What it costs when a journeyman quits

The cost to replace an electrician runs from about $12,600 on the sober end to $31,600 to $126,400 on the high end. The low number is 20% of the national median electrician's pay ($63,190, BLS, May 2025), from a Center for American Progress review. The high range is Gallup's half to two times salary. Neither study is about the trade, so below is a trade example you can check line by line. It's part of our guide to keeping good electricians from leaving.

01Where the two numbers come from

Both numbers are cross-industry studies, so use them as bookends, not as a quote for your shop.

The $63,190 figure is the BLS median annual wage for electricians in May 2025. It's straight-time pay and includes apprentices, so a top-of-band J-man on 6-10s costs more to lose than this.

One number to leave out: you'll see "30% of first-year earnings" credited to the US Department of Labor on a lot of HR sites. We couldn't find a primary DOL source for it, so we don't use it.

02Why a journeyman costs more to lose than the studies show

A J-man doesn't work alone. When he walks, the crew, the foreman and the schedule all pay for it.

• The foreman stops running work to break in the next guy.
• The crew covers his slot, usually with overtime.
• Rework if he left work half done or done wrong.
• The GC's schedule doesn't move because you're short. In the 2026 AGC and NCCER survey, 42% of firms said worker shortages delayed projects.
• Travel jobs cost more to refill: travel, a hotel and per diem for the replacement, on top of everything else.

Most of that never shows up as a line on a P&L. That's why owners guess low.

03A worked example: the J-man who walks after three weeks

This is an example, not an invoice. Change the numbers to match your shop.

Say you hire a journeyman at $40 an hour on 5-8s. He lasts three weeks and takes a call from a bigger job. It takes two weeks to put a new man in his spot, and the crew covers with overtime. Your foreman's time is worth $50 an hour.

That's before payroll taxes and workers' comp on those hours. BLS puts legally required benefits for construction at $4.42 an hour on $36.13 in wages (June 2026), or about 12% on top of wages (our math). On a travel job, add the new man's travel and per diem.

This example lands under both studies because he only lasted three weeks. Lose a J-man six months into a job, with a crew built around him, and the cost climbs toward the study numbers fast.

If you'd rather fill seats than refill them, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

04What if you fill the slot with an agency instead?

An agency hand can cover the gap, but you pay the spread every hour he's there, and the agency can move him.

Stay with the $40 J-man above. Say the agency bills $56 an hour for the same hand, a 40% markup (contractors we talk to report 30 to 40%). That's $16 an hour more, or $640 a week at 40 hours. Two weeks is $1,280, close to the $1,600 overtime premium in the example. Part of the bill rate pays real costs like payroll taxes and comp, so it isn't all profit.

The catch is what you get for it. The spread runs as long as he's there, and nobody guarantees he can do the work. One national electrical contractor told us an agency billed them $87.50 an hour, plus per diem, for hands who turned out to be apprentices.

05The costs that don't fit in a table

Some turnover costs only show up later.

• Bids you pass on. If you can't man the work, you don't chase it. Our post on what a short-handed crew really costs puts numbers on that.
• The second quit. When one hand leaves for more money, the others hear the number.
• The wrong hire in a hurry. Rush to refill and you risk a bad journeyman hire, which costs more than an empty slot.

06How to run your own number

You can rough out your own turnover cost in about 15 minutes.

1. Pull the last three hands who quit and how long each lasted.
2. For each, write down the hiring costs: ads, boards, agency fees, and owner or PM hours.
3. Add the ramp-up: a new man's first two weeks at half production is a fair starting guess.
4. Add the foreman's hours spent breaking him in.
5. Add the overtime or agency hours that covered his slot until the next man was productive.
6. Add rework and any backcharges you can trace to the gap.
7. Add about 12% on the labor lines for payroll taxes and comp, or use your own burden rate.

Divide the total by the number of quits. That's your number. Our labor burden guide helps with step 7.

07Is it cheaper to keep him?

Usually, yes. Say a $2 an hour raise keeps a J-man for the year. At 2,080 hours that's $4,160, or about $4,670 with 12% for payroll taxes and comp (our math). That's about half the $8,610 three-week example above.

Gallup found 52% of people who quit said their manager or company could have done something to keep them. The cheapest replacement is the one you don't need. See what a $1 raise really costs to run the raise math on your crew. If your quits come in the first few weeks, start with the new electrician onboarding checklist.

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