Illinois leads in cost-adjusted electrician pay
Illinois’s $47.89 cost-adjusted hourly wage leads all 50 states and Washington, DC.
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.
Credit: Best Electrician Jobs / Will Gordon
Citation: https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026#finding-state-buying-power

California moves from 15th to 32nd after cost adjustment
California ranks #15 on nominal median wages and #32 after regional prices are applied.
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.
Credit: Best Electrician Jobs / Will Gordon
Citation: https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026#finding-rank-changes

Florida’s rent benchmark takes 8.2 shifts of gross electrician pay
Florida’s one-bedroom benchmark equals 8.2 eight-hour gross-pay shifts, the highest ratio among states and DC.
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.
Credit: Best Electrician Jobs / Will Gordon
Citation: https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026#finding-rent-shifts

Portland leads the report’s metro buying-power comparison
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads the selected metros at $47.93 in cost-adjusted hourly pay.
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.
Credit: Best Electrician Jobs / Will Gordon
Citation: https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026#finding-metro-buying-power

Texas has the largest published electrician employment count
Texas has 76,770 published electrician jobs, the largest state count in the release.
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.
Credit: Best Electrician Jobs / Will Gordon
Citation: https://www.bestelectricianjobs.com/research/electrician-payoff-report/2026#finding-employment-markets

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