Paperhangers
Cover interior walls or ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, or attach advertising posters on surfaces such as walls and billboards. May remove old materials or prepare surfaces to be papered.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Paperhangers. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $36,020 | $17.32 |
| 25th | $44,890 | $21.58 |
| 50th · Median | $52,140 | $25.07 |
| 75th | $60,180 | $28.93 |
| 90th | $69,050 | $33.20 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (4)
Typical tasks
- Place strips or sections of paper on surfaces, aligning section edges and patterns.
- Smooth strips or sections of paper with brushes or rollers to remove wrinkles and bubbles and to smooth joints.
- Staple or tack advertising posters onto fences, walls, billboards, or poles.
- Measure surfaces or review work orders to estimate the quantities of materials needed.
- Check finished wallcoverings for proper alignment, pattern matching, and neatness of seams.
- Smooth rough spots on walls and ceilings, using sandpaper.
Expand more tasks (13)
- Cover interior walls and ceilings of rooms with decorative wallpaper or fabric, using hand tools.
- Trim rough edges from strips, using straightedges and trimming knives.
- Apply sizing to seal surfaces and maximize adhesion of coverings to surfaces.
- Set up equipment, such as pasteboards and scaffolds.
- Measure and cut strips from rolls of wallpaper or fabric, using shears or razors.
- Trim excess material at ceilings or baseboards, using knives.
- Mix paste, using paste powder and water, and brush paste onto surfaces.
- Apply adhesives to the backs of paper strips, using brushes, or dunk strips of prepasted wallcovering in water, wiping off any excess adhesive.
- Apply thinned glue to waterproof porous surfaces, using brushes, rollers, or pasting machines.
- Fill holes, cracks, and other surface imperfections preparatory to covering surfaces.
- Mark vertical guidelines on walls to align strips, using plumb bobs and chalk lines.
- Remove old paper, using water, steam machines, or solvents and scrapers.
- Remove paint, varnish, dirt, and grease from surfaces, using paint remover and water soda solutions.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Expand more skills (29)
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
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