8,000 hours over four years, plus 600 classroom hours
4,000 hours over two years, plus 300 classroom hours
$79,420 a year, about $38.18 an hour
Massachusetts has old buildings and new money going into them: hospitals and research labs across Boston and Worcester, biotech and lab fit-outs in Cambridge, universities, and housing stock that predates modern wiring by a century.
Day to day:
The Board of State Examiners of Electricians issues four licenses:
The systems track is worth a serious look. It’s half the hours and half the classroom time; it’s licensed work you can build a career in; and the two tracks feed each other: systems experience counts for up to 4,000 hours toward the journeyman requirement later, and systems education counts toward the 600 hours.
Massachusetts is specific about documentation, and the details are in regulation rather than in a brochure.
Applications go to PSI online, and an incomplete one is held for 180 days before it’s treated as abandoned. Full details are in 237 CMR 13.00.
The board writes military credit into its regulations rather than handling it case by case, and the amounts are substantial.
You document it with your DD214 or DD215 and a statement on military letterhead describing the work and the dates.
There’s a fee waiver too. Under the Valor Act, the Massachusetts application processing fee is waived for veterans, active military, and their spouses, which brings a journeyman application down from $226 to $195. Military spouses file an affidavit with the application.
Because the board only counts hours from schools it has approved, checking the list first saves you from paying for education that will not count.
Fees go to PSI with your application, by money order or cashier’s check. Current totals cover the application and exam. The license fee itself is separate. Renewal takes 21 hours of continuing education every three years, 15 of which have to cover the Massachusetts Electrical Code and related topics.
Massachusetts employs about 17,810 electricians, and the median is $79,420 a year, or $38.18 an hour.
Massachusetts holds a reciprocity agreement with New Hampshire. Coming from anywhere else, you can still apply for the equivalent license if you were licensed by examination, have held it at least a year, and have been working under it.
The board will want your program overview and transcripts, letters from employers on letterhead with the qualifying officer’s license number, and a certified statement from the licensing authority confirming your license is current and listing any disciplinary history.
It can decide your education or experience is not equivalent and deny credit for part or all of it, so send more documentation rather than less.
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Four years for a journeyman license: 8,000 hours of work under a licensed Massachusetts journeyman plus 600 classroom hours. The systems technician license takes half that, at 4,000 hours over two years plus 300 classroom hours.
A separately licensed electrician who works on fire alarm, security, telecom, and other low-voltage systems. It takes half the hours of a journeyman license, and the experience counts for up to 4,000 hours toward a journeyman license later.
Yes to work unsupervised. Apprentices work under the direct supervision of a licensed Massachusetts journeyman while they log the 8,000 hours.
Yes. The board asks for documentary proof of a high school diploma or equivalent for the journeyman and systems technician exams.
A Massachusetts journeyman license, at least one year working under it, and 150 hours of board-approved classroom instruction. Only a master electrician can pull an electrical permit.
Yes, and the amounts are set in regulation. Military construction or base maintenance work can cover up to half your work hours, capped at 4,000, plus 300 education hours. Aircraft and shipboard electricians and Merchant Marine strikers can claim up to 2,000 work hours and 150 education hours.
With New Hampshire. If you are licensed elsewhere by examination and have held that license for at least a year, you can still apply for the equivalent Massachusetts license with documentation of your education and experience.
The median is $79,420 a year, about $38.18 an hour. The top quarter earns above $100,480, and the top ten percent above $128,210. Helpers have a median of $48,340.
$226 for the journeyman or systems technician exam and $276 for the master exam, paid to PSI. Veterans, active military, and their spouses have the Massachusetts processing fee waived, bringing those to $195 and $210.
