Should your electrician job ad show pay and your company name?

Yes. Put the rate in the ad when it's at or above what the shops around you pay, and put your company name on it. Pay is the first thing a working journeyman looks for, and in Washington, New York, California and Colorado the law already makes most employers post it. A blind ad has a narrow use: hiding your name, never the rate.

One national electrical contractor asked us this on a call, almost word for word: "Would you guys put an ad out with our pay rates... Company so-and-so is hiring in [state] for this amount of money?"

01Why the rate belongs in the ad

The rate belongs in the ad because a journeyman who already has a job won't call to find it out. The good hands are working. They aren't hunting, so they skim, and the first thing they skim for is the number.

What the usual dodges say to him:

• "Competitive pay" or "DOE" reads as "we won't tell you." He scrolls.
• "Up to $X" reads as the bottom of the range. He assumes he'd start there.
• "Per diem available" with no number and no unit reads as "maybe."

A number also filters. A hand making $5 more than your rate won't call, which saves you a phone screen. A hand making $5 less will, and he already knows what he's calling about. When you're short-handed, fewer calls from the wrong hands and more from the right ones is the whole point. For the channels where those hands actually are, see where to find journeyman electricians to hire.

What a journeyman ad should show, at minimum:

1. The hourly rate, with the low and high end tied to something he can check: years, license, lead work.
2. Hours: 5-8s, 5-10s or 6-10s, and OT after 40.
3. Per diem with its unit: "$100 a day, 7 days," never "per diem available."
4. The kind of work and how long the job runs.
5. When insurance starts.

Here's an example top line, not a market rate: "Journeymen. $50 to $56 an hour by experience. 6-10s. $100 a day per diem, 7 days. Industrial power and controls. Runs about 4 months." The full layout is in how to write a journeyman job ad that gets calls.

02The rate tells you fast whether it's right

A posted rate gives you an answer in days. If the number is at or near the top of your market, licensed hands call. If it's under, the phone stays quiet, and that's an answer too. A blind ad never tells you which problem you have.

A simple way to read it:

1. Run the ad with the rate for one week.
2. Count calls from licensed journeymen, not total applicants. Helpers and laborers don't count.
3. If you got journeymen, the rate works. Screen them.
4. If you got only green hands, the rate is low, the ad is vague, or it's running in the wrong place. Why job posts bring apprentices instead of journeymen covers the second two.

To know where "the market" sits before you post, don't lean on one national number. The BLS median for electricians was $30.38 an hour in May 2025, but that figure covers every electrician, apprentices included, at straight time. Live local ads for the same license and the same kind of work are a better read, and in pay-range states your competitors have to post theirs. The step-by-step is in how to tell if your journeyman pay rate is competitive.

The same contractor told us they'd been "going higher and higher on the pay rate so we can be competitive" and still weren't sure what competitive was. Posting the number is the cheapest way to find out.

03The tradeoffs, one at a time

Showing pay costs you three things, and only one of them is real.

Your own crew will see the number

They will, and that's the real cost. If the new-hire rate beats what your best journeyman makes, he'll be in the trailer Monday morning. Better to find that out from an ad than from his two weeks' notice.

Before the ad runs, line it up against your crew's rates. If the posted top end is above people you'd hate to lose, raise them first or post a range that honestly reflects years and lead work. Don't hide the number to dodge the conversation. They'll hear it from the new guy on day two anyway.

Competitors will see it

They will, and it doesn't matter much. Any shop that wants your rate can call your guys and ask. In the states that require ranges, their ads show their number too, so the data runs both ways. A competitor who beats your posted rate by $2 was going to call your hands sooner or later.

Response quality changes

It changes in your favor. A rate draws the hands who make about that number. A blind "great pay" ad draws whoever happens to be between jobs, which tilts green. The same contractor told us their Facebook group posts brought applicants who "were inexperienced or they were just new to the trade." A clear number with clear scope is the best filter you can put in an ad.

04Some states already decided for you

In several states, most electrical contractors have no choice. They have to post pay. As of 2026, these four are confirmed on the state agency pages:

A few details that hit electrical shops:

• Washington: after written notice of a bad posting, you have 5 business days to fix it. Since July 27, 2025, an ad can't require a valid driver's license unless driving is essential to the job or serves a legitimate business purpose (Washington L&I). On a service van job it usually is, so say why.
• California: a link or QR code to the range doesn't count. And if a third party posts the job for you, you have to give them the range and they have to include it (California Labor Commissioner). A blind ad run by someone else doesn't get you out of it.
• New York: commission-based jobs have to say so (New York DOL). That matters for service shops.

Other states and some cities have passed similar laws. Check the current list in which states require pay ranges in electrician job ads, confirm with your state labor department, and run anything unusual past your employment lawyer.

One more thing about ranges: "$40 to $80" tells a hand nothing. Keep it tight enough to be a real good-faith estimate, and say what moves a hand from the bottom to the top.

05Company name: show it, with two exceptions

Put your name on it. Journeymen ask around, and a hand who heard from a buddy that you pay on time and keep work lined up is halfway hired. If nobody in the area has heard of you, the name costs you nothing. What makes him call is the rate, the work and how long it runs.

If your name hurts you, the ad isn't the problem. A hand who got short-termed by you last year will skip the ad either way. Fix the reason.

A blind ad makes sense in two cases:

1. You're replacing someone who doesn't know yet. Name the work, the rate and the area. Give the company name on the first call.
2. A recruiter is running one ad for several shops. Same rule: the ad carries the work, the rate and the town, and the name comes on the screening call. In California the range still has to be in the ad.

Even then, go blind on the name only. Never go blind on pay.

06Quick decision table

If you're short-handed now, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

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