Occupation / job
Electricians
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
The $63,190 midpoint sits $6.33 an hour above the $50,020 typical American job. That is a 26% premium, and premiums are rationed: whatever rations this one is the thing standing between you and Electricians.
At 757,220 workers, Electricians is one of the largest occupations in the country. Jobs at this scale are the labour market’s floor — always hiring, rarely bidding, and first to absorb people leaving somewhere else.
These trades suit people who want a skill that is portable, credentialed by doing rather than by studying, and demonstrably useful to somebody in every town.
We carry no verified training length for Electricians — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $49,430 and a quarter above $83,940: a 1.7x ratio, $34,510 between the ends. That is an ordinary working spread, which also means experience and location explain most of it and there is no shortcut through the middle.
The 25th percentile is $49,430, $590 above the $50,020 typical American job. A floor above the national midpoint is rare, and it is worth more than an equivalent amount of upside.
Avoid it if the cumulative physical wear is not something you have thought about honestly at the age you would be finishing.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 757,220 figure counts people already working as Electricians, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A 1.7x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $63,190 as where you might be after years in Electricians, and $49,430 as where you would start.
Put in money rather than ratios: $49,430 at the 25th percentile, $63,190 at the midpoint, $83,940 at the 75th. $34,510 separates the quarter of Electricians at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $83,940. Reaching it from the $63,190 midpoint is $20,750 a year; reaching it from the $49,430 that the bottom quarter of Electricians earn is $34,510.
The climb from $63,190 to $83,940 is $20,750, against $13,760 down to $49,430. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in Electricians is larger than the realistic downside.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $30.37 at the midpoint for Electricians, $23.76 at the 25th percentile and $40.35 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $63,190 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $63,190 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Electricians, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else