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Electrician Salaries in 2024: A State-by-State Guide to the Best Pay

Mike Persinger
January 1st, 2024
11 Min Read

How much do electricians make in your state?  Some idea of how much you can expect to pay electricians in your area comes from a ZipRecruiter report for 2024, based on the website’s job listings and third-party data. 

The information about electrician salaries and payscales includes the following, and you can click on the index to skip to any section you’re particularly interested in:

Finally, we’ll show you how ServiceTitan’s all-in-one software for the trades has helped hundreds of electrician businesses save time while they manage payroll, deal with timesheets, and other back office processes, including:

If, after reading this, you want to find out more about ServiceTitan’s payroll and other business management features, sign up for a free demo.

Average Electrician’s Salary by Statee

Here is what the ZipRecruiter data shows about the highest and lowest average electrician salary by state:

STATE
Annual Salary
Hourly Wage
New York$72,925$35.06
Pennsylvania$66,775$32.10
New Hampshire$65,297$31.39
New Jersey$64,307$30.92
Wyoming$63,613$30.58
Washington$63,526$30.54
Wisconsin$63,071$30.32
Massachusetts$63,070$30.32
Alaska$62,904$30.24
Oregon$62,395$30.00
Indiana$62,295$29.95
National Avg$61,391$29.51

Nationally, ZipRecruiter data shows that the average salary for an electrician ($61,391) is higher than those for HVAC technicians ($58,782), according to ZipRecruiter, but lower than the average salary for plumbers ($63,215)

The industry is expected to grow 6% between 2022 and 2032 — faster than the average for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so the jobs will be there. About 73,500 openings for electricians are projected each year, on average, over the next decade. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the median annual wage for electricians was $60,240 in May 2022. The highest 10 percent of electricians nationwide earned more than $102,300.

When it comes down to financial reasons, any aversion to becoming an electrician—or joining the trades in general—doesn’t make sense. 

Another misconception? That the trades are not a tech field.

“Our refrigerators can talk to us now,” Patrick MacIsaac, managing partner at the Roby Family of Companies in Charlotte, said. “Before, it was really just connecting wires and putting capacitors and things like that. But now you have things like smart thermostats and all this other stuff that does have a tech aspect. The market really demands that stuff now. 

“I'm as non-techy as they get for my age, but when the WiFi goes out in the house, it's a big deal. None of your stuff works.”

ZipRecruiter data shows electricians’ salary range

The data from ZipRecruiter, based on their job listings combined with third-party data, shows that there can be a wide range of salaries around the overall average. Nationally, the average electrician salary is $61,391, but can range from $32,000 to $98,000 depending on experience level, geography and other factors. 

As with all jobs, electrical industry salaries are tied to supply and demand. The more job openings there are for a reduced pool of qualified candidates, the higher the salary will be.

Electrical business owners, like others in the skilled trades, struggle to find qualified employees in a highly competitive climate. They also worry about investing time and money in training, only to see those electricians go off on their own or to work for another company.

Tommy Mello, a trade company owner and investor and host of a weekly podcast, The Home Service Expert, combats that worry by building a strong company foundation through extensive training and high expectations for every employee, and performance pay as an incentive for helping employees grow. He also offers a $1,500 bonus to employees for referring a new hire. 

“Some people say ‘always be closing,’” Mello said. “I say, ‘always be recruiting.’” 

Sometimes, inexperienced technicians can overestimate their worth without having the knowledge or sales experience to back it up. Make sure you know what you claim you know, hiring managers say, and find a company that will build on that knowledge. 

Troubleshooting a problem and performing repairs or being part of an install crew requires technical skill but not sales ability. Recognizing, and capitalizing on, opportunity increases revenue for companies and earning potential for technicians. 

It’s important for the electrician’s income, too. 

Unlike most sales trainers, Chris Crew, President of The Blue Collar Success Group, believes he can teach a service tech with strong technical knowledge to sell, even if they show little interest in that part of the business.

“You give me the most technical technician, and I will teach them how to outsell the best salesperson,” he says. “The more comfortable I have a technician with the technical, the more comfortable and prone they are to talk about additional products and services.”

And, Crew’s not talking about the electrical job “lay-downs,” such as turning a “panel-smoking” or “lights-flickering” call into a big-ticket item.

“I’m talking about how I take, ‘needs outlet added,’ and create a very large ticket with it—without teaching my technicians to be high-pressure salespeople,” the master electrician explains.

“I’m not a fan of high-pressure sales. I am a fan of consulting,” Crew adds. “To consult, I have to be very knowledgeable. That’s why I believe technical information can lead to a better sales force.”

And, likely, higher wages for those electricians.

Electrician salaries: Frequently asked questions

How much does an electrician make?

The average electrician in the United States makes $61,391 per year, or $29.51 per hour. There is a wide range, however, from $32,000 at the low end to $98,000 at the high end. 

Do electricians get paid well?

Electricians have high earning potential for those who don’t want to go to college. Requiring only a high school diploma or the equivalent, the median salary for a licensed electrician is attractive to many. But there is more to consider than salary:

  • Whether an electrician makes good money depends on more than just the raw dollar figure.

  • If loans are necessary to attend college, that debt must be taken into consideration. Electricians often attend trade school and avoid most, if not all, of that debt.

  • Cost of living is another factor. Larger, urban areas generally have higher salaries, but the dollars don’t go as far in those locations.

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How do electrician salaries compare with those in other trades?

