Missouri electrician license: who licenses, local cards, pay

Missouri doesn't license individual electricians at the state level. As of 2026, journeyman and master cards come from cities and counties, and the only state license is an optional statewide electrical contractor license. The median Missouri electrician made $31.45 an hour in May 2025, per BLS, and the St. Louis and Kansas City medians ran near $37.

The state license is run by the Missouri Office of Statewide Electrical Contractors (OSEC), part of the Division of Professional Registration. Local cards are run by each city or county. Both can change, so confirm with them before you act on anything here. For how Missouri compares with every other state, see electrician license requirements by state.

01Missouri license facts at a glance

02Who licenses electricians in Missouri?

Your city or county does. Missouri has no state card for a journeyman or master, so the local building department sets the exam, the experience rule and whether a card from somewhere else counts.

Trade sources name Kansas City, St. Louis County and Springfield among the places with their own cards, but don't take a list from anyone. Call the department where the job is. Missouri is one of several states without a statewide journeyman license, and that post covers how local cards work in general.

The NEC is adopted and enforced locally too. Two jobs an hour apart can be on different code editions, so ask the inspector's office which book it enforces.

03What is the statewide electrical contractor license?

It's a license for the person who qualifies an electrical contracting business, and it's optional. OSEC's FAQ says it plainly: "The statewide electrical contractor license is optional, not mandatory."

The law behind it is RSMo 324.900 to 324.945, from Senate Bill 240 (2017) and Senate Bill 862 (2018). Here's what the FAQ says it takes:

1. Hold a local license. An electrical contractor or master electrician license from a Missouri city or county.
2. Pass an approved exam. A standardized, nationally accredited exam based on the NEC, given by an independent testing company.
3. Show the hours, or the years. 12,000 hours of verifiable practical experience, or proof you held an exam-based local contractor or master license for 6 of the previous 8 calendar years.
4. Carry $500,000 in liability insurance, and show proof of any bond your city or county requires.
5. Work for the business at a supervisory level. A statewide license holder "shall represent only one firm" at a time.

At 2,000 hours a year, 12,000 hours is six full years on the tools (our math). OSEC's current fee schedule is $200 to apply and $100 to renew every three years. Statewide licenses expire Sept. 30 of every third year, and OSEC mails the renewal notice about 90 days ahead.

04What does the statewide license actually do?

It stops cities from making you test again. The statute, as quoted in OSEC's FAQ, says no city or county "shall require a holder of a statewide license to obtain a local business license or occupation license that requires passing of any examination."

A city can still require a plain business license. If a city refuses to honor the statewide license, OSEC says you can report it, and the city "may lose their sales tax distributions from the state."

What it doesn't do: the state "will not be issuing permits nor will the state be inspecting the work." You still pull permits and get inspected locally.

For a journeyman, the takeaway is simple. This card is for the man whose name the company works under, not for the hands on the crew. If running your own shop is the plan, read our guide on going from journeyman to electrical contractor first.

05Which exams does Missouri accept?

OSEC lists approved exams from three outfits:

If you already passed an approved exam at the contractor, master or journeyman level, OSEC says you may be able to use it. The list also takes other state boards' exams from ICC, NASCLA, Prometric, Prov and PSI, plus passing scores from testing outfits that have since closed, such as Block and Experior. That's worth knowing if you tested for a city card or another state years ago.

06Does Missouri have reciprocity?

No. OSEC says "The statute does not include language relating to licensure by reciprocity." An out-of-state test and verifiable hours may still meet the exam and experience requirements for the statewide contractor license, under 20 CSR 2117-2.010.

For a journeyman, each city decides whether to accept outside cards. The two big metros straddle state lines, which makes this a daily question. Kansas City is a Missouri and Kansas metro, and our Kansas electrician license guide covers how cards work on that side. St. Louis reaches into Illinois, covered in our Illinois electrician license guide.

07Does Missouri require CE?

Not for the statewide license, as of OSEC's 2019 FAQ: "At this time, the division will not be requiring continuing education." The law lets the state add CE by rule, and that FAQ is old, so confirm with OSEC. Local cards set their own CE rules.

08What does a Missouri electrician make?

The median Missouri electrician made $31.45 an hour in May 2025, a little above the national median of $30.38. 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.

The two big metro areas counted 11,320 electricians between them, though both figures include hands on the Illinois and Kansas sides. The St. Louis median ran $9.89 an hour above Springfield's. The statewide mean was $34.77, $3.32 above the median, so the top of the market pulls the average up. The statewide median annual wage was $65,410.

Next door, the medians were $31.66 in Kansas, $47.87 in Illinois, $29.26 in Iowa and $23.59 in Arkansas, same survey. 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.

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