4-10s, 5-8s or 6-10s: which schedule keeps electricians

Electrician work schedule 4-10s vs 5-8s vs 6-10s: what each pays a J-man, what the overtime rules cost you, and when long weeks keep or burn out a crew.

Updated October 19, 20269 min read9 sources

Photo: cottonbro studio, Pexels

Local hands want 4-10s. In an ELECTRI and NECA survey of nearly 700 IBEW electricians, 4-10s beat 5-8s in every age group, 470 votes to 169. Travelers stay for 6-10s, because the hours are why they travel. Federal overtime starts after 40 hours a week, so in most states 4-10s cost you the same as 5-8s.

01What each schedule pays a journeyman

At $40 an hour, a J-man grosses $1,600 on 5-8s or 4-10s, $2,200 on 5-10s and $2,800 on 6-10s. The $40 is an example; the shape holds at any rate.

Schedule	Hours	OT hours	Weekly gross	Your cost per hour worked
5-8s	40	0	$1,600	$40.00
4-10s	40	0	$1,600	$40.00
5-10s	50	10	$2,200	$44.00
6-10s	60	20	$2,800	$46.67

The math: 40 hours at $40 is $1,600. Each OT hour is $60. On 6-10s, 20 OT hours add $1,200, so $2,800 for 60 hours, or $46.67 an hour. That's 16.7% more per hour of work than straight time, before burden. Overtime is normal in this trade; the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook says electricians on construction sites should expect it.

Where your base rate sits matters as much as the hours. If you're not sure yours is in the market, start with how much to pay a journeyman electrician in 2026.

02The overtime rules that set the math

Under federal law, overtime is time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek, with no daily overtime. DOL Fact Sheet #23 says the workweek is a fixed 168 hours and "averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted." So a 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week still owes 10 hours of OT.

Some states pay daily overtime. California pays time and a half over 8 hours in a workday and double time over 12, per the California Labor Commissioner's overtime FAQ. Under IWC Wage Order 16, which covers construction, 4-10s at straight time take an alternative workweek schedule adopted by a two-thirds secret ballot vote of the crew before the work starts, and it can't be used on public works. Without one, hours 9 and 10 each day are overtime. Check your state labor department before you post 4-10s.
Per diem stays out of the overtime rate when it reasonably matches real travel costs. Under 29 CFR 778.217, travel reimbursement at or under the federal per diem rate is treated as reasonable. If you pay "per diem" that's really wages, the excess goes into the regular rate and raises every OT hour.
Union sheets set their own rules. The IBEW Local 46 inside wage sheet (Seattle area, effective Aug. 3, 2026) lets the employer run 4-10s, Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday. On a regular 5-8s week, the first two hours past 8 and the first 8 on Saturday are time and a half, and the rest is double. So a 6-10s week there is 40 straight, 18 at time and a half and 2 at double: 71 straight-time hours' worth of pay against 70 on an open-shop 6-10s at the same rate.

03What electricians say they want

Most electricians in the ELECTRI survey picked 4-10s over 5-8s, and the younger they were, the stronger the pick. The study, presented at the NECA 2024 convention, surveyed nearly 700 IBEW electricians nationwide (275 foremen, 155 journeymen, 86 general foremen, plus office staff and others).

Age	Picked 4-10s	Picked 5-8s	Share for 4-10s
Under 30	36	6	86%
30 to 39	158	30	84%
40 to 49	150	47	76%
50 to 59	96	64	60%
60 and over	30	22	58%

Shares are our math from the deck's chart. The reasons the deck lists: flexibility for family and appointments, one less commute a week, and balance between work and home. The same survey found 77% are willing to work OT when asked: for emergency calls, power shutdowns and changeovers, deadlines, and the extra pay.

Two limits. These are union hands, mostly foremen and general foremen, so open-shop crews may lean differently. And the survey asked 4-10s vs 5-8s only, not 6-10s. Read it as: local hands want a short week with OT available, not a long week forced on them.

04When 6-10s keep travelers

6-10s keep travelers when the traveler came for the check, because the hours stack on top of a per diem that doesn't change.

