A 22-year-old kid named Bowman in Newport News, Virginia was about to apply to four-year colleges when a family friend talked him into an electrical apprenticeship instead. He started at $42,000 his first year, took classes two nights a week at the local IBEW chapter, and expects to make around $71,000 when he finishes his journeyman certification this summer. No student debt. He told Fortune the work feels like playing with “adult Legos.”
I’m opening with that story because it gets at something the salary data alone can’t tell you: the trades are having a moment, and electricians are at the center of it. The federal projections put electrician employment growth well above the average for all occupations. About 81,000 openings per year. And that’s before you account for the AI data center boom, which I’ll get to.
The median electrician salary nationally is $62,350 a year as of the most current survey. That’s $29.98 an hour. Not bad for a career that requires zero college, though calling it “zero college” undersells the commitment: a typical apprenticeship is four years and 8,000 hours of on-the-job training. It’s a real education, just paid instead of paid for.
Where Electricians Earn the Most
Illinois leads the country at $88,900 on average. That number surprised me because people don’t typically think of Illinois as the best state for trades, but Chicago’s union density is high and the construction market there has been strong. When you adjust for cost of living, Illinois still comes out on top at about $97,500 in purchasing power, which is the best in the nation for electricians by a comfortable margin.
Oregon is second at $80,160, followed by D.C. (also $80,160), Hawaii at $78,600, and Alaska at $78,070. After that it’s New York ($76,960), Washington ($76,710), Massachusetts ($75,990), New Jersey (around $75,000), and Minnesota closing out the top ten.
Quick thing about Oregon and Washington: the Pacific Northwest has been on a building tear for years, and both states have strong labor protections. Portland and Seattle drive most of the demand; even the smaller cities pay well above the national median. Bend, Oregon isn’t exactly a construction hub but an electrician there still out-earns the national average.
The Lowest-Paying States
Arkansas is dead last at $46,180. Alabama is barely above it ($47,040), then North Carolina ($47,310), South Carolina ($47,590), Florida ($47,750), and Delaware ($47,990). All under $48K.
Florida’s placement on this list bothers me every time I look at it. Third-largest state, massive construction activity, hurricane damage that creates constant demand for electrical work, and they still can’t get electrician wages above $48,000. Part of it is the lack of union presence; part of it is an oversupply of workers in some metro areas. But it’s still strange for a state with that much work to do.
Most states cluster between $48,000 and $70,000. If you’re outside the top ten and above the bottom six, you’re somewhere in that window. Look, it’s not glamorous money, but it beats a lot of jobs that need a four-year degree and leave you $30K in the hole. Which brings me to the comparison I think more people should be making.
The College Comparison (And Why It Matters)
I think the single most interesting thing about electrician pay is how it stacks up against entry-level salaries for college graduates. The average college grad starts at about $56,000. An apprentice electrician starts at $42,000 to $47,000 but earns money from day one, graduates with near-zero debt, and hits $62,000+ at the journeyman level within four or five years.
Run it out ten years and the picture gets more interesting. A journeyman in Illinois is pulling $88K. A master electrician running their own shop can clear $100,000 to $150,000, sometimes north of that. Now compare to someone who graduated with $29,000 in student loans (the average) and started at $56K; by the time they’ve paid off their debt and caught up financially, the electrician has been earning and saving for years. I’m not saying college is a bad deal for everyone, honestly I think it’s the right call for some people. But for people who like working with their hands and don’t want to sit at a desk, the math has gotten really hard to argue with.
A Jobber survey found that 74% of 18-to-20-year-olds still attach a stigma to trade work. But 75% of the same group said they wanted a career with paid on-the-job training. Those numbers are in tension with each other, and I think the stigma side is losing.
The Apprentice-to-Master Pay Ladder
Here’s roughly how the pay progression works, nationally:
Apprentice (years 1-4): $35,000 to $47,000. You’re learning. Classes at night, jobsites during the day. You get raises as you advance through each year of the program.
Journeyman (post-apprenticeship): $50,000 to $70,000 in most states, higher in the top-paying ones. Once you’re licensed you can work independently and in any state. This is where most electricians spend the bulk of their career.
Master electrician: $70,000 to $100,000+. Requires additional licensing and experience. Many master electricians go on to run their own construction businesses or take supervisory roles.
And then there are specializations that push things further. Solar installation, EV charger setup, data center wiring, industrial controls. These niches pay a premium because not enough people are trained in them yet. I’ve seen job postings for data center electricians in northern Virginia offering $45+ an hour, which works out to $93,000 before overtime.
Why the Shortage Is Getting Worse, Not Better
The electrical workforce is projected to shrink 14% by 2030 while demand could grow 25% over the same period. Nearly 30% of union electricians are near retirement age. The construction industry as a whole needs to attract 349,000 new workers in 2026 alone, and electrical work is the hardest slot to fill.
And now there’s the data center thing.
Electrical work accounts for 45% to 70% of total data center construction costs, according to IBEW. Google published a policy report saying the shortage of electricians could constrain America’s ability to build the AI infrastructure it needs. A Brookings fellow called the electrician shortage “quite dire” and “a leading barrier to data center construction.” This isn’t some obscure trades magazine sounding the alarm; it’s Big Tech saying “we need these people and we can’t find them.”
NECA says applications for commercial apprenticeships jumped over 70% between 2022 and 2024, from about 70,000 to 120,000. Still not enough spots. The IBEW runs nearly 300 training centers with 55,000 apprentices enrolled; add the IEC’s 70 centers and various community college programs and the pipeline is bigger than it’s been in decades. Hasn’t caught up to demand though, not even close.
The result: wages go up. Especially for anyone with EV, solar, or data center experience. If you’re deciding between becoming an electrician and, say, becoming a dental hygienist or a pharmacy technician, the electrician path probably has better long-term earning potential right now, at least based on where demand is heading.
What Would I Do If I Were 19?
I don’t usually get this personal in salary articles, but this one warrants it. If I were 19 right now and didn’t have a burning desire to go to college for a specific reason (pre-med, engineering, whatever), I’d look very hard at the electrical trades. The starting pay isn’t glamorous, but the trajectory is steep, the work can’t be automated (not yet, anyway), and in ten years you could be running your own business or pulling $100K+ in a union position with a pension.
The states I’d target: Illinois for the money, Oregon or Washington for quality of life plus strong wages, Texas for no income tax and a booming construction market, or wherever the next wave of data centers is going up. Virginia is already there. Ohio and Indiana are getting big builds too.
The whole “college or bust” mentality my generation got sold is cracking. It isn’t gone, but it’s cracking. And the data supports the crack.
We’ve got detailed salary breakdowns for electricians by state, and you can compare to other trades like plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, and construction laborers. If you want to see how electrician pay compares to all jobs in a specific state, try the state hubs for California, Illinois, or Florida.