When to hire your first electrician, and how

Hire your first electrician when you've been turning down work for a couple of months and the labor you're passing on is worth more than a hand costs. Budget the wage plus about 12% for payroll taxes, unemployment and workers' comp (the BLS average for construction). Before he starts, you need an EIN, a workers' comp policy, an I-9 and a W-4, and you report him to the state within 20 days.

Going from one truck to two is the hardest hire you'll make, because everything about running a payroll is new at once. This post covers the money, the choice between a journeyman and an apprentice, the paperwork in order, and the license rules on who can work under you. For the bigger picture of who to add after that, see growing an electrical shop: who to hire next.

01Three numbers that say it's time

The decision comes down to work you're losing, hours you're working and how far out you're booked. Track all three for a month before you post an ad.

1. Labor you passed on. Every job you didn't bid, every call you didn't return. Write down the labor dollars, not the contract total.
2. Your hours. Count the ones on the tools and the ones at the kitchen table estimating, ordering and invoicing.
3. Backlog. Weeks of booked work. Two weeks of lumpy work won't carry a hand. A steady month or two will.

A one-man shop owner on Mike Holt's forum named the breaking point: "I cannot stay on the jobsite for having to go out and give estimates and sell other jobs." A reply in the same thread asked the question every owner should answer first: "Do you have another job ready to go when this one is completed so you can keep the helper busy for 40 hours a week?" (Mike Holt Forum: Is it time to hire some help?)

Here's a worked example with made-up numbers. Say you passed on $60,000 in labor over the last three months, about $240,000 a year if it holds. A journeyman at $40 an hour costs about $93,350 a year with required payroll costs (math in the next section). Even if half that lost work was real, $120,000 in labor covers him with room for the truck. If you passed on $10,000 all quarter, keep doing it yourself for now, or sub out the overflow.

02What the first hire really costs

Your first employee costs his wage plus the taxes and insurance the law puts on you, and on average that's about 12% on top in construction. BLS's Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for June 2026 puts legally required benefits in private construction at $4.42 an hour on $36.13 in wages (BLS ECEC, Table 4), which is 12.2% (our math).

Here's how that breaks down for an example journeyman at $40 an hour, 2,080 hours a year:

The federal rates come from IRS Publication 15 (2026): Social Security is 6.2% each for employer and employee on wages up to $184,500 in 2026, Medicare 1.45% each, and FUTA is 6.0% on the first $7,000, or 0.6% after the maximum 5.4% credit for paying state unemployment. The last line is just the BLS average minus the federal pieces. Your real workers' comp rate for electricians depends on your state, carrier and claims, so get a quote before you set the wage.

That table is the floor. Health insurance, a retirement match, a truck, fuel, phone and tools all come on top. The full list, with how to turn it into a billing rate, is in how to calculate labor burden on an electrician.

03Journeyman or apprentice first?

Hire a journeyman first if you need a second job running without you. Hire an apprentice first if you need more hands on the job you're already running. The two hires solve different problems.

Both wages are examples, not market rates. For a real number in your area, pull live ads for the same license and work. BLS OEWS put the national median for electricians at $30.38 an hour in May 2025, but that includes apprentices at straight time, so it runs low for a licensed J-man (BLS OOH, Electricians). What to pay an apprentice by year is in how much to pay an apprentice electrician or helper.

If you go journeyman, test before you trust the card. One national electrical contractor told us they kept getting "so-called journeymen that can't bend conduit." Check the license class on the state board and run a short bench test. The full process is in how to hire a journeyman electrician who can do the work.

04Who can work under your license

Your state's license law decides how far an unlicensed hand can work from you, and for a one-truck owner that can decide the whole hire. Three examples from state law, as of 2026:

• Washington: on journey-level work, no more than 1 noncertified hand per certified electrician, and a certified electrician has to be on the same jobsite at least 75% of each working day (RCW 19.28.161). So if you're the only certified electrician, your trainee can't run a second job while you go bid. You need a journeyman for that.
• Minnesota: a licensed individual can supervise no more than 2 unlicensed individuals, they must be "employed by the same employer," and supervision has to be direct (Minn. Stat. 326B.33).
• Michigan: apprentices register with the board within 30 days of hire, and the ratio is 1 journeyman or master to no more than 3 registered apprentices per jobsite (MCL 339.5717). A licensee who isn't a contractor can only do wiring while "employed by and working under the direction of" a licensed electrical contractor (MCL 339.5737).

Rules like these are also why a "1099 journeyman" is a bad first hire. An electrician doing electrical work for an electrical contractor is doing the contractor's usual business, and some license laws expect him to be your employee. The details are in can you hire an electrician as a 1099 contractor.

Check your own state board before you post. If the rules in your state keep a green hand tied to your hip, an apprentice won't free you up to sell.

05The paperwork, in order

Most of this is one-time setup. Do it before the hand's first day so his first check isn't late.

Before you hire

1. Get an EIN if you don't have one. Publication 15 says that if you're required to report employment taxes or give tax statements to employees, "you need an EIN."
2. Register with your state for withholding and unemployment insurance accounts. Your state's labor or revenue department has the forms.
3. Buy workers' comp before day one. Your agent can quote it as soon as you know the class of work and an estimated payroll.
4. Pick a payroll setup. A reply in the same Mike Holt thread: "I totally recommend a payroll service to handle all aspects of doing payroll. I find it very cost effective." For a first hire, that's the easy call.

Day one

1. Form I-9. "All U.S. employers must properly complete Form I-9 for every individual they hire," per the IRS hiring page. He fills out Section 1 by his first day. You finish Section 2 "within three business days of the date employment begins," so a Monday start means done by Thursday (USCIS Handbook M-274).
2. Form W-4. Get a signed W-4 when he starts. If he doesn't turn one in, Publication 15 says to withhold as if he checked Single or Married filing separately and made no other entries.
3. E-Verify, if your state requires it. Florida requires it for private employers with 25 or more employees (Fla. Stat. 448.095), North Carolina for employers with 25 or more employees in the state (G.S. 64-25 and 64-26), and South Carolina for every private employer that does I-9s (SC Code 41-8-20). Federal contracts can require it too.
4. Safety orientation, written down. Federal OSHA requires you to train him on the hazards of the work, and fall protection training needs a signed record.
5. Copy his license and print the state board lookup with the date.

Within 20 days

1. New hire report to your state: his name, address, Social Security number and first day of paid work, plus your business name, address and EIN. Federal law sets 20 days, and states can be tighter (42 U.S.C. 653a).

Every quarter and year

1. Form 941 each quarter for federal withholding and FICA, and Form 940 for FUTA each year, both on the Publication 15 checklist. A payroll service files these for you.

06Before you post the ad

Know your number and your rules before the phone rings. Write down the wage, the hours, when insurance starts if you offer it, and what the first 90 days look like. A hand leaving a bigger shop for a one-truck outfit is taking a chance on you, and he'll ask how steady the work is. Show him the backlog.

Then put the rate in the ad. A journeyman who already has a job won't call to find out what you pay.

If you're short-handed now, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

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