How to tell if you're underpaid as an electrician

You're likely underpaid if you hold a journeyman card and your straight-time rate sits below the 25th percentile for your metro on BLS OEWS May 2025 data. Check two more numbers before you act: the union or Davis-Bacon rate for your county, and what live ads near you post for the same card. If you're low on all three, it's not your imagination.

01The three-number check

Three numbers, about an hour of looking, and you'll know where your rate stands.

No one number settles it. Together they do. The national picture behind all three is in journeyman electrician pay in 2026.

02Number 1: your metro's BLS percentile

Find your metro in the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables and see which percentile your rate lands in.

Go to the BLS OEWS tables, open the May 2025 metropolitan area data, and look up 47-2111, Electricians. Write down the 25th percentile, the median and the 75th.

Here's what that looks like for eight metros:

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, metro data, hourly straight time.

Two things to know when you read it. Apprentices are counted as electricians (SOC 2018 User Guide), so apprentices pull the bottom of the table down. And the wages are straight time, with overtime left out (BLS OEWS FAQ).

So the rule is simple. A carded journeyman with 5 or more years in should be at or above his metro's median. Under the 25th with a card is a red flag.

A project manager at one national electrical contractor put it his own way on a call with us: a licensed electrician who takes $25 an hour "needs to see a doctor." The table says he's right in Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and Kansas City, where $25 is under the 25th percentile. In Denver, Phoenix and Atlanta, $25 lands between the 25th and the median. In Orlando it's above the median. That's why you check your own metro.

03Number 2: the union or Davis-Bacon rate

The union inside rate or the Davis-Bacon rate for your county shows the top of the local scale, wage and fringes both.

Union wage sheets. Many IBEW locals post their inside wireman rates. In the Sacramento area, IBEW Local 340's journeyman wage is $53.70, effective June 1, 2026, plus $15.56 an hour for health and welfare and $14.25 for pension (Local 340 wage sheet). The Sacramento metro median on BLS was $35.98 in May 2025.

That $17.72 gap (our math) isn't all money you're owed. Different years, and the BLS number mixes apprentices, open shop and union. But if your rate is closer to the BLS 25th than to the median in a town where scale is $53.70, you know which way the wind blows. How to read a union wage sheet shows how to compare one line by line against an open-shop offer.

Davis-Bacon wage determinations. Contractors on federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000 must pay "no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits" (DOL, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts). The rates are public on SAM.gov. Search your state and county, pick the building schedule, and find the electrician line. You'll see a base rate and a fringe rate.

If you've ever worked a prevailing wage job and your rate dropped back when it ended, you've already seen this number.

04Number 3: what live ads post

Ads are the freshest number you can get, and in some states the law makes shops show the pay.

In Washington, employers with 15 or more employees must post a wage scale or salary range in job ads, plus a general description of benefits and other compensation (Washington L&I). In New York, employers with 4 or more employees must post the minimum and maximum pay they believe is accurate (New York State DOL). Other states have their own rules; check your state labor department.

Outside those states, travel job boards are the best source, because most ads list base pay and per diem. Three ads posted Oct 19, 2026 on RoadDogJobs:

Pull 10 ads for your card in your area and take the middle one. Ignore "up to" numbers. That's the ceiling, not the starting rate.

05Signs you're behind

These are the patterns that show up again and again when a hand has fallen behind his market.

• No raise since you got your card. In the AGC and NCCER 2026 workforce survey, more than 8 in 10 firms reported raising base pay for hourly craft and salaried workers as much as or more than the year before (AGC, Sept 3, 2026). If your shop didn't, you're losing ground every year you stay flat.
• The new guy makes more for the same work. If your shop hired a journeyman this year above your rate, the shop already knows the market moved. It just didn't move you.
• Your per diem got cut or changed. Going from $100 a day for 7 days to $100 a day for 5 days worked is $200 a week. Over a 26-week job, that's $5,200 (our math). It's a pay cut even if the hourly rate didn't change.
• Your rate is under the 25th percentile for your metro. See Number 1.
• Your shop's own ads offer more than you make. Look at your company's postings. If the posted range starts above your rate, bring the ad.
• You get more work, not more money. Running a crew, training apprentices or carrying the job on your card without a bump. Foremen on union sheets make 10% to 15% over journeyman scale.

One or two of these might have a fair reason. Three or more, plus a low number on the check above, means you're underpaid.

06What the three numbers miss

The check above compares hourly rates. Your real pay is the whole check: rate, hours, overtime, per diem and how long the work lasts.

A $38 job with 50-hour weeks and $150 a day per diem can beat a $45 local job with no overtime. The opposite is true too, once you count the cost of being gone. The math for that is in travel vs local electrician pay.

Benefits count too. A shop that pays $2 less but covers family health insurance may come out ahead. Ask what the employer pays toward health and retirement, per hour or per month, and add it in.

07What to do with the answer

1. Write your three numbers on one page: metro percentile, union or Davis-Bacon rate, ad median.
2. If you're at or above the metro median and close to the ads, your rate is fine. Look at hours and job length instead.
3. If you're under, ask your shop first. How to ask for a raise as a journeyman covers what to bring and what to say.
4. If the answer is no, find out what your card is worth elsewhere before you decide anything. What your electrician license is worth walks through it.
5. If the gap is your state, not your shop, see where electricians make the most before you think about moving.

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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