Best Electrician Jobs
Journeyman electrician salary
Journeyman electricians are offered a median of $39.65 an hour in job posts on Best Electrician Jobs, about $82,500 a year at 40 hours a week. That figure comes from 148 posts from 105 employers that stated a pay range, posted September 29, 2026 to November 13, 2026. Half of those posts offer between $35.00 to $45.00.
- Median offered
- $39.65/hr
- Middle half of posts
- $35.00 to $45.00/hr
- At 40 hours a week
- About $82,500/yr
- Sample
- 148 posts from 105 employers
- BLS median, all electricians (May 2025)
- $30.38/hr
Figures as of . How they are made
Why job posts run about $9 an hour above the government figure
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median electrician wage at $30.38 an hour (BLS, SOC 47-2111, May 2025). Journeyman posts on this site offer $39.65. Both numbers are right. They measure different people.
BLS counts every electrician on a payroll, apprentices included. Federal occupation coding places an apprentice in the trade they are training for, so a first-year apprentice and a 20-year journeyman land in the same group. A journeyman post is for someone who has finished that training.
The survey is also older. The BLS figure reflects pay in May 2025; these posts are from the fall of 2026. And posts lean toward the employers who state pay. California and Colorado require many employers to put a pay range in the ad, and both are among the four states with enough posts to report on their own.
Use the BLS number to understand the whole trade. Use the posted number to see what an employer hiring a journeyman right now puts in the ad.
Pay by level
| Level | Median | Middle half | Posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apprentice or helper | $23.00 | $21.00 to $26.75 | 63 |
| Journeyman | $39.65 | $35.00 to $45.00 | 148 |
| Foreman | $41.00 | $36.00 to $46.00 | 49 |
| Master electrician | $42.83 | Too few posts | 13 |
The biggest raise in an electrician's career comes when the apprenticeship ends. The median journeyman post offers $16.65 an hour more than the median apprentice post.
After that, the posted steps are small. Foreman posts add $1.35 at the median, and the 13 master electrician posts add $3.18. Salaried foreman and supervisor jobs are not in these figures, which count hourly pay only.
Pay by type of work
| Work | Median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Data center electricians, any title | $45.00 | 17 |
| Residential and service journeymen | $37.75 | 16 |
| Industrial electricians, any title | $36.00 | 89 |
| Commercial journeymen | $35.00 | 11 |
Data center power work pays the most, $5.35 above the journeyman median. Residential and service journeyman posts come in ahead of commercial ones.
Treat the commercial row as a direction, not a verdict. Most commercial jobs don't say "commercial" in the title, so only 11 posts qualify.
Journeyman pay by state
Four states have enough journeyman posts to report on their own. In each one, posted pay runs well above the state's BLS median for all electricians: by $7.34 an hour in Texas and $18.38 in California.
| State | Posted journeyman median | Posts | BLS median, all electricians |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $55.00 | 15 | $36.62 |
| Minnesota | $50.25 | 12 | $37.58 |
| Colorado | $39.25 | 18 | $29.92 |
| Texas | $35.50 | 28 | $28.16 |
For every other state, the table below gives the BLS figures. It covers all electricians, apprentices included, so a journeyman offer should sit above the state median. For pay after rent and living costs, see the 2026 Electrician Payoff Report.
