What per diem to offer traveling electricians

Price per diem off the federal GSA rate for the job's county. For FY2027 (Oct 1, 2026 to Sept 30, 2027), the standard rate is $113 a night for lodging plus $68 a day for meals and incidentals, $181 a day. Journeyman travel listings in North Dakota and Utah in October 2026 paid $100 to $190 a day. Pick a number near the GSA rate, and say whether it's 7 days or per day worked and whether the hotel is included.

01Start with the GSA rate for the job's county

The GSA rate is the federal rate the IRS uses for tax-free per diem, which makes it the natural yardstick.

GSA sets a lodging rate and a meals and incidentals (M&IE) rate for every county the federal government lists, and a standard rate for everywhere else. Here's FY2027 for a few places where travel crews are working:

Source: GSA per diem rates, FY2027, pulled Oct 19, 2026. Ranges are seasonal lodging rates.

Look up the exact county before you bid. GSA sets rates by county, so a job one county over can sit on the standard rate while the city next door has a higher one. For the first and last travel day, the federal M&IE drops to 75%, so $68 becomes $51. Per diem is one line of the offer. Setting the hourly rate itself is covered in how much to pay a journeyman electrician in 2026.

02What travel ads are paying right now

Journeyman travel listings in October 2026 ran $100 to $190 a day.

We looked at RoadDog Jobs journeyman listings with a per diem in North Dakota and Utah on Oct 19, 2026. Per diem ran from $100 to $190 a day, on base pay of $50 to $65 an hour. Fewer than half were marked "Per Diem Paid 7 Days." The rest gave a daily number and left the traveler to ask whether it's 7 days or per day worked. That's the first thing he'll ask you.

Union agreements set a floor, not a market rate. IBEW Local 340 in the Sacramento area, for example, has the employer furnish meals and lodging with "sixty dollars ($60.00) being considered as minimum expenses for each day worked," and $30 on the first and last day (Local 340 wage sheet, June 1, 2026).

03Per day worked or 7 days?

Pay 7 days if you want travelers to stay. Pay per day worked only if the number covers the whole week.

A hand who stays over the weekend pays the hotel 7 nights whether he works 5 days or 7. Per day worked on 5-8s leaves him covering two nights out of pocket. That's why "7-day per diem" is near the top of what travelers look for.

If you'd rather pay per day worked, price the week first and divide. $150 a day for 5 days worked is $750 a week, about the same as $107 a day for 7 days ($749). Just say which one it is in the ad.

Schedule changes the math too. On 6-10s, per day worked and 7 days are only one day apart. On 4-10s, they're three days apart. More on schedules in 4-10s, 5-8s or 6-10s: which schedule keeps electricians.

04Hotel provided or cash?

Either works. Pick based on how much control you want and how the tax rules land.

Hotel provided. You book the rooms, usually an extended-stay rate, and pay meals and incidentals in cash. You control the cost and know where your crew is. Under IRS Revenue Procedure 2019-48, when you provide the lodging or pay the hotel directly, the cash allowance is treated as M&IE only. So the tax-free cash tops out at the M&IE rate for that county ($68 standard, $80 in Columbus), and anything above it goes on the W-2 as wages.

Cash. One daily number covers room and meals. Hands like it because a man who doubles up or brings a camper keeps the difference. You pay a little more for the same crew, but there's less to manage.

The tax side, including what makes per diem tax-free in the first place, is in per diem tax rules for electrical contractors.

05Weekly cost at 5, 6 and 7 days

Per diem adds up faster than the hourly rate does, so put it in the bid as its own line.

The last row doesn't include the room. At the $113 standard lodging rate, 7 nights is $791, so hotel plus M&IE comes to $1,267 a week, the same as the cash standard rate.

Scale it up before you bid. 10 hands at $150 a day, 7 days, for 13 weeks is $136,500 in per diem alone (our math).

06Per diem vs a higher hourly rate

For a real traveler, $1 of per diem is worth more to him and costs you less than $1 of rate.

Say you're choosing between $5 more an hour and $50 a day per diem, 7 days, on 6-10s. Both cost $350 a week on paper:

On his side, at a 22% federal bracket plus 7.65% FICA, he keeps about $246 of the $350 raise before state tax (our math). He keeps all $350 of the per diem.

Two limits. Per diem only works tax-free for a hand who's actually traveling away from his tax home, so a local hand gets the raise. And under federal overtime rules, per diem stays out of the regular rate only if it "reasonably approximates the expense incurred." If it's disproportionately large, the excess counts toward overtime (29 CFR 778.217). Per diem at or under the federal rate is per se reasonable under that rule.

07Write the per diem so hands trust it

A per diem with no unit reads like a trick to a traveler. Put all of this in the ad and the offer:

1. The amount and the unit: "$150 a day, 7 days."
2. Hotel provided or cash.
3. When it's paid: weekly, with the check.
4. First and last day: full or partial.
5. What happens on a missed day.
6. How long the job runs, and whether there's a next one.

One national electrical contractor told us their agency hands on a three-month job "keep getting called to other jobs for more money." Per diem is usually part of that more money. If yours is under the market, the next ad a traveler sees with $40 more a day will pull him. The same contractor said an agency billed about "$87.50 an hour" for apprentices, plus per diem, so ask any agency whether it marks up the per diem too. Keeping the crew once it's there is covered in how to recruit and keep a traveling electrical crew, and the base rate side is in why journeyman pay runs from $40 to $80 an hour.

If you're staffing a travel job and need hands 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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