At the GSA standard rate for fiscal 2027 ($113 lodging plus $68 meals and incidentals, $181 a day, per the GSA per diem rates), a 7-day per diem is $1,267 a week. Here's the $40 J-man's whole week:

Schedule	Wages	7-day per diem	Whole week
5-8s	$1,600	$1,267	$2,867
5-10s	$2,200	$1,267	$3,467
6-10s	$2,800	$1,267	$4,067

For you, the per diem is a fixed weekly cost. Spread over 40 hours it's $31.68 per hour worked. Over 60 hours it's $21.12. Long weeks make the travel cost cheaper per hour of work you get.

Hours also explain why hands leave for "more money." One national electrical contractor told us the agency hands they brought in "keep getting called to other jobs for more money." A rival paying $48 on 5-8s grosses $1,920 a week. Your $40 on 6-10s grosses $2,800. To match $2,800 on a 40-hour week, he'd need $70 an hour. Before you raise the rate, check whether the other job just has more hours. What per diem to offer traveling electricians covers the per diem side of that comparison.

05When 6-10s wear a crew out

6-10s wear a crew out when they have no end date. OSHA says plainly that "long work hours may increase the risk of injuries and accidents and can contribute to poor health and worker fatigue" (OSHA, long work hours and worker fatigue). The ELECTRI deck flags overreliance on OT as a hit to safety, quality and cost on tight-schedule jobs.

There's no study that names the week a crew breaks. Watch your own job. Signs it's coming, usually somewhere past the first month:

Monday no-shows and Saturday call-offs
Rework on terminations and pulls that were clean in week two
Near misses and short tempers with the foreman
Travelers asking when they can go home, or not asking and just leaving

What helps:

Put an end date on the long weeks. "6-10s through energization, then 5-10s" holds better than open-ended 6-10s.
Rotate Saturdays so each hand gets one off in three, when the schedule allows it.
Give travelers a trip home. Example: a long weekend every fourth week, set before they show up.
Keep local hands on 4-10s or 5-8s with OT offered, the way the survey says they want it.

Holding hands to the last day takes more than the schedule. How to keep a crew until the job is done covers completion bonuses, the next job and per diem timing, and recruiting and keeping a traveling electrical crew covers the road side.

06Which schedule to run

Pick the schedule by who's on the crew and how long the push runs.

Crew	Run	Why
Local commercial or industrial	4-10s, OT on the fifth day when needed	What most hands in the survey picked
Residential and service	5-8s or 4-10s	Customers need coverage five days; 4-10s can stagger
Travelers	6-10s or 5-10s with an end date	They came for the check; per diem is fixed
Schedule recovery	6-10s for a set number of weeks	Tell them when it ends

The schedule is one of the reasons good hands stay or go. The rest are in how to keep good electricians from leaving.

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FAQFAQs

Do electricians get overtime after 8 hours or after 40?

Under federal law, after 40 hours in a workweek. There's no federal daily overtime. Some states, including California, pay overtime after 8 hours in a day, and union agreements often set their own daily rules.

Are 4-10s legal for electricians?

Yes under federal law, since four 10-hour days is 40 hours with no overtime owed. In California you need an alternative workweek schedule, voted in by two-thirds of the crew by secret ballot, or hours 9 and 10 are overtime. Union sheets, like IBEW Local 46's, spell out when 4-10s are allowed.

Is per diem included in the overtime rate?

Not when it reasonably matches real travel costs. Federal rules treat travel reimbursement at or under the federal per diem rate as reasonable and leave it out of the regular rate. Any amount that's really disguised wages goes into the regular rate.

Is it cheaper to run 6-10s or add more hands?

Per hour, more hands on straight time is cheaper. At $40, 600 hours a week costs $28,000 with 10 hands on 6-10s, $26,400 with 12 on 5-10s and $24,000 with 15 on 5-8s. The catch is finding the extra hands, and each traveler adds a per diem.

What schedule do most electricians prefer?

In the ELECTRI and NECA survey of IBEW electricians, 4-10s beat 5-8s 470 to 169, and every age group picked 4-10s. Hands under 40 leaned hardest toward 4-10s. The survey didn't ask about 6-10s.