Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators · SOC 27-1013

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustratorss

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025U.S. metropolitan areas

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators. Areas where BLS suppressed the median are not ranked (8 such areas are excluded here). Higher medians often track higher living costs — this is a pay comparison, not a ranking of where the job is “best”.

Top 25 of 41 metro areas

Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$126,470	450	0.2
2	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$98,540	Not published	Not published
3	Naples-Marco Island, FL	$83,670	30	0.2
4	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$82,580	250	0.1
5	Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY	$80,070	40	0.1
6	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$78,290	Not published	Not published
7	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$77,100	50	0.0
8	Santa Fe, NM	$72,610	Not published	Not published
9	Shreveport-Bossier City, LA	$72,400	60	0.4
10	Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY	$70,570	40	0.1
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	$68,970	40	0.0
12	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	$68,140	330	0.1
13	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	$65,520	Not published	Not published
14	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$65,010	230	0.1
15	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	$62,860	80	0.1
16	Richmond, VA	$62,000	50	0.1
17	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$61,730	Not published	Not published
18	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$59,200	Not published	Not published
19	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	$57,630	30	0.1
20	Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV	$57,470	110	0.1
21	Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC	$57,320	Not published	Not published
22	Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	$56,890	Not published	Not published
23	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$56,560	70	0.0
24	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	$56,300	90	0.1
25	Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$55,490	260	0.1

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators overview.

About this data. Estimates are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 release, retrieved from bls.gov/oes/tables.htm on July 24, 2026. OEWS estimates describe metropolitan/nonmetropolitan areas and states — not city limits — and are not designed for year-over-year comparisons. See BLS methodology, our plain-English methodology, and sources. CitySalaryData is independent and not affiliated with BLS.