Georgia electrician license: who licenses, local cards, pay

Georgia has no statewide journeyman electrician license. The state licenses electrical contractors instead: a Class I (restricted) or Class II (unrestricted) license from the Division of Electrical Contractors, after at least 4 years of experience and a passing exam score of 70. The median Georgia electrician made $28.04 an hour in May 2025, per BLS.

Everything below is as of 2026, from the Georgia rules in Chapter 121-3 and Chapter 121-2. The licensing body is the State Construction Industry Licensing Board, Division of Electrical Contractors, under the Georgia Secretary of State. Its board page wouldn't load for us, so confirm fees, exam details and CE with the board directly. For other states, see our electrician license requirements in every state.

01Georgia license facts at a glance

02Do you need a license to be an electrician in Georgia?

Not a state journeyman card, because Georgia doesn't issue one. Journeymen and apprentices work under a licensed electrical contractor, and the contractor's license is what the state checks. Georgia sits with the other states without a statewide journeyman license.

Some Georgia cities or counties may have their own rules for individual electricians. We couldn't confirm which ones, so call the building department where the job is. [Confirm locally]

03Class I vs Class II

The two contractor classes split on service size. A Class I license is limited to single-phase installations that don't exceed 200 amps at the service drop or service lateral, per Rule 121-3-.01. That's houses and small single-phase commercial. A Class II license is unrestricted, so three-phase and anything over 200 amps.

Georgia also issues four low-voltage classes under Rule 121-3-.06: LV-A (alarm and general systems), LV-T (telecom and general systems), LV-G (general systems like sound, intercom and low-voltage lighting) and LV-U (unrestricted). Each needs one year of low-voltage wiring experience in that category.

04How do you qualify for the Georgia contractor exam?

You need at least 4 years of primary experience, meaning hands-on installation work covered by the NEC. Rule 121-3-.01(7) lists eight areas of work, and your experience has to cover them:

• (a) Raceways: conduit, pull and junction boxes, connecting to enclosures and panels
• (b) Conductors, cords, cables, splices, terminations, overcurrent and metering devices
• (c) Services: entrances, meters, risers, grounding electrodes, main bonding, disconnects
• (d) Motors and generators, with feeders, branch circuits, protection and controllers
• (e) Switches, disconnects and controls for lighting, appliances and HVAC equipment
• (f) Special occupancies under NEC Chapter 5
• (g) Bonding piping, sizing and installing equipment grounding conductors
• (h) Load calcs, minimum branch circuits, ampacity and conduit fill

Class I applicants document at least five of (a) through (g), plus (h). Class II applicants document all eight, plus work on installations bigger than single-phase 200 amps. If you've only done resi, you're looking at Class I.

How the 4 years add up

Secondary experience counts at half. That's work tied to the trade but not installing: full-time instruction, municipal or county inspection, engineering design by a PE and a few others.

Say you have 3 years installing and 2 years as a county inspector. The 2 years of inspection count as 1 at 50%, so you hit 4 (our math, following the rule's own example). A two-year academic diploma or vo-tech certificate also counts, but secondary experience and school together top out at one year of credit.

There's also a 6-year route. Show six years of electrical contracting experience, plus one reference from a licensed architect, professional engineer or electrical engineer, and you don't have to document primary experience.

Testing and retakes

You pass with a score of 70 or better. Under Rule 121-3-.03, fail twice and you have to show you finished a review course before you're scheduled for a third try. The exam vendor wasn't readable on the pages we reached. [Confirm with the board]

Our post on going from journeyman to electrical contractor covers whether the license pays for itself.

05Does Georgia have reciprocity?

Only at the contractor level. Rule 121-2-.03 lets Georgia license an out-of-state contractor by reciprocity when that state's exam and requirements are "substantially equal" and the other state offers Georgia licensees the same deal.

Two neighbors spell out where they stand, as of 2026:

Florida calls this endorsement, not reciprocity, so you still apply and meet its other requirements. The Florida electrician license guide and the Alabama electrician license guide cover the other sides. Ask the Georgia board for its current list before you count on any other state.

06What does a Georgia electrician make?

The median Georgia electrician made $28.04 an hour in May 2025, below the $30.38 national median. These are BLS OEWS straight-time wages for all electricians, apprentices included. They leave out overtime, per diem and benefits, and they're market data, not what any one contractor will pay you.

Atlanta is most of the market. Its 13,430 electricians are about 62% of the state's 21,650 (our math). Statewide, the middle half made $22.43 to $36.77, and the median annual wage was $58,320.

One more thing on public work. IBEW Local 613 notes that "Georgia and Alabama do not have state Prevailing Wage laws," per its prevailing wage page. Federal jobs still carry Davis-Bacon rates, but a state or local job in Georgia doesn't come with a state wage floor. Our journeyman electrician pay breakdown explains what moves a rate inside those ranges.

Run your Pay Check to see what electricians with your license make near you. Takes about a minute and your boss never hears about it.

07With no card to look up, show your work

A contractor hiring in a state with no journeyman license can't check a state card, so the interview does the work. One national electrical contractor told us they don't have time to babysit: they want to hand a journeyman the prints and walk away. The eight experience areas above double as a list of what to talk about. If you've set services, run motor feeders and done load calcs, say so.

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