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Age 17
Register with the state for $14
$78,160 a year, about $37.58 an hour
Minnesota has medical device and food manufacturing across the Twin Cities, hospitals and campuses statewide, mining and processing on the Iron Range, and wind farms through the southwest. Cold weather also means everything indoors runs hard for half the year.
Day to day:
Minnesota sets the lowest age floor in the country for this trade. The Department of Labor and Industry says you can perform electrical work at 17, provided you are registered and supervised.
Three things have to be true:
Keep that third point in mind when you are job hunting. A two-person shop can only take on so many beginners, so larger contractors and apprenticeship programs tend to have more room.
Registration costs $14, and you apply through iMS, the department’s online system. You get a number starting with RE, and it runs for one year from the end of the month you registered.
Renewing takes three things: two hours of DLI-approved continuing education, a $19 fee, and a work experience verification form.
Hours only count toward a license if you were registered while you worked them, so file the registration before your first day rather than after.
One provision worth knowing if you are moving here: work you did for a licensed electrical contractor in another state can count toward Minnesota experience. Details are on the experience page.
Minnesota calls it journeyworker rather than journeyman, so that is the word to search for.
Three separate routes qualify you to sit the master exam, and only one of them runs through a journeyworker license:
That five-year route matters if your experience is in industrial or facilities work rather than in contracting. You can reach master without ever holding a journeyworker license.
Registration depends on having an employer, so finding the job and finding the program are the same task.
Minnesota employs about 14,350 electricians, and the median is $78,160 a year, or $37.58 an hour.
Minnesota holds reciprocity agreements with several other states, negotiated by the commissioner and approved by the board. Which states are on the list differs by license class, and the lists change.
Separately from reciprocity, verifiable work you did for a licensed electrical contractor in another state can count toward Minnesota experience even if your state is not a reciprocity partner. That is worth pursuing either way.
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17, which is the lowest age floor of any state for this trade. You have to be registered with the Department of Labor and Industry, employed by a licensed electrical contractor or registered electrical employer, and supervised at all times.
Minnesota calls it a journeyworker electrician license. It is the same credential most states call journeyman, and it is issued by the Department of Labor and Industry.
Yes, and it matters more than it sounds. Hours only count toward a license if you were registered as an unlicensed electrician while you worked them. Registration costs $14 and is done online.
Two. A licensed journeyworker or master electrician may supervise no more than two unlicensed individuals, and everyone has to work for the same employer.
Yes. Verifiable work performed for a licensed electrical contractor in another state can count toward your Minnesota experience, separately from any reciprocity agreement.
No. Three routes qualify you to sit the master exam: a degree in electrical engineering, one year working as a journeyworker, or five years of planning, laying out, supervising, and installing electrical work.
A journeyworker license renews every two years for $53 with 16 hours of continuing education, at least 12 of it on the National Electrical Code. A master license renews for $93 on the same continuing education. Registration renews annually for $19 with two hours of continuing education.