Pay

Electrician salary by state: what electricians earn

Checked against official sources · Last reviewed October 10, 2026

What electricians earn nationally (May 2025)

The BLS counts wages for electricians through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, which asks employers what they pay. The latest figures describe pay in May 2025:

• Median pay: $63,190 a year, or $30.38 an hour.
• Mean (average) pay: $71,490 a year, or $34.37 an hour.
• Bottom 10%: earned less than $42,640 a year ($20.50 an hour).
• Bottom 25%: earned less than $49,430 a year ($23.76 an hour).
• Top 25%: earned more than $83,940 a year ($40.36 an hour).
• Top 10%: earned more than $108,510 a year ($52.17 an hour).
• Jobs counted: 757,220 electrician jobs. This survey does not count self-employed workers.

The industry with the most of those jobs was "Building Equipment Contractors" (560,290 jobs). See the BLS electrician wage profile for the full tables.

You may see a bigger number elsewhere: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts about 821,000 electrician jobs in 2025. Its count includes self-employed electricians (7% of those jobs), which the wage survey leaves out. All job counts on this page are from the wage survey. [1][3][4]

Mean vs. median, in plain English

The median is the middle paycheck. In the BLS's words, it is "the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less." Half of electricians earned more than $63,190 and half earned less.

The mean is the plain average: add up everyone's pay and divide by the number of workers. A smaller group of high earners can pull the average up. For electricians, the national mean ($71,490) is higher than the median ($63,190). The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook also gives the median as its headline pay figure for electricians ("2025 Median Pay").

The yearly figures are hourly pay turned into a full-time year: BLS calculates them "by multiplying the hourly wages by 2,080 hours" (40 hours a week for 52 weeks). The survey also does not count self-employed electricians: the estimates "do not include self-employed workers." [3][4]

Electrician pay by state (May 2025)

Each line shows the state's annual mean wage, annual median wage and the number of electrician jobs the survey counted, all for May 2025, from the BLS state wage tables. Each state links to its electrician licensing guide.

