{
  "releaseId": "2026",
  "publishedDate": "2026-08-01",
  "editorialDate": "2026-10-23",
  "reportUrl": "https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Will Gordon",
    "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-gordon1/",
    "image": "https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/images/me.png",
    "description": "Will Gordon writes about electrician pay and hiring for Best Electrician Jobs."
  },
  "findings": [
    {
      "id": "state-buying-power",
      "title": "Illinois leads in cost-adjusted electrician pay",
      "summary": "Illinois’s $47.89 cost-adjusted hourly wage leads all 50 states and Washington, DC.",
      "explanation": "Its published median wage is $47.87 an hour. Adjusting for regional prices puts it at $47.89 in national-price-level dollars. The median across the 51 jurisdictions is $33.55; that is a comparison of places, not the wage of a typical U.S. electrician.",
      "caveat": "Cost-adjusted pay compares buying power. It is not a paycheck, take-home pay, or a wage guaranteed to an individual worker.",
      "source": "BLS OEWS May 2025 median hourly wages; BEA 2024 all-items Regional Price Parities.",
      "unit": "Cost-adjusted dollars per hour",
      "rows": [
        {
          "place": "Illinois",
          "value": 47.89011384781608
        },
        {
          "place": "Oregon",
          "value": 47.12609204632307
        },
        {
          "place": "Washington",
          "value": 42.77984917720277
        },
        {
          "place": "Hawaii",
          "value": 42.182426717355916
        },
        {
          "place": "Alaska",
          "value": 42.00900751277367
        },
        {
          "place": "Wyoming",
          "value": 39.475245708860626
        },
        {
          "place": "Wisconsin",
          "value": 39.109410701950154
        },
        {
          "place": "Montana",
          "value": 38.98779650272069
        },
        {
          "place": "Michigan",
          "value": 38.111768190652384
        },
        {
          "place": "Minnesota",
          "value": 38.105474493262086
        }
      ],
      "benchmark": 33.546090446336464
    },
    {
      "id": "rank-changes",
      "title": "California moves from 15th to 32nd after cost adjustment",
      "summary": "California ranks #15 on nominal median wages and #32 after regional prices are applied.",
      "explanation": "Mississippi moves in the other direction: from tied 40th on nominal median wages to 25th after adjustment. These comparisons show how regional price levels change the ordering of the same states. They do not show a rise or fall over time.",
      "caveat": "Two rankings of the same release, not a year-over-year change. Published competition ranks preserve ties; Mississippi and Iowa share nominal rank 40.",
      "source": "BLS OEWS May 2025 median hourly wages; BEA 2024 all-items Regional Price Parities.",
      "unit": "State/DC rank (1 is highest)",
      "rows": [
        {
          "place": "California",
          "value": 32,
          "nominalRank": 15,
          "adjustedRank": 32
        },
        {
          "place": "Mississippi",
          "value": 25,
          "nominalRank": 40,
          "adjustedRank": 25
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "rent-shifts",
      "title": "Florida’s rent benchmark takes 8.2 shifts of gross electrician pay",
      "summary": "Florida’s one-bedroom benchmark equals 8.2 eight-hour gross-pay shifts, the highest ratio among states and DC.",
      "explanation": "Wyoming’s benchmark equals 3.1 shifts. The measure divides a renter-household-weighted monthly HUD rent benchmark by the local electrician median hourly wage and eight hours. It helps separate the size of a rent bill from the wages available to meet it.",
      "caveat": "Selected states, not a complete ranking. Gross pay before taxes; HUD rent benchmarks are not live asking rents or electricians’ observed housing expenses.",
      "source": "HUD FY2026 50th-percentile gross rents; BLS OEWS May 2025 wages; ACS 2020–2024 renter-household weights.",
      "unit": "Eight-hour gross-pay shifts per month",
      "rows": [
        {
          "place": "Wyoming",
          "value": 3.1059953059327476
        },
        {
          "place": "Illinois",
          "value": 3.890503101229042
        },
        {
          "place": "Indiana",
          "value": 4.223625314177552
        },
        {
          "place": "California",
          "value": 8.047422803465302
        },
        {
          "place": "Florida",
          "value": 8.1962021869394
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "metro-buying-power",
      "title": "Portland leads the report’s metro buying-power comparison",
      "summary": "Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads the selected metros at $47.93 in cost-adjusted hourly pay.",
      "explanation": "Chicago and Seattle follow in this release. State averages can conceal meaningful differences between metro areas, including places that cross state lines. Use the explorer to compare pay with the rent benchmark and published employment in each market.",
      "caveat": "These are the 100 metros with the largest published electrician employment counts in the report’s state/DC universe, not every U.S. metro. State-only ACS worker characteristics are not assigned to metros.",
      "source": "BLS OEWS May 2025 median hourly wages and metro employment selection; BEA 2024 all-items Regional Price Parities.",
      "unit": "Cost-adjusted dollars per hour",
      "rows": [
        {
          "place": "Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA",
          "value": 47.931626526024225
        },
        {
          "place": "Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN",
          "value": 47.50229258168831
        },
        {
          "place": "Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA",
          "value": 44.028326419695325
        },
        {
          "place": "Urban Honolulu, HI",
          "value": 43.44769783978155
        },
        {
          "place": "Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL",
          "value": 41.52493853770249
        },
        {
          "place": "Kansas City, MO-KS",
          "value": 39.92738510746356
        },
        {
          "place": "Akron, OH",
          "value": 39.830780764699576
        },
        {
          "place": "San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA",
          "value": 39.63848111353613
        },
        {
          "place": "Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI",
          "value": 39.30287742527269
        },
        {
          "place": "Toledo, OH",
          "value": 39.27614673883331
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "employment-markets",
      "title": "Texas has the largest published electrician employment count",
      "summary": "Texas has 76,770 published electrician jobs, the largest state count in the release.",
      "explanation": "California and Florida follow. Employment describes the size of an existing occupational market. The explorer also shows job concentration, which compares electricians’ share of local employment with the national share; that answers a different question from total market size.",
      "caveat": "Employment counts are estimates of existing jobs, not current openings, hiring demand, or evidence of a worker shortage. OEWS excludes self-employed workers.",
      "source": "BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2111 Electricians.",
      "unit": "Published electrician employment",
      "rows": [
        {
          "place": "Texas",
          "value": 76770
        },
        {
          "place": "California",
          "value": 73310
        },
        {
          "place": "Florida",
          "value": 49700
        },
        {
          "place": "New York",
          "value": 40130
        },
        {
          "place": "Ohio",
          "value": 28950
        },
        {
          "place": "Virginia",
          "value": 23630
        },
        {
          "place": "Michigan",
          "value": 23530
        },
        {
          "place": "Illinois",
          "value": 23120
        },
        {
          "place": "Pennsylvania",
          "value": 22730
        },
        {
          "place": "Georgia",
          "value": 21650
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "articles": [
    {
      "slug": "california-electrician-pay-cost-of-living-2026",
      "title": "How cost adjustment changes California’s electrician pay ranking",
      "finding": "rank-changes",
      "region": "California"
    },
    {
      "slug": "florida-electrician-rent-burden-2026",
      "title": "Why Florida has the highest electrician rent burden in this report",
      "finding": "rent-shifts",
      "region": "Florida"
    },
    {
      "slug": "illinois-electrician-cost-adjusted-pay-2026",
      "title": "Illinois leads the 2026 cost-adjusted electrician pay ranking",
      "finding": "state-buying-power",
      "region": "Illinois"
    }
  ]
}