New York electrician license: who licenses, local cards, pay

New York has no statewide electrician license and no state journeyman card. Licensing is local: the NYC Department of Buildings licenses master and special electricians in the five boroughs, counties such as Suffolk license their own, and many towns license nobody. The median New York electrician made $37.86 an hour in May 2025, per BLS.

Everything below is as of 2026. NYC rules come from the NYC Department of Buildings license pages, linked in each section. Local rules change, so confirm with the city, county or town building department where you'll work. For the rest of the country, see electrician license requirements in each state.

01New York license facts at a glance

02Who licenses electricians in New York?

Whoever runs the building department where the job is. New York State doesn't license electricians, so the license that counts is the city's, county's or town's. South Dakota's electrical board, on its reciprocity page, lists New York as having "no state licenses."

That puts New York with Nevada, Pennsylvania and a handful of others on our list of states with no statewide journeyman license. The practical rule: before you take a job in a new county, call its building department and ask what card you need to do the work.

03New York City: master and special electricians

The NYC Department of Buildings issues two electrician licenses, per its Master and Special Electricians page:

• Master Electrician: licensed to do electrical work "as an Independent Contractor" anywhere in NYC.
• Special Electrician: licensed to do electrical work in or on specific buildings or lots.

DOB doesn't issue a journeyman license. The experience it counts toward a master license is tool time "under the direct and continuing supervision" of a licensed master or special electrician. That's how most NYC journeymen work: on a licensed master's crew.

How to qualify for an NYC master license

Per DOB's requirements page, you must be at least 18 and meet one of these experience routes. Every route needs at least 2 years of the work in New York City.

The exams and fees

Pass the written exam first: multiple choice on NYC electrical codes and rules, no reference books, 70% to pass, $585. Then the practical exam, $530, which you have 24 months to pass. After both, you file a background application within a year, with notarized experience forms signed by your supervisors, a physician's form and a Social Security earnings statement.

The license itself is $310, and it renews every year for $60.

The paperwork that slows people down

The earnings statement and supervisor forms are where applications stall. Experience forms have to be signed and notarized within 90 days before you submit. If a master you worked under has retired or moved, start tracking him down before you sit the written exam, not after.

04NYC site safety training (SST)

On many NYC jobs, your SST card matters as much as anything in your wallet. Under Local Law 196, a worker on a site that needs a Site Safety Plan and a superintendent, site safety coordinator or site safety manager must carry an SST card showing at least 40 hours of safety training. Supervisors need 62 hours.

Cards are good for 5 years. Renewal takes 8 hours for workers and 16 for supervisors, and you have a year after expiration to renew, though an expired card can't be used on site. Our post on OSHA 10, OSHA 30 and 70E for electricians covers the federal OSHA cards. Ask the SST provider what prior training it credits.

05Long Island and upstate

Outside the five boroughs, it's county by county and town by town.

• Suffolk County licenses master electricians and restricted electricians through its Department of Consumer Affairs. Both must finish continuing education before renewal, under Suffolk County Code Chapter 563, Article XI. Third-party summaries put it at 8 hours every 2 years for masters and 4 for restricted licenses.
• Other counties and cities run their own licenses or none at all. Many upstate towns have no electrician license. Call the local building department before you assume either way.

Statewide, New York's Uniform Code adopted the 2023 NEC effective December 31, 2025, per third-party summaries. NYC runs its own electrical code. Confirm the edition with the jurisdiction.

06Does New York have reciprocity?

No. With no state license, there's nothing for another state to trade with, and NYC's master license runs through its own written and practical exams. A New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania card won't license you in New York. See the New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania guides for what those states require.

What a New York contractor will check

With no state card to look up, contractors lean on references, the jobs you've run and sometimes a bench test. One national electrical contractor told us its biggest headache is "so-called journeymen" who can't bend conduit. Show up able to talk through specific work: the gear you set, the pipe you ran, the size of the job. Our post on what contractors check when hiring journeymen lists the usual questions.

07What does a New York electrician make?

The median New York electrician made $37.86 an hour in May 2025, and the top 10% made $63.29 or more. 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.

New York had 40,130 electricians on payroll and a $78,750 median annual wage. The New York-Newark-Jersey City metro, which also covers North Jersey, had 36,550, the most of any metro in the country. Its mean was $42.63, well above its $37.99 median, which tells you the top of the market pulls hard.

Upstate medians in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse ($37.07) all land within a dollar of the city metro's. The bigger difference shows up at the top: the city metro's 90th percentile is $63.54, against $50.34 in Buffalo.

New York's pay transparency law also helps when you're comparing. Employers with four or more employees must post a pay range in job ads, per the NY Department of Labor. If a New York ad has no range, ask for it. Our guide to comparing electrician job offers shows what else to weigh.

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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