correct their causes.
• Disassemble, clean, and reassemble sprayers or power equipment, using solvents, wire brushes, and cloths.

Work Activities

• Getting Information
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
• Controlling Machines and Processes
• Processing Information
• Handling and Moving Objects
• Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People

Detailed Work Activities

• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
• Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).
• Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished an associate's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Associate's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders:

Video Resources