The average salary for an electrician ($61,391) is higher than those for HVAC technicians ($58,782), according to ZipRecruiter, but lower than the average salary for plumbers ($63,215)

Electrician salaries: Other factors to consider

Cost of living is also a factor not addressed in the database.

Licensing requirements vary by state. Some states require lengthy apprentice periods. In Wisconsin, for instance, the requirement is five years. An apprentice electrician salary could be less than what licensed, entry-level electricians make. North Carolina requires two years of experience, including at least a year of primary experience, to take the limited licensing exam. The average electrician apprentice salary was not included in the data.

Electrician unions and more: Other factors could be in play as well, such as experience level, skillset, whether the electrician is covered by a union, and more. A union electrician salary could vary from the median in the database at any experience level.

ServiceTitan: Software to Run Payroll and Your Entire Electrical Business

ServiceTitan® is the leading all-in-one software solution for the home service industry including hundreds of electrical businesses.Electrical business owners can manage all aspects of their business either from a tablet, on the ServiceTitan Mobile App, or from a computer at the office. Our software gives electrical businesses the tools they need to manage: dispatch, scheduling, call booking, marketing and reporting, as well as all payroll related tasks, which we focus on below.

Efficiently Run Electricians’ Payroll

ServiceTitan’s integrated payroll tools make it easy to pay your electricians with real-time timesheet tracking and automated bonus and overtime calculation features. By using our platform you don’t need to transfer dozens of documents between employees and managers, spend hours manually checking and inputting timesheet information into third-party payroll software, or get your techs into the office, and away from billable jobs, to sign off on timesheets. ServiceTitan automatically syncs everything for you so you can run payroll in just a few clicks.

Keep on Top of Timesheets

ServiceTitan’s timesheet feature automatically tracks time spent driving, vendor runs, and time spent on the actual job, so each timesheet is fully up to date at the end of each week, month, or other established payment period.  If any of your electricians runs into overtime, that’s also easy to configure and calculate in a few clicks. Double checking for potential discrepancies in these details usually takes hours, but with ServiceTitan it’s all accurately done for you, so you can be sure you are paying everyone correctly.

Timesheets within ServiceTitan are synced with our dispatch tools in real time, so you always know who is available for a new job. Our software also helps you correctly pay employees working back at the office. They can clock in and out right in the ServiceTitan interface so hours worked are updated in real time on their timesheets.This means timesheets and payslips always match so you don’t have to spend hours checking them.

Easily Apply Bonuses and Commissions

ServiceTitan makes it straightforward to apply bonuses and commissions to your salary structure, no matter how complex your performance-based pay. Configure ServiceTitan to provide accurate and timely calculations of bonuses, overtime and commissions to keep your team motivated to do their best work.

Techs also get to track their own timesheet to check for discrepancies, which they can highlight within the software itself, and understand how much they’ll be paid in any given period. Once they’ve taken a look, each employee can digitally sign off on their current time sheet, making the whole process more efficient.  Technicians can sign timesheets remotely and without driving to the office, which is one more step in making sure everyone is paid efficiently, in the right amount, on time, every time.

Simplify payday for everyone with Payroll Pro

Payroll Processing with Payroll Pro

If you want to take payroll processing up another gear, ServiceTitan’s premium tool Payroll Pro gives you a payment management system that we estimate can save you up to an hour per employee, per month in monthly payroll processing time.

Using Payroll Pro means you don’t need to assign payroll processing to a third-party. It automatically calculates benefits and tax deductions and deposits your employees’ salaries directly, whether they are paid hourly or are full-time salaried employees. Minimize tax liabilities and compliance risk by automatically (and accurately) filing and paying federal, state, and local taxes on your behalf. Every document is available to download in PDF format.

Sign up for Payroll Pro to save time on payroll processing and use a payroll system that is specifically designed for the trades.

Integrate with QuickBooks or Sage Intacct

If you already use QuickBooks or Sage Intacct, but are also using (or considering) ServiceTitan to help manage your electrical business, you can easily combine the two with our QuickBooks integration program or Intacct integration.

Your accounting team won’t need to learn new software when you transition to ServiceTitan. You can go completely paperless while monitoring all your transactions in real time. If you need to check a payment has been made, or a deposit has been processed? You don’t have to call the bank or look it up on your banking app because the information is right there in ServiceTitan.

You’ll also never need to enter the same more than once; just generate your invoices and purchase orders right within ServiceTitan, then export them to QuickBooks or Intacct for secure, fully accessible accounting.

QuickBooks and Sage Intacct are not included when you sign up for ServiceTitan, but you can link either of them to ServiceTitan to run your bookkeeping processes more efficiently.

Correctly Calculate Your Labor Rate with ServiceTitan’s Free Online Tool

ServiceTitan’s Labor Rate Calculator helps you accurately identify the total cost of employing your electricians and gives you a figure for how much you should be charging customers for labor to ensure maximum business profitability. All you need to do is add the key metrics requested into our free online tool to calculate a flat hourly fee that takes into account every related cost, including all your overheads.

ServiceTitan: Manage Your Payroll and Entire Electrical Business in One Place

ServiceTitan gives you and your team the software tools you need for paying and managing every aspect of your electrician salaries, including:

Beyond dealing with payroll ServiceTitan also provides you with tools to:

To find out more about how ServiceTitan can help you pay your electricians’ salaries and manage your electrical business, schedule a free demo here.

ServiceTitan Electrical Software

ServiceTitan is a comprehensive electrical business software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.

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