The Datum Report

Occupation 5233 · Skilled trades occupations

Vehicle paint technicians

Half of full-time vehicle paint technicians in the UK earn more than £34,531 a year, and half earn less.

Vehicle paint technicians prepare, repair and refinish vehicle surfaces using modern paint systems, coatings, wraps and associated technologies to restore or enhance vehicle appearance, protection and functionality.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements although some employers may require GCSEs/S grades or an equivalent qualification. Off and on-the-job training is provided. Apprenticeships at NVQ/SVQ levels 2 and 3 are also available and take between three to four years to complete.

What the work involves

• applies masking material to protect areas not to be coated and removes any external fixtures
• consults vehicle colour code, chooses appropriate paint or mixes paint to achieve desired consistency and colour
• uses hand or electrostatic spray gun to coat surfaces, adjusting nozzle and pressure valves of the gun as required
• applies vinyl stickers and wraps to the bodywork of vehicles
• removes masking materials and refits external fittings after completion of spraying
• cleans and maintains spray equipment, protective clothing and spraying booth

Also called

Car paint sprayer · Coach painter · Graphic applicator (vehicles) · Paint technician (vehicles) · Sprayer (vehicle trades) · Vehicle refinisher · Vehicle wrapper

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for vehicle paint technicians, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 4 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Aircraft maintenance and related trades · Boat and ship builders and repairers · Rail and rolling stock builders and repairers · Vehicle body builders and repairers · Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians