Electrician Salary: Take-Home Pay, Overtime & License Levels

How Much Does an Electrician Make After Taxes?

Quick answer: At the Bureau of Labor Statistics median of $62,350 a year for electricians (May 2024, the latest OEWS-based figure, equal to $29.98 an hour), a single filer in a state with no income tax keeps about $52,278 a year, or $4,357 a month, after 2026 federal income tax and FICA. Apprentices keep much less, master electricians keep much more, and the rest of this guide shows exactly where each level lands.

Here is the full worked example. Start with $62,350 of gross W-2 wages. Subtract the 2026 single standard deduction ($16,100), leaving $46,250 of taxable income. The 2026 single brackets tax the first $12,400 at 10 percent ($1,240) and the next $33,850 at 12 percent ($4,062), for a federal income tax of $5,302.00. FICA takes 6.2 percent for Social Security ($3,865.70, under the 2026 wage base of $184,500) plus 1.45 percent for Medicare ($904.08), totaling $4,769.78. Gross minus federal minus FICA equals $52,278.23 a year, or $4,356.52 a month. State income tax comes off on top of this in most states, which is why the state table below can shift your result by over $5,000 a year. For a paycheck-level view of any salary figure, use our salary calculator, and compare trades in the salary guide hub.

Three things move an electrician's take-home more than the median suggests: license level, union status, and overtime. A first-year apprentice and a master electrician with emergency-call overtime can differ by $40,000 in annual take-home on the same crew. The sections below price each factor separately so you can locate yourself on the ladder and see what the next rung is worth after tax.

Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master: Pay at Each License Level

Electrician pay is a ladder with clearly marked rungs. Apprentices combine paid on-the-job training with classroom instruction over four to five years, typically earning 40 to 60 percent of the local journeyman rate with scheduled raises each year. A first-year apprentice near $35,000 gross keeps roughly $30,300 a year after federal and FICA taxes as a single filer in a no-tax state: taxable income after the $16,100 standard deduction is $18,900, federal tax is $2,020, and FICA is $2,677.50. By the fourth year, many apprentices earn in the mid-$40,000s and keep roughly $38,000 to $40,000. The apprentice years are lean, but the training is paid and the raises are contractual rather than discretionary.

Journeymen are fully licensed electricians who can work independently, and the $62,350 BLS median essentially describes this level. As computed above, that median keeps about $52,278 a year before state tax. Experienced journeymen in high-demand markets, especially those with industrial, controls, or project-lead responsibilities, commonly gross $70,000 to $85,000; an $85,000 journeyman keeps about $68,600 a year after federal and FICA as a single filer. Master electricians hold the top license: they can pull permits, supervise journeymen and apprentices, and run their own contracting businesses. Employed masters typically gross $85,000 to $110,000, and self-employed masters with a solid book of commercial work can exceed that, though they then face self-employment tax and business expenses like any contractor.

The after-tax value of each step is what matters for career planning. Moving from a $45,000 apprentice wage to the $62,350 journeyman median adds roughly $17,000 in gross but closer to $13,000 in take-home, because each extra dollar is taxed at your 12 or 22 percent marginal rate plus 7.65 percent FICA. Moving from journeyman to a $90,000 master role adds about $27,000 gross and roughly $20,000 in take-home. Every license exam you pass is therefore worth thousands of after-tax dollars a year for the rest of your career, which makes exam preparation one of the highest-return investments an electrician can make. Enter each rung's salary in the calculator above to see your own numbers.

Union vs Non-Union Electrician Take-Home Pay

Union membership is the second major pay lever. Electricians in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and similar unions typically earn $5 to $10 more per hour than non-union peers in the same market, along with defined benefit pensions, stronger health coverage, and formal overtime rules. On a 2,080-hour year, a $7 hourly premium is $14,560 in extra gross, which translates to roughly $10,500 to $11,000 in extra take-home for a single filer after federal and FICA. That premium compounds over a career and funds a materially better retirement.

The honest accounting must subtract what union membership costs. Working dues typically run 3 to 5 percent of gross wages, plus flat monthly local dues, so a journeyman grossing $75,000 might pay $2,500 to $4,000 a year in dues. Benefit fund contributions for pension and health come out before take-home as well, though non-union workers usually pay health premiums and fund their own retirement anyway, often less generously. After dues, the union journeyman still typically nets several thousand dollars more per year than a non-union electrician working the same hours, with better benefits on top. The main risk is availability of work: union halls dispatch by seniority and market conditions, so during slow periods a non-union electrician with steady hours can temporarily out-earn a union member waiting for dispatch.

Prevailing-wage law adds another wrinkle that favors licensed electricians in both camps. Publicly funded projects generally must pay prevailing wages, which are often set near union scale, so licensed journeymen on public jobs earn premium rates regardless of membership. If you do commercial or industrial work, ask whether your projects are prevailing-wage; the difference can be $10 or more per hour for identical tasks. Non-union electricians competing for private residential and service work trade lower hourly rates for steadier year-round hours and faster paths to running their own shop.

Overtime: How Extra Hours Flow to Take-Home Pay

Unlike long-haul trucking, electrical work generally carries standard overtime protections: non-exempt electricians typically earn time-and-a-half for hours beyond 40 a week, plus premium rates for weekends, holidays, and emergency call-outs. Overtime is a major income channel in construction and service work, where project deadlines and storm repairs create bursts of premium hours. A journeyman at the $62,350 median who adds $7,500 of overtime ($69,850 total) pays $6,537.00 in federal tax, $4,330.70 in Social Security, and $1,012.83 in Medicare, keeping $57,969.48 a year, or $4,830.79 a month, before state tax. That $7,500 of extra work converts to roughly $5,690 of extra take-home, an effective marginal keep rate near 76 percent.

For 2026 there is a new benefit to know about. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a deduction for qualified overtime premium pay, generally the half-time premium portion required under the Fair Labor Standards Act, of up to $12,500 for single filers ($25,000 joint) for tax years 2025 through 2028. Overtime remains subject to Social Security and Medicare tax, and the deduction is realized at filing unless withholding is adjusted, but it modestly increases the after-tax value of genuine overtime hours. The calculator on this page treats overtime as ordinary wages, which is the conservative approach; any deduction benefit appears as a slightly larger refund at tax time rather than in each paycheck.

Strategically, overtime favors electricians chasing a savings goal or a house down payment: a year of heavy overtime at time-and-a-half can add the equivalent of a full license rung to take-home. The cost is physical wear and lost training time, so younger electricians should weigh overtime against license study, since the journeyman and master exams raise every future hour permanently while overtime raises only the hours worked. Track your own trade-off with the hours field in the calculator, which converts your annual take-home into an effective hourly rate.

Specialties That Raise Electrician Pay

Within the trade, what you wire matters almost as much as your license level. The table below shows typical gross ranges for common electrician paths (industry-reported ranges, not BLS figures) with the single-filer, no-state-tax take-home each implies under 2026 rules. Linemen and industrial electricians top the list; residential service work anchors the lower end but offers the steadiest hours and the easiest path to self-employment.

Two paths deserve special attention. Controls and automation work pays a durable premium because relatively few electricians can program and troubleshoot PLCs, and factories pay dearly to avoid downtime. The lineman track has the highest ceiling but the hardest lifestyle: storm duty, remote postings, and genuine physical risk. Both reward electricians who invest in training beyond the minimum license, which is the recurring theme of this trade: skills you can document convert directly into after-tax dollars.

Electrician Take-Home Pay by State (2026)

The table below applies 2026 federal tax and FICA to the $62,350 BLS median for a single filer, then subtracts an estimated state income tax for each state. State figures are flat effective-rate estimates for illustration, not exact bracket calculations; see our state tax rates guide for precise brackets. State-specific paycheck detail is available on pages like the Texas paycheck calculator, the California paycheck calculator, the Washington paycheck calculator, the Colorado paycheck calculator, and the Tennessee paycheck calculator.

The gap between Texas and Oregon exceeds $5,400 a year on identical gross pay, which is almost a full license rung of progress. But local gross pay varies more than taxes do: prevailing wages and union density make states like Illinois, New York, and Washington pay well above the national median, while lower-cost states often pay below it. Always compare complete local offers, gross plus tax, against housing costs before relocating. Electricians who work across state lines generally owe tax where they live, with credits for taxes paid elsewhere; confirm sourcing with a tax professional.

How Electricians Can Raise Take-Home Pay

First, finish the license ladder. Passing the journeyman exam, then the master exam, is worth thousands of after-tax dollars a year for life, as the worked examples above show. Second, price union membership in your local market: compare the hall's dispatched hourly rate and benefit package against your current total compensation minus what you spend on health insurance and retirement. In strong union markets the switch is the single biggest raise available. Third, add one premium skill: PLC and controls programming, fire alarm and low-voltage systems, or solar plus storage installation each open higher-paying project categories.

Fourth, if you are married, model joint filing in the calculator; the 2026 joint standard deduction of $32,200 and doubled brackets often cut the federal bill by several thousand dollars versus two single filers with similar income. Fifth, use pre-tax benefits aggressively: 401(k) or union annuity contributions, HSA dollars, and any available deferred compensation reduce both income tax and, in some cases, FICA. Sixth, independent contractors should track every deductible expense, mileage, tools, phone, insurance, and home office, and pay quarterly estimated taxes to avoid penalties that silently erase a raise. Broader comparisons live in the salary guide, and any figure here can be converted to paycheck terms with the salary calculator.

Sources and Methodology

Median pay figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook for electricians: $62,350 per year ($29.98 per hour) in May 2024, based on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. Federal calculations use 2026 tax law: the single standard deduction of $16,100 and single brackets of 10 percent to $12,400, 12 percent to $50,400, 22 percent to $105,700, 24 percent to $201,775, 32 percent to $256,225, 35 percent to $640,600, and 37 percent above (IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32). FICA uses the 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500 at 6.2 percent and Medicare at 1.45 percent with the 0.9 percent additional tax above $200,000 single / $250,000 joint. State taxes in the table are simplified flat effective-rate estimates for illustration. Specialty gross ranges are industry-reported typical ranges, not BLS data. All math on this page was recomputed against the live calculator logic before publication.