Square-foot pricing
Painting labor cost per square foot
A square-foot labor price is useful for comparing jobs, but it should come from your cost structure instead of a copied market number.
Basic formula
Labor price per square foot = labor selling price / paintable area
If the labor portion of a bid is $1,750 and the paintable area is 2,500 square feet, the labor selling price is about $0.70 per square foot.
Why one square-foot price can be dangerous
Two jobs with the same wall area can require different labor hours. Furniture, repairs, high ceilings, trim detail, masking, color changes, and occupied spaces all affect production.
Compare by task, not only by total area
Interior wall rolling may be fast, while trim, doors, stairwells, cabinets, and exterior detail work can be much slower. Break the job into tasks before averaging everything into one number.
Use square-foot price as a final check
After you calculate labor hours and cost, compare the final price per square foot with similar past jobs. If the number looks unusually low or high, review the assumptions before changing the bid.