Estimating Your Electrician Salary and Earning While Training

The average electrician salary is somewhere between $47,000 and $63,000, with some electricians earning as little as $28,000 or as much as $80,000 per year. In any case, the electrician salary allows for a comfortable lifestyle in most areas and reflects the difficulty of the work. In order to have a better idea of what kind of electrician salary you can expect—whether you’re just considering entering the field or you’re moving to a new location—you should take four factors into consideration:

  1. Your Experience: Experience is the most important factor when it comes to determining your electrician salary. The longer you’re in the field and the more successful you’ve been, the more you’ll earn. You’ll be glad to know that while a three- to five-year apprenticeship is required before you can start earning a full electrician salary, you’ll be paid an apprentice electrician salary during those years as you train. However, you should expect the apprentice electrician salary to be less than that of the average licensed electrician salary, so $28,000 or lower.
  2. Your Employer: The type of place for which you work can have a significant impact on your electrician salary as well. Construction companies employ the most electricians and you may be able to earn as much as $50,000 annually in the industry. If you work for employment services, allowing a company to place you where there’s need for electricians, your electrician salary could be less—about $43,000 per year. You could also go into business for yourself and your electrician salary will depend largely on your skill to find clients and to establish yourself as a reputable electrician in the community.
  3. Your Specialization: Not all electricians bother with specializations, as the general work an electrician can perform is generally challenging and comprehensive. However, if you specialize in audio and video equipment electrical hook-ups, for example, you can earn an average electrician salary of $75,000 in the motion picture industry.
  4. Your Location: Like most jobs, your electrician salary will also be largely affected by your location. Where cost of living is higher, your electrician salary will be higher, but you must take into consideration the fact that it will cost more money to live and shop in those locations as well. In Wyoming, for example, your average electrician salary may be $48,000, while you can earn an average electrician salary of about $67,000 in Illinois.