• Alabama: $57,510 annual mean, $55,690 median, 10,900 jobs
• Alaska: $90,040 annual mean, $89,440 median, 1,870 jobs
• Arizona: $64,220 annual mean, $61,060 median, 21,140 jobs
• Arkansas: $53,470 annual mean, $49,070 median, 7,500 jobs
• California: $85,860 annual mean, $76,160 median, 73,310 jobs
• Colorado: $66,310 annual mean, $62,230 median, 17,010 jobs
• Connecticut: $77,390 annual mean, $77,540 median, 7,710 jobs
• Delaware: $70,750 annual mean, $63,700 median, 2,260 jobs
• District of Columbia: $88,860 annual mean, $78,970 median, 2,440 jobs
• Florida: $57,660 annual mean, $57,250 median, 49,700 jobs
• Georgia: $61,090 annual mean, $58,320 median, 21,650 jobs
• Hawaii: $92,870 annual mean, $96,460 median, 3,070 jobs
• Idaho: $66,600 annual mean, $63,000 median, 5,690 jobs
• Illinois: $92,230 annual mean, $99,560 median, 23,120 jobs
• Indiana: $70,820 annual mean, $68,490 median, 19,020 jobs
• Iowa: $63,190 annual mean, $60,860 median, 10,310 jobs
• Kansas: $69,200 annual mean, $65,860 median, 6,350 jobs
• Kentucky: $61,410 annual mean, $59,720 median, 11,030 jobs
• Louisiana: $62,350 annual mean, $61,540 median, 10,550 jobs
• Maine: $77,250 annual mean, $75,380 median, 3,780 jobs
• Maryland: $75,450 annual mean, $73,490 median, 13,690 jobs
• Massachusetts: $81,560 annual mean, $79,420 median, 17,810 jobs
• Michigan: $73,840 annual mean, $76,270 median, 23,530 jobs
• Minnesota: $80,830 annual mean, $78,160 median, 14,350 jobs
• Mississippi: $58,000 annual mean, $60,860 median, 6,610 jobs
• Missouri: $72,310 annual mean, $65,410 median, 12,780 jobs
• Montana: $71,930 annual mean, $76,760 median, 2,750 jobs
• Nebraska: $63,960 annual mean, $60,820 median, 6,440 jobs
• Nevada: $75,710 annual mean, $73,570 median, 8,350 jobs
• New Hampshire: $65,780 annual mean, $62,840 median, 3,330 jobs
• New Jersey: $86,700 annual mean, $77,250 median, 13,520 jobs
• New Mexico: $59,620 annual mean, $58,390 median, 5,020 jobs
• New York: $84,860 annual mean, $78,750 median, 40,130 jobs
• North Carolina: $56,850 annual mean, $56,800 median, 21,640 jobs
• North Dakota: $70,460 annual mean, $65,710 median, 3,570 jobs
• Ohio: $68,840 annual mean, $64,700 median, 28,950 jobs
• Oklahoma: $63,410 annual mean, $61,010 median, 8,500 jobs
• Oregon: $99,750 annual mean, $101,310 median, 10,590 jobs
• Pennsylvania: $75,770 annual mean, $67,600 median, 22,730 jobs
• Rhode Island: $74,150 annual mean, $74,090 median, 2,420 jobs
• South Carolina: $59,030 annual mean, $58,740 median, 8,010 jobs
• South Dakota: $61,980 annual mean, $61,390 median, 2,980 jobs
• Tennessee: $63,540 annual mean, $61,090 median, 17,070 jobs
• Texas: $59,280 annual mean, $58,570 median, 76,770 jobs
• Utah: $65,290 annual mean, $62,000 median, 11,450 jobs
• Vermont: $73,360 annual mean, $63,430 median, 1,270 jobs
• Virginia: $67,850 annual mean, $62,900 median, 23,630 jobs
• Washington: $94,470 annual mean, $95,220 median, 19,380 jobs
• West Virginia: $67,840 annual mean, $64,810 median, 4,290 jobs
• Wisconsin: $73,810 annual mean, $76,540 median, 14,310 jobs
• Wyoming: $74,860 annual mean, $76,120 median, 2,960 jobs

[2]

Highest- and lowest-paying states

Ranked by annual mean wage in May 2025, the five highest-paying states for electricians were:

• Oregon: $99,750
• Washington: $94,470
• Hawaii: $92,870
• Illinois: $92,230
• Alaska: $90,040

The five lowest were Arkansas ($53,470), North Carolina ($56,850), Alabama ($57,510), Florida ($57,660) and Mississippi ($58,000).

The states with the most electrician jobs were Texas (76,770), California (73,310), Florida (49,700), New York (40,130) and Ohio (28,950).

In 10 states, including Oregon, Illinois and Hawaii, the median is higher than the mean. In those states the middle electrician earns more than the state average. [1][2]

Apprentice pay: how it rises

Most electricians start as apprentices: they work paid jobs and take classes at the same time. The BLS says most electricians learn the trade "in a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship program", with "2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training" each year plus classroom instruction. It also says: "Apprentices receive less pay than fully trained electricians, but their pay increases as they learn to do more."

If your apprenticeship is registered (approved by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or a recognized State Apprenticeship Agency), federal rules set a floor. Under 29 CFR 29.5(b)(5), every registered program must have "A progressively increasing schedule of wages to be paid to the apprentice consistent with the skill acquired." The starting wage "must not be less than the minimum wage prescribed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, where applicable, unless a higher wage is required by other applicable Federal law, State law, respective regulations, or by collective bargaining agreement."

The exact pay steps are set in each program's standards, so ask the program for its wage schedule before you apply. See electrician apprenticeships for the routes in, and journeyman vs. master for the license levels that come after. [4][5][6]

Questions people ask