When San Luis Obispo’s Fresh Paint Co. owner Jim Ringley found out that the United States is experiencing a shortage of workers in trades, he turned to people not immediately thought of for such jobs: women.
“Big corporations like Sherwin-Williams are reaching out to Spanish-speaking people and to women in order to bring more people into the painting industry,” Ringley said. “I’ve always wanted to bring women into the trades … and there’s no reason they can’t do the work.”
According to a 2024 report by McKinsey & Company, labor force participation rates for people 55 and older have declined by about 2 percent since the pandemic. Meanwhile, both participation rates and employment population ratios remain below pre-COVID-19 levels for 16-to-24-year-olds.
Those Gen Z workers also reported persistent cultural barriers to vocational training, with many saying they perceived a stigma associated with choosing the latter over a traditional four-year university.
The entire Fresh Paint Co. team, barring Ringley, comprises women. One of them is Mava Izzo, who swapped her food truck in Montana for a paint brush in sunny SLO County.
“I really enjoy working and doing interiors because that’s where the finer finish is and more attention to details that I think us women pay more attention to,” Izzo said.
After years of doing electrical, plumbing, and handyman work, Izzo added that she finds painting interiors rewarding because she gets to witness a project from beginning to end.
That’s a specialty of Fresh Paint Co.—it focuses only on residential interior and cabinet painting.
“With previous work and jobs that I’ve worked in in the trades, you start working on a project and then you’re done with whatever portion you’re working on and then you go to the next thing,” Izzo said. “Working with Jim, I’ve been able to learn so much about every fine little detail and what goes into making a beautiful, finished product.”
While Fresh Paint Co. has been serving SLO, Edna Valley, Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, and everywhere in between since 2018, Rigley made the switch to hiring more women and painting solely interiors in February.
“I found that I had good male painters who were strong and very diligent, and didn’t mind working out in the heat,” he said. “But I couldn’t bring them inside a house comfortably because they simply didn’t have the kind of polish or really an understanding of what the homeowner was looking for in the way of customer service.”
Having women inside to paint while men applied fresh coats to the exterior of houses was hard to sustain, Rigley added—almost like he was running two different companies.
Fresh Paint Co. handles around 50 projects a year, roughly one project a week. Contact the company through its website, freshpaintslo.com.
“Some people have told us that they hired us simply because we had women, and I don’t know, that seems a little unfair to the guys out there,” Rigley said with a laugh. “On the other hand, I totally understand because I’m a consumer too. … The difference to me is that guys will look at their shoes halfway across the carpet and realize they’ve got mud on their feet. But women will check their feet before they step on the carpet.”
For Izzo, she enjoys getting to know the other women on her team.
“I think it’s really important to bring women into the trades, it’s very uncommon,” she said. “We can do just as much work, and we’re not scared to get our hands dirty. I think the communication is a lot easier.”
Fresh Paint Co. is also spreading awareness about women in the trades in SLO County. Recently, Rigley and his team attended a job fair at Cuesta College, and said they received interest from women enrolled in classes. Fresh Paint Co. hopes to attend high school job fairs in the future, too.
The business also strives to engage with the larger community. It sponsors the Central Coast Roller Derby—a skating nonprofit dedicated to the empowerment of at-risk women and children.
“Those are the kind of people that seem to work out best at our company because we’re looking for people who don’t mind physical activity,” Rigley said. “I always tell people that I want to train my employees so well that they could start their own companies, and to treat them so well they don’t want to.”
Fast fact
• The PG&E Corporation Foundation and the California Restaurant Foundation gave $5,000 each to 15 restaurants across SLO County. The grant is meant for equipment upgrades, workforce training, and other improvements. Some of the restaurants include SLO’s Black Sheep Bar & Grill, PiWhole Pizza in Nipomo, and the Alchemists’ Garden in Paso Robles. Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Education Today 2025.