Free Electrical Career Tool
Electrician Salary Calculator
Estimate electrician pay by state, experience, specialty, licensing, and overtime — anchored to Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data from May 2025, not crowdsourced guesses. The national median is $63,190; the spread between states is $52,240.
Built by SubcontractorHub — the software electrical contractors use to quote, finance, and run every job.
Texas BLS range: median $58,570, 90th percentile $80,300
Anchored at ~50th percentile (median) of the trade
Specialty premiums are SubcontractorHub estimates, not BLS figures
Paid at 1.5× the implied hourly rate
A journeyman license is the baseline for working unsupervised in most states, so it is not counted as a premium here.
Estimated total annual pay
$58,570
$28.16/hr straight time
- Straight-time base: $58,570
- Lands at ~42nd percentile nationally
- vs Texas median: +$0
- vs national median ($63,190): −$4,620
Built on BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (released 2026), SOC 47-2111. Straight-time figures exclude per diem on travel work, shift differentials, commission on service upgrades, vehicle allowance, and benefits — several of which are routine in industrial and outage work and can add meaningfully to real take-home pay. This is an estimate from public wage data, not an offer.
What Electricians Actually Earn
Across 757,220 electricians, the median annual wage is $63,190 ($30.38/hr) and the mean is $71,490. The mean sits $8,300 above the median because a long upper tail of industrial electricians, controls specialists, and master-licensed contractors pulls the average up.
The percentile spread matters more than the average if you are working out where a specific electrician should sit:
- 10th percentile — $42,640: apprentices and helpers
- 25th percentile — $49,430: advanced apprentices working under supervision
- 50th percentile — $63,190: journeyman electricians
- 75th percentile — $83,940: senior journeymen and foremen
- 90th percentile — $108,510: industrial, controls, and master-licensed electricians
Highest and Lowest Paying States
Location is the single largest factor in electrician pay — larger than licensing, and larger than several years of experience. The gap between the top and bottom state is $52,240, a 2.06x ratio at the same experience level.
| Highest paying | Median | Lowest paying | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $101,310 | Arkansas | $49,070 |
| Illinois | $99,560 | Alabama | $55,690 |
| Hawaii | $96,460 | North Carolina | $56,800 |
| Washington | $95,220 | Florida | $57,250 |
| Alaska | $89,440 | Georgia | $58,320 |
Two things worth noting. Oregon, not California, tops the table — and Texas, which employs more electricians than any other state, pays a median of $58,570, below the national figure. Volume of work and price of work are different things. The full ranked list of all 51 states, with 90th percentiles and employment counts, is in our electrician salary guide.
How This Calculator Is Built
Rather than invent multipliers, the experience tiers are anchored to real BLS numbers at both ends. Selecting Illinois prices a senior journeyman inside Illinois' own spread — $99,560 to $123,660 — rather than against a national ratio. Apprentice tiers use the national lower-tail ratios, since BLS does not publish state-level 10th and 25th percentiles in this series.
Specialty and license premiums stack multiplicatively, which can price a master-licensed industrial electrician above what anyone in the state actually earns — so the result is capped at the state's 90th percentile, and the tool says so when the cap binds. BLS publishes nothing above the 90th percentile, so that is the honest ceiling.
How to Move Up the Curve
Getting from the median to the $83,940 range — a $20,750 move — usually takes one of a few specific things:
- Moving into industrial or controls. Plant maintenance and building automation are the highest-paid technical tracks that do not require leaving the tools. Motor controls, VFDs, and PLC troubleshooting are the skills that price.
- Getting a master license. Worth roughly 9% as an employee, and considerably more once you can pull your own permits and run work.
- Taking on solar and storage work. Service upgrades, PV interconnection, and battery commissioning are scarce skills in most markets and growing faster than the rest of the trade.
- Relocating. Unglamorous but true: the state gap is larger than most promotions. A journeyman moving from Arkansas to Oregon gains about $52,240 at the same experience level.
From Load Calculations to a Signed Proposal
If you run the company rather than the van, the pay curve above is a hiring and retention problem. The electricians at the 75th percentile are the ones who can scope and price work in front of the customer — and that is as much about the tools you hand them as their experience. SubcontractorHub gives crews branded proposals, embedded financing, and good-better-best options on a tablet, so closing a panel upgrade does not depend on paperwork skill.
Book a DemoFrequently Asked Questions
How much do electricians make in 2026?
The median annual wage for electricians is $63,190, or $30.38 per hour, according to BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025. The bottom 10 percent earn under $42,640 and the top 10 percent clear $108,510. Pay varies by $52,240 between the highest-paying state (Oregon, $101,310) and the lowest (Arkansas, $49,070).
Which state pays electricians the most?
By BLS median annual wage for May 2025, Oregon leads at $101,310, followed by Illinois ($99,560), Hawaii ($96,460), Washington ($95,220), and Alaska ($89,440). California is a notable omission from the top tier — despite employing 73,310 electricians it ranks 15th on median at $76,160, though it does have the highest 90th percentile in the country at $140,340.
How much do electrician apprentices make?
Apprentices cluster near the 10th percentile, $42,640 a year nationally or about $20.50 per hour. Registered apprenticeship programs step pay as a percentage of local journeyman scale, typically starting at 40 to 50 percent and rising every 1,000 hours, so a first-year apprentice in a high-wage state can out-earn a mid-career electrician in a low-wage one. Most reach the 25th percentile, $49,430, within two to four years.
Do electricians earn more in industrial or residential work?
Industrial and plant maintenance work generally pays the most for electricians who stay on the tools, roughly 14 to 18 percent above residential service, with shift premiums and heavy outage overtime on top. Controls and building automation follow, then commercial and institutional work. Residential service sits at the base on wage alone, but can close the gap when commission on service upgrades and panel replacements is included — which base-wage data does not capture.
How does this electrician salary calculator work?
It uses BLS OEWS data for the state you select, anchored at both ends of that state's own range — the median and the 90th percentile are real BLS figures for all 51 states, so a senior journeyman in Illinois is priced against Illinois' spread rather than a national ratio. Apprentice tiers use national lower-tail ratios, since BLS does not publish state-level 10th and 25th percentiles in this series. Specialty and license premiums apply on top, overtime is added at 1.5x the implied hourly rate, and the result is capped at the state's 90th percentile because BLS publishes nothing above it. It is an estimate built on public wage data, not an offer.
Data Sources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 release, SOC 47-2111 — Electricians. National percentiles and state annual medians and 90th percentiles retrieved via the BLS public API. Specialty and license premiums are SubcontractorHub estimates from contractor pay data and are labelled as estimates throughout — BLS does not publish wages by specialty within SOC 47-2111.
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SubcontractorHub is the platform electrical contractors use to turn calculations like these into a branded proposal, financing the customer can accept on the spot, and a scheduled job — without re-entering the details anywhere. This tool is free to use; the platform is here if you want a closer look.
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