How much to pay a journeyman electrician in 2026

The national median wage for electricians is $30.38 an hour, and the top 10% make more than $52.17 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Those numbers include apprentices and leave out overtime and per diem, so a licensed journeyman with five or more years usually costs more than the median. Plan on paying a carded J-man you want to keep somewhere between your state's median and its 90th percentile, and in a hot market, near the top of it.

01Why this question is so hard to answer

Pay was the biggest question on one recent call. One national electrical contractor put it plainly: "The thing is understanding what pay rate we would have to be at... We've been going higher and higher on the pay rate so we can be competitive." They weren't cheap. They just didn't know where the market was.

The trouble is that every number you find measures something different. BLS measures every wage-earning electrician, apprentices included. Union sheets measure one local's journeyman package. Job ads show what one shop is offering this week. Agencies quote a bill rate, not a wage. Each one is useful if you know what it is.

02What BLS says electricians make

The best public number is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for occupation 47-2111, Electricians. The latest release is May 2025 data.

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and BLS OEWS, May 2025. The mean is an average and runs above the median because high earners pull it up.

The median also varies by who employs the electrician. BLS lists these May 2025 medians by industry: government $79,820, manufacturing $74,550, electrical contractors $61,570, and employment services (staffing) $57,760.

03Why the median runs low for a carded journeyman

The BLS median is the middle of everyone in the electrician code, not the middle of licensed journeymen. Three things pull it below what you'll pay a good J-man.

1. Apprentices are counted as electricians. Federal job coding puts "apprentices and trainees" in the occupation they're training for, while helpers are counted separately (BLS SOC Manual, 2018). A first-year apprentice and a 15-year journeyman are in the same 47-2111 number.
2. It's straight-time pay only. OEWS wages are "straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay." Overtime, shift differentials, and meal and lodging payments are left out (BLS OEWS FAQ). A J-man on 6-10s with per diem takes home far more than his base rate shows.
3. It's last year's survey. May 2025 data published in 2026. Construction wages kept climbing: production and nonsupervisory construction workers averaged $39.36 an hour in August 2026, up 5.0% from a year earlier (AGC).

So use the median as a floor for a licensed hand, not a target. An experienced, carded journeyman usually sits in the upper half of your state's band; how far up depends on the market and the work. How wide that spread runs, and why, is its own topic in what a journeyman pay range looks like.

04Electrician pay by state

Pay moves a lot by state. The median in Oregon ($48.71) is about double the median in Arkansas ($23.59). Here are 12 of the biggest states by electrician headcount, from BLS OEWS May 2025.

Hourly wages. Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, state estimates for 47-2111. Pull your own metro area from the same release; metro numbers can run well above or below the state.

Read the table for spread, not just the middle. In Florida, the 90th percentile is $9.58 over the median. In California it's $30.85 over. A tight spread means most shops pay close to the same; a wide one means the top hands are getting paid a lot more than the middle.

05What union scale tells you

Union inside wireman scale is a published, dated benchmark for journeyman pay in that area, and it's free to read. Use it as a reference point even if you're open shop. It's not a direct comparison, since the package includes pension, health and training that an open-shop rate may handle differently.

Sources: IBEW Local 46 wage sheet, IBEW Local 11 rate sheet, IBEW Local 48 2026 wage information.

Next to OEWS: the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro median was $48.93 in May 2025, and Local 46's journey wage is $77.93. That gap is real, but it mixes dates, open shop and union, and apprentices into one number. Don't hold it up as "what you have to pay." Hold it up as the ceiling a union J-man in that market is weighing your offer against.

06What live ads and one contractor's numbers show

Live job ads are the fastest read on what shops near you are offering right now. Several states now require a pay range in job postings (for example, Washington for employers with 15 or more employees, and New York for employers with 4 or more). In those states, competitors' ads are free market data.

Pull 10 ads for the same class of work in your area. Throw out the high and low, and look at the middle. Note what each one includes: hours, OT, per diem with its unit, benefits start date.

On one call, a national electrical contractor gave us their read of the open-shop journeyman market:

• The band they see runs from $40 to $45 an hour "up to like 80 dollars an hour."
• Their project manager said they pay "50 to 55" to the employees.
• The owner's ceiling: "The absolute most would be, I want to say, about 58." At that rate, the PM said, "that person better be very experienced and I should just be able to point and say, hey, go do it."
• An agency billed them about $87.50 an hour, plus per diem, for apprentices. That's a bill rate, not a wage.

That's one contractor's numbers on one job. It isn't a national rate. It does show how far above the BLS median a carded hand on a hard-to-staff job can run.

07Set your number

Setting a rate is a five-step job. Each step has its own post if you want the detail.

1. Start with BLS for your state and metro. Note the median and the 90th percentile. A carded J-man you want to keep should land at or above the median; a top hand, near the 90th.
2. Place the job inside that band. Move up for scope (gear, MV, controls, foreman-ready), for a short job you need staffed fast, and for markets where data centers are hiring. Move down only if the work is simple and steady. The full method is in how to set a journeyman pay rate.
3. Check 10 live ads and the nearest union sheet. If your number is under the middle of the ads, expect slow response.
4. Price the whole check, not just the rate. Hours (see 4-10s vs 6-10s for electricians), overtime, per diem and how long the job runs. On travel work, per diem is often what decides it. Start with what per diem to offer electricians, and pay it under an accountable per diem plan so it stays out of wages.
5. Price the burden and the raise. Every dollar of wage costs you more than a dollar. See electrician labor burden, then run the math below before you say no to $2 more.

Worked example: what $2 more an hour really costs

Say you're staffing 10 journeymen for 13 weeks on 50-hour weeks (40 straight, 10 at time and a half), and you're deciding whether to add $2 an hour.

• Straight time: 40 hours x $2 = $80 a week per man
• Overtime: 10 hours x $3 (the $2 at time and a half) = $30 a week per man
• Per man: $110 a week. For 10 men: $1,100 a week
• Over 13 weeks: $1,100 x 13 = $14,300

Add payroll taxes and comp. In the BLS employer cost survey, legally required benefits for private construction run $4.42 an hour on $36.13 of wages (BLS ECEC, June 2026). That's about 12.2% on top of wages (our math). On $14,300 that's about $1,750, for a total near $16,050 for the whole crew for the whole job. Weigh that against one hand who walks in week three and the slot you can't fill. What a raise really costs runs this for other cases.

If you've set a rate and still can't man the job, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

08When to pay above the 90th percentile

Pay at or past the top of the band when the job is short, remote, behind or competing with a data center for the same hands. The 2026 AGC and NCCER workforce survey found that among firms doing data center work, 58% saw more competition for skilled workers and 49% saw more wage pressure (AGC, Sept 3, 2026). More than 8 in 10 firms in the same survey raised base pay for hourly craft and salaried workers at least as much as the year before.

A rate that's "fair" but under the market doesn't hold a crew. Hands leave mid-job for a few dollars more, and on a job that's behind, an empty slot can cost more than the raise would have.

09Don't forget apprentices

Apprentice pay usually runs as a percentage of journeyman pay that steps up each period. Union sheets show it plainly: IBEW Local 11's apprentices run from 40% to 85% of journeyman scale over ten periods, and Local 46's from 42% to 85%. Open shops set their own steps. See how much to pay an apprentice electrician for open-shop numbers and how the steps tie to hours.

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