How to read a union wage sheet and compare an open-shop offer

A union electrician wage sheet lists the hourly wage, then every dollar the contractor pays per hour into funds for you: health, pension, annuity or 401k, training, and a few small committee funds. On IBEW Local 46's sheet for Aug 3, 2026 to Jan 31, 2027, a journeyman's $77.93 wage becomes a $114.95 package. To compare an open-shop offer, convert it into the same columns.

Below is that sheet line by line, then a made-up open-shop offer turned into the same terms so you can see where the gap really is. For the bigger picture on both sides, BLS earnings included, start with union vs non-union electrician pay.

01The top of the sheet: who, where, when

The header tells you which agreement, which counties and which dates the numbers cover. Read it first, because sheets change every few months.

The Local 46 inside construction area wage report covers King, Kitsap, Jefferson and Clallam counties in Washington, effective 08/03/2026 to 01/31/2027. "Inside" means inside wireman work: commercial and industrial construction, not linework or residential. Other agreements in the same local have their own sheets and rates.

02The journeyman line, column by column

Here's the journey level electrician row from that sheet, with what each column means for you.

The subtotal adds up: $77.93 + $2.34 + $14.23 + $1.27 + $13.62 + $3.83 + $0.99 = $114.21.

Then the sheet lists "additional employer contributions": LMCC $0.10, NLMCC $0.01, SAP $0.05, and AMF $0.58 (employer fees paid to NECA, the contractors' association). Those 74 cents pay for labor-management committees, a small program fund and NECA's fees. None of it lands in your check or in an account with your name on it. Add them and you get the $114.95 total.

So of the $114.95, about $36.28 an hour goes into health, retirement and training for you ($114.21 minus $77.93), and $0.74 goes to funds that don't.

03The deductions: what comes out of $77.93

The sheet also lists money taken out of your wage. These don't lower the package. They lower the check.

• Vacation, 6% of gross. The sheet says 6% of gross weekly pay "is deducted from each Employee and sent to the Vacation Allowance Plan." At $77.93 that's about $4.68 an hour (our math). It's your money, saved for time off, not a cost.
• Dues. Local 46's sheet doesn't list them. Ask the local. For comparison, Local 48 in Portland lists $2.95 an hour in total dues on its 2026 sheet.
• Taxes. Federal and state taxes come out of the wage like any job. The fund money on the sheet isn't wages.

On the Local 48 sheet, effective Jan 1, 2026, the local does the math for you: $65.50 gross minus $2.95 in dues is an "effective take-home wage" of $62.55, before taxes, with 4% ($2.62) set aside in a vacation account in your name.

04The rules at the bottom

The fine print at the bottom changes what overtime and long weeks pay. It's worth more attention than most hands give it.

From the Local 46 sheet:

• Workday: 8 hours between 6:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, with a 30-minute lunch. The contractor may run 4-10s.
• Overtime: the first 2 hours before or after 8 regular hours on weekdays, and the first 8 hours on Saturday, are time and a half. All other hours, plus Sundays and holidays, are double time.
• On 4-10s: hours before or after the normal shift are double time. The unused Monday or Friday and Saturday are time and a half for the first 8.
• Holidays: eight listed, including the Friday after Thanksgiving.
• Pay day: five-day holdback.

So on a 50-hour week of five 10s, the 10 extra hours are time and a half. On six 10s, Saturday's first 8 hours are time and a half and the last 2 are double. Sunday is all double.

05Vesting: what's yours if you leave

The wage sheet usually doesn't say when the retirement money becomes yours. Ask, or read the plan documents.

Local 48's sheet does say it. Its local pension ($11.40 an hour) and NEBF ($1.97 an hour) each have "a five-year vesting period." Its annuity ($6.12 an hour) is "100% vested from day one." That matters if you might leave before five years. The annuity money goes with you; the pension money needs the years.

Open-shop 401k matches have vesting too. The IRS vesting rules say your own contributions are always 100% yours, but a shop's match can vest on a schedule, like nothing until 3 years and then all of it, or 20% a year from year 2 to year 6. A SIMPLE IRA match is yours right away.

06Turning an open-shop offer into the same columns

To compare, put the open-shop offer into the same lines: wage, health, retirement, training and paid time off. Here's an example offer, not a real one:

• $52 an hour, OT after 40
• Shop pays $1,650 a month toward family health; you pay $570 a month
• 401k: shop matches 4% if you put in 4%, vests over 3 years
• 80 hours PTO plus 6 paid holidays (48 hours)
• No training fund; the shop pays for your CE class

Converted to per hour, over 2,080 hours a year (our math):

• Health: $1,650 x 12 is $19,800, divided by 2,080 is $9.52
• 401k match: 4% of $52 is $2.08 (only if you put in your 4%)
• Paid time off: 128 hours x $52 is $6,656, divided by 2,080 is $3.20

How the union column breaks out: health is medical $14.23 plus retiree medical $1.27. Retirement is NEBF $2.34 plus pension $13.62 plus 401k $3.83.

Now the comparison is fair. At the wage line the gap is $25.93 an hour. At the package line it's $48.15. Most of the extra package gap is retirement.

Run your Pay Check to see what electricians with your license make near you, then hold the open-shop column up against it. Takes about a minute and your boss never hears about it.

07What comes out of your pocket on each side

The table above is what each employer pays. What you pay matters too.

• Union, Local 46: 6% vacation deduction (still yours) and dues. No premium for the health plan is listed on the sheet.
• Open shop, the example: $570 a month for health, or about $3.29 an hour over 2,080 hours ($570 x 12 is $6,840). Your own 4% to get the match, which is your money, saved.

For context, the average worker paid $6,850 a year toward family coverage at work in 2025, per the KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey. So the example's $570 a month is about average.

08Then multiply by the hours you'll really work

A per-hour package only becomes a year when you multiply it by hours. That's where the two sides can trade places.

Say the union job runs 1,700 hours in a year because of a slow stretch between calls, and the open-shop job runs a steady 2,080. Both are examples.

• Union wages: 1,700 x $77.93 is $132,481
• Open-shop pay: 2,080 paid hours x $52 is $108,160, with the 128 hours of paid time off counted inside the 2,080

The union side still wins on wages in this example. But if your local is slow for months, or the open shop runs steady 50-hour weeks, run it again with your real hours. The BLS and metro numbers for both sides show how hours, dispatch and OT rules differ, and what a journeyman makes in your state gives you a market check on the open-shop number.

09Questions to ask about each side

Bring these to the local and to the shop, so both columns are filled in.

For the local:

1. Which agreement covers the work I'd do, and when do rates change next?
2. What are total dues per hour, and is there a monthly fee on top?
3. When do the pension and annuity vest?
4. How long is the out-of-work list right now?

For the open shop:

1. What does the shop pay toward health, and what do I pay a month, for my coverage level?
2. What's the 401k match, and what's the vesting schedule?
3. How many paid days off and holidays, and when do they start?
4. Is OT after 40 only, and how many hours a week has this crew been running?

For the benefits side of that list in more depth, see what benefits an open-shop electrician should expect. For everything else that goes into an offer, like per diem, trucks and job length, see how to compare two electrician job offers.

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