IBEW apprentice pay: how the pay steps work

How much does a first-year IBEW apprentice make?

It depends on your local, because first-year pay is a share of that local's journeyman rate. On the dated 2026 sheets below, the first step pays $26.20 an hour at NIETC in Oregon, where the journeyman rate is $65.50 an hour from January 1, 2026. At Minneapolis it pays $27.90, against a journeyman rate of $62.00 an hour, wages effective May 1, 2026. Boston pays $27.51 an hour for electrical apprentices from September 1, 2026. Benefits come on top of the wage, and Minneapolis lists a first-period package of $46.46 an hour, of which $27.90 is wages and the rest benefits such as health care and pension. Find your own local's sheet before you plan, and allow for short weeks, since a full week of work is not guaranteed.

Why apprentice pay comes in steps

The steps are a legal requirement, because federal rules require every registered apprenticeship to pay a progressively increasing schedule of wages as the apprentice gains skill. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says apprentices earn less than fully trained electricians, and their pay rises as they learn to do more.

Each IBEW program writes its steps into its registered standards. A step is a percentage of the journeyman wireman rate, the hourly wage a fully trained inside wireman earns under the local's contract. When the journeyman rate goes up in a new contract, every step goes up with it.

How you move up a step

You need two things for each raise: enough on-the-job hours, and passing your related classes. For example, Minneapolis moves you to its third period at 2,000 hours and a passed first year of school, and each later step needs more hours and another passed year. North Texas Electrical JATC ties its steps to hours plus hours of classroom instruction in the same way.

So a raise is not automatic on a calendar date. If you work short weeks, or fall behind in school, your next step comes later. Federal rules set a floor far below these programs: a time-based apprenticeship needs at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning, with at least 144 hours of related instruction a year recommended. NIETC and North Texas both ask for 8,000 hours.

2026 wage sheets from named programs

Each row comes from the program's own page or its registered standards, with the date the sheet itself gives. Only sheets with a date are used for dollar amounts.

These are inside wireman rates. Telecom, sound and residential programs have their own scales. For context, the national median for all electricians, union and non-union, was $63,190 a year, or $30.38 an hour, in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What the hourly rate leaves out

The hourly wage is only part of what a union contract pays. Benefits are paid on top of your wage, into funds for health care, pension and training. At the top of the scale, Tucson lists a journeyman package of $47.00 an hour from June 1, 2026, of which $34.16 is wages and the rest health care, pension, annuity and other funds.

Some money also goes the other way:

• Dues and assessments. Tucson lists a working assessment of 4 percent of hourly gross pay for initiated members, paid from the third apprentice period on. Each local sets its own.
• Books and fees. Boston charges no tuition, but its apprentices buy books and pay fees of about $1,200 a year. Costs differ by program, so ask yours.
• Class time. NIETC apprentices are not paid for class days, but a Local 48 fund pays $299 after each completed term, up to $598 a year.

Planning for the first year

If you earn more now than a first-step apprentice in your area, plan for the drop before you accept. Applicants raise this often. For example, one applicant wrote that, after doing the math, counting on overtime looked like the only way to afford the first-year rate. Overtime is not something to count on: NIETC says there is no guarantee of a 40-hour week, since short weeks and overtime weeks follow the economy.

A simple plan helps:

1. Find your local's sheet and multiply its journeyman rate by the first-step percentage. That is your hourly pay before tax.
2. Work out a month at 32 hours a week, not 40, to leave room for short weeks and class days.
3. List what changes for you: health insurance may start only after a waiting period, and you may need tools, boots and books in the first weeks.
4. Look ahead as well. On the sheets above, the last apprentice step is 70 to 85 percent of the journeyman rate.

Related pages

• The IBEW apprenticeship, step by step: the whole path from application to your first day.
• Inside wireman: what the job is and how long the program takes.
• Inside wireman vs lineman: the two paths side by side, with BLS median pay.
• The IBEW ranking list: what happens before you are called.
• How to join an IBEW apprenticeship: the steps from application to test day.

Questions people ask