Electrician wages by metro, and what electrical jobs are filed at
| Metro (BLS) | Median hourly wage | Middle half (25th–75th) | Our city | Usual electrical permit filed value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $30.38 | $23.76–$40.36 | all cities | see rows |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | $49.21 | $35.77–$57.05 | Chicago | $3,500 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | $48.93 | $36.35–$60.55 | Seattle | $4,067 |
| Urban Honolulu | $48.21 | $36.04–$58.05 | Honolulu | $3,000 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont | $44.63 | $33.70–$62.63 | — | — |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | $43.77 | $30.49–$61.79 | Palo Alto | $3,000 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $39.37 | $28.52–$50.43 | Saint Paul | $1,200 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $38.42 | $28.03–$49.11 | Cambridge | $3,800 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City | $37.99 | $29.81–$60.59 | New York City | not recorded |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria | $36.50 | $28.40–$49.65 | Arlington, VA | $3,000 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom | $35.98 | $25.35–$47.18 | Sacramento County | $3,800 |
| Cleveland | $34.07 | $24.21–$41.47 | Cleveland | $3,000 |
| Pittsburgh | $33.34 | $27.39–$47.62 | Pittsburgh | $2,655 |
| Boulder | $30.83 | $24.37–$37.48 | Boulder | $2,835 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | $29.03 | $22.97–$35.25 | Austin | not recorded |
| Colorado Springs | $28.47 | $22.99–$35.56 | Colorado Springs | $600 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | $28.19 | $23.59–$30.40 | Miami | $6,000 |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers | $27.85 | $23.07–$29.49 | Cape Coral | $2,200 |
| Raleigh-Cary | $27.31 | $23.44–$29.72 | Cary | $2,117 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | $24.43 | $22.75–$28.78 | Orlando | $2,700 |
| Waco | $23.50 | $21.42–$30.80 | Waco | not recorded |
Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 47-2111, as published on O*NET OnLine's local wage pages (read 23 October 2026); they cover employed electricians, not shop owners, and exclude benefits. Filed values: permits October 2023 to September 2026, the median of permits that carry a value. "Not recorded" means the city records no value on electrical permits.
Why the bill is higher than the wage
Three layers sit between an electrician's wage and the rate on your invoice.
Benefits and payroll costs. In BLS's March 2026 employer cost survey, construction employers paid $51.23 an hour worked in total compensation: $35.54 in wages (69.4%) and $15.69 in benefits (30.6%), which includes paid leave, insurance, retirement and legally required payroll taxes. Applied to the national median wage, that puts an electrician's cost to the employer at about $43.78 an hour ($30.38 ÷ 0.694). That ratio is for the whole construction industry, not electricians alone, so treat it as an estimate.
Non-billable hours. Driving between jobs, picking up parts and writing estimates are paid hours nobody is billed for directly, so they are spread over the billed ones.
Overhead and profit. Vans, tools, liability insurance, the license and continuing education, the office, the permits it pulls, and a margin. None of these is in BLS's figures, and shops do not publish them; that is why the only honest way to know a rate is to ask for it in writing.
A quote is easier to compare as a fixed price for the job than as a rate per hour times a guess. Our fixed price vs cost-plus guide covers when each makes sense.
What a whole electrical job is filed at
The permit file shows the other side: what electricians tell the city a whole job is worth, labour and parts. The usual figure runs from $600 in Colorado Springs to $6,000 in Miami. The middle half of Seattle electrical firms have a usual job between $2,250 and $8,000; in Saint Paul between $1,000 and $3,250. Our electrical work cost guide has 18 cities, and the EV charger installation cost guide one common job.
Metro wages and filed values do not move together. Miami's median electrician wage ($28.19 an hour) is below Saint Paul's ($39.37), yet Miami's usual filed job ($6,000, across 6,214 permits) is larger than Saint Paul's ($1,200). The mix of jobs each city files under electrical matters more than the wage.
Check an electrician's rate in five minutes
- Ask for the hourly rate, any trip or minimum charge, and whether parts are marked up, in writing.
- For a defined job, ask for a fixed price that includes the permit.
- Find the firm on your city's electrical list here (for example Seattle or Saint Paul) and check its permits and finished share.
- Look the license up on your state board; our hiring an electrician guide has who licenses electricians in 21 states.
See every Seattle electrical firm by permit record →
What these numbers cannot tell you
BLS wages are what employees earn, before benefits; they say nothing about what a particular shop bills, and owner-operators are not in them. Filed values are the electrician's own estimate and include parts. Neither tells you the hours a job takes. New York City, Austin, Raleigh, Columbus and several other cities record no value on electrical permits.
How we know this
Hourly wages are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates for May 2025, occupation 47-2111 Electricians, read from O*NET OnLine's local wage tables (which cite BLS 2025 wage data) and checked against the BLS national figures. Employer cost shares are from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026, construction industry, private industry workers. Filed values are the median of each city's electrical permits that carry a value, over its window ending September 2026; the middle-half range uses firms with three or more priced permits.
Numbers come from City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); City of Chicago building permits (Chicago Data Portal); City of Saint Paul building and trade permits (the City's old approved-permits file up to June 2025, and the City's PAULIE permit system since September 2025), with the contractor named on each permit; City of Miami building permits (since 2014); City of Cleveland building permits; Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer); City of Cambridge Inspectional Services permits (the city's per-type open-data permit files); City & County of Honolulu building permits (DPP), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- How much do electricians charge per hour?
What they earn is the floor: the median electrician wage was $30.38 an hour nationally in May 2025, and $48.93 in the Seattle metro and $49.21 in Chicago (BLS). The rate a shop bills you is higher, because it also pays benefits (about 31% of construction employers' labour cost, BLS), insurance, vehicles, licensing and profit. Ask for the hourly rate and any trip or minimum charge in writing.
- Why does an electrician charge so much more than they earn?
BLS's March 2026 employer cost survey puts construction employers' total compensation at $51.23 an hour worked, of which wages are $35.54 and benefits $15.69. That is before the shop pays for its vans, tools, liability insurance, office, permits and profit. A billed rate well above the wage figures in our table is normal.
- Is it cheaper to pay an electrician by the hour or by the job?
For a defined job (a panel, a circuit, an EV charger), a fixed price puts the overrun on the electrician and is easier to compare. For troubleshooting, where nobody knows the time in advance, hourly is normal. Our fixed price vs cost-plus guide covers both.
- How much does a typical electrical job cost?
Going by permits, the usual electrical job was filed at $1,200 in Saint Paul, $3,000 in Cleveland, $3,800 in Sacramento County, $4,067 in Seattle and $6,000 in Miami. Those are the electricians' own filed values for the whole job, labour and parts.
- Where are electricians paid the most?
Of the metros in our table, Chicago ($49.21 median an hour), Seattle ($48.93) and Urban Honolulu ($48.21), then Bend, Oregon ($47.69) and San Francisco ($44.63). Florida, North Carolina and smaller Texas metros sit lowest, about $23.50 to $28 (BLS, May 2025).
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Electrical work cost in 2026: what electrical permits were filed at in 18 cities
- What's a good completion rate for a contractor? The benchmarks from 12 trades and cities
- How much does a contractor license cost? The board fees in 11 states, quoted from each board
- Hiring an electrician: 5 red flags and 10 questions, checked against electrical permits in 45 cities
For one city
- Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025: 47-2111 Electricians — BLS (May 2025 estimates; accessed 2026-10-23)
- Local wages for Electricians (47-2111.00), BLS 2025 wage data — O*NET OnLine (accessed 2026-10-23)
- Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026 (news release, 12 June 2026) — BLS (accessed 2026-10-23)