We’ve just had a change of personnel at the director level in my workplace. This spurred a conversation where my electrician colleague said I bet they’re on 100k plus. This got me thinking, can electricians make 100k a year? This article is my investigation to answer this question.
Typically, electricians are paid by the hour, which also means that they can earn only a specific amount of money in a day, depending upon their working hours. Some electricians also work on a project base, which allows them to make more money by quickly completing the task at hand. However, it isn’t easy to make more than $100,000 a year if an electrician works for someone else.
I found it easier to find statistics for USA wages so a lot of the discussion is based on American wages but the same applies in many of the countries as we will see further on.
Some electricians are able to make 100K a year but it isn’t easy or especially common. Typically, those electricians who own their own company or specialise in a specific electrical niche are the ones who manage to reach the magic milestone of 100,000 in wages
So that’s the short answer so let’s now discuss and look at the specifics on how likely it is an electrician can make $100,000 a year.
Is It Possible to Make 100K a Year as an Electrician?
According to the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), electricians in the US make $56,900 per year on average. The average annual wage varies from state to state depending upon various factors such as degree of skill, hourly rate, and nature of work.
There are three different levels of electricians including entry-level, journeyman, and master. The average per hour pay of an entry-level electrician is $11 to $15. A journeyman can earn up to $25 an hour and the hourly wage of a master electrician can be somewhere between $40 to $100.
It means that a master-level electrician can easily make more than $100,000 in a year. These individuals have years of experience and advanced skills developed over the course of time.
They also need to have a master electrician license. In order to get this license, it’s necessary for every electrician to work for at least two years as a journeyman and then take and successfully pass the master electrician test.
A master electrician can easily repair, install, and maintain even the most complex electrical systems. Thus, a master electrician with an hourly wage of $50 can earn more than $124,000 a year if s/he works 8 hours a day and 26 days a month.
Can an Electrician Become a Millionaire?
As mentioned, most electricians are paid on an hourly basis. They can maximize their earnings by working on a project base and completing the task quickly. However, it’s almost impossible to become a millionaire for an electrician if he/she works for someone else.
If you’re an electrician and want to become a millionaire, your best bet is to start your own business. It’ll help you maximize your earnings by getting more work done in the shortest possible time. While it’s a big responsibility as you need to take care of a lot of cash flow and all of the business operations, it’s the quickest and most reliable way to become a millionaire as an electrician.
When starting our own business with the goal of getting to a million we have to be willing to employ other electricians to help us, we could never do the amount of work required on our own. Those electricians that go down this route find they end up mainly in the office pricing and organising work.
What Are the Highest-Paid Electricians?
The following are the highest-paid electrician job roles available.
Electrical Foreman
The national average earning of an electrical foreman is $30.28 per hour in the United States. The main job of an electrical foreman is to supervise the progress of other electricians on the exterior and interior projects including electrical stations and construction sites. Not only do they look after the installation and maintenance work, but they also design and plan electrical systems.
Supervising projects can increase the stress levels of the electrician and is something many shy away from.
Maintenance Electrician
The national average earning of a maintenance electrician is $27.36 per hour in the United States. The job responsibilities of a maintenance electrician include installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical equipment in any manufacturing or commercial setting. They can also work in residential buildings.
Be aware that being a maintenance electrician often involves working shifts including night shifts.
Industrial Electrician
The national average earning of an industrial electrician is $27.26 per hour in the United States. The job of these electricians includes maintaining and repairing electrical equipment in manufacturing and commercial settings. It’s pretty similar to maintenance electricians but industrial electricians usually only work in industrial environments.
I wrote an article here on my typical day as an industrial electrician.
Avionics Technician
The national average earning of an avionics technician is $26.84 per hour in the United States. They install, repair, and maintain electrical systems present in aircraft that pilots use. It’s one of the most critical and desirable jobs for electricians. That’s because they need to be extra careful to ensure passengers’ safety and they can also work overtime to increase their earnings.
I have personally tried getting into this side of the industry but with no luck so far. It is the classic chicken and egg situation of needing the experience to get the job but how do you get experience without getting the job?
Automation Technician
The national average earning of an automation technician is $25.84 per hour in the United States. These electricians need to deal with electrical automation systems in a vast array of settings such as industrial processing and manufacturing. These electricians also need to have programming skills and that’s why it’s one of the highest paying electrician jobs in the US.
PLC (program logic control) electricians command a high wage as this is a specialist area of electrical work that we are not taught in our apprenticeships. This can be a great area for older apprentices to try to get into.
Can Electricians Make Six Figures? (Which Country Pays the Most for Electricians)
According to the survey published by Electrical Direct, Great Britons, America, Germany, and Japan are the countries that pay the most for electricians. The survey estimates that British electricians earn about $40,000 per year on average which is significantly lower than German electricians who earn more than $56,000 annually on average.
Japan is the country that pays the highest to electricians. On average, an electrician earns more than $66,000 in Japan per year. It’s important to note that the cost of living in these places, especially Japan, is significantly higher than in most countries.
Regional differences also play a significant role as electricians living in the same country can have different salaries depending upon their areas. For example, British electricians living in London earn the highest average salary as compared to places like Glasgow, Brighton and Portsmouth.
The difference in wages is even more pronounced in the US. For example, an electrician living in New York makes more than $70,000 a year, whereas a professional living and working in a rural area of North Carolina make about $39,000 annually.
It’s worth bearing in mind that although cities such as London pay a higher wage travelling to and from work is much more difficult. In London, we often see electricians on the underground with their tools whereas in rural areas we can just hop in the van in between jobs.
Conclusion
A blue-collar job, like working as an electrician, is the last thing that people consider if they want to earn a lot of money. However, the services that electricians and other blue-collar professionals offer are necessary for contemporary living.
That’s why these jobs have a very high demand and provide electricians with a lot of opportunities to grow. In summary, to answer the original question, do electricians make 100k a year, from what I have found you can certainly make more than 100K a year as an electrician by developing advanced skills, specializing in a specific area of electrical work or by staring your own buisness.