| State | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $48.71 | $38.03 to $58.50 |
| Illinois | $47.87 | $35.35 to $56.47 |
| Hawaii | $46.38 | $33.88 to $58.05 |
| Washington | $45.78 | $32.04 to $58.43 |
| Alaska | $43.00 | $32.11 to $50.75 |
| Massachusetts | $38.18 | $27.82 to $48.31 |
| District of Columbia | $37.97 | $29.44 to $58.68 |
| New York | $37.86 | $29.08 to $51.16 |
| Minnesota | $37.58 | $28.09 to $48.76 |
| Connecticut | $37.28 | $27.91 to $45.71 |
| New Jersey | $37.14 | $30.00 to $58.23 |
| Montana | $36.90 | $29.04 to $39.14 |
| Wisconsin | $36.80 | $26.84 to $45.09 |
| Michigan | $36.67 | $24.21 to $44.38 |
| California | $36.62 | $28.50 to $49.52 |
| Wyoming | $36.59 | $28.69 to $41.33 |
| Maine | $36.24 | $30.25 to $40.57 |
| Rhode Island | $35.62 | $28.08 to $46.01 |
| Nevada | $35.37 | $23.52 to $46.42 |
| Maryland | $35.33 | $27.73 to $46.16 |
| Indiana | $32.93 | $24.04 to $43.89 |
| Pennsylvania | $32.50 | $26.51 to $45.92 |
| Kansas | $31.66 | $24.67 to $38.73 |
| North Dakota | $31.59 | $27.36 to $38.71 |
| Missouri | $31.45 | $23.95 to $45.08 |
| West Virginia | $31.16 | $23.37 to $40.35 |
| Ohio | $31.11 | $24.10 to $38.70 |
| Delaware | $30.63 | $23.10 to $43.52 |
| Vermont | $30.49 | $27.54 to $38.65 |
| Idaho | $30.29 | $23.26 to $39.44 |
| Virginia | $30.24 | $23.76 to $37.59 |
| New Hampshire | $30.21 | $23.28 to $37.68 |
| Colorado | $29.92 | $23.50 to $37.73 |
| Utah | $29.81 | $23.25 to $38.13 |
| Louisiana | $29.59 | $23.51 to $35.02 |
| South Dakota | $29.51 | $23.87 to $34.83 |
| Tennessee | $29.37 | $23.26 to $36.57 |
| Arizona | $29.36 | $23.25 to $37.05 |
| Oklahoma | $29.33 | $22.90 to $36.78 |
| Iowa | $29.26 | $22.31 to $38.45 |
| Mississippi | $29.26 | $22.77 to $30.64 |
| Nebraska | $29.24 | $23.14 to $38.04 |
| Kentucky | $28.71 | $22.37 to $37.46 |
| South Carolina | $28.24 | $23.03 to $31.82 |
| Texas | $28.16 | $22.44 to $34.20 |
| New Mexico | $28.07 | $22.46 to $35.28 |
| Georgia | $28.04 | $22.43 to $36.77 |
| Florida | $27.52 | $22.91 to $29.76 |
| North Carolina | $27.31 | $22.63 to $29.77 |
| Alabama | $26.78 | $22.17 to $30.98 |
| Arkansas | $23.59 | $18.54 to $29.99 |
What else is in a journeyman offer
The hourly rate is only part of the offer. Of the 148 journeyman posts, 50 mention a journeyman card or state license, 45 mention travel, 33 mention overtime, 23 ask for OSHA 10 or 30, and 14 mention per diem.
Overtime moves take-home pay the most. At the median rate, a 50-hour week with ten hours at time and a half pays $2,181 before taxes, against $1,586 for a straight 40. Run your own numbers in the overtime pay calculator.
Long overtime plus per diem is how the biggest data center packages reach six figures. See how a data center electrician can make $280,000.
Setting a journeyman pay range
If you hire journeymen, the middle of the posted market is $35.00 to $45.00 an hour. An offer that starts below $35.00 is in the bottom quarter of what other employers are posting, and the electricians you want can see those posts too.
Check your state before you settle on a number. The posted journeyman median is $35.50 in Texas and $55.00 in California.
State the range in the post. Best Electrician Jobs shows it on the job and includes it in the listing data Google for Jobs reads, and every posted figure on this page comes from employers who did the same.
Questions
How much does a journeyman electrician make an hour?
Journeyman posts on Best Electrician Jobs offer a median of $39.65 an hour, and half fall between $35.00 to $45.00 (148 posts from 105 employers, through November 13, 2026). The BLS median for all electricians, apprentices included, is $30.38 (May 2025).
How much does a journeyman electrician make a year?
About $82,500 at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, using the posted median of $39.65. Overtime, per diem and shift pay come on top and are not in that figure.
How much more does a journeyman make than an apprentice?
$16.65 an hour at the median: $39.65 for journeyman posts against $23.00 for apprentice and helper posts. Over a 2,080-hour year that is about $34,600.
Where do journeyman electricians make the most?
Of the four states with enough posts to report, California is highest at a median of $55.00 an hour (15 posts from 12 employers), followed by Minnesota at $50.25.
How these figures are made
- Every posted figure comes from job posts on Best Electrician Jobs where the employer entered a pay range. Pay that appears only inside a job description is not counted.
- Only hourly pay is counted, using the midpoint of each range. Ranges under $15 or over $120 an hour are dropped, and so are ranges whose top is more than twice the bottom, because those span different jobs.
- A job posted in several cities counts once, and no company counts more than three times in any figure.
- Jobs are grouped by title. A row appears only with at least 10 posts from 5 employers. A headline figure needs 20 posts from 10 employers, and a middle-half range needs 30 posts.
- Yearly figures are the hourly rate times 2,080 hours, rounded to the nearest $100.
- Posted pay is what employers offer in their ads, not what workers end up earning. Government figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.
Figures as of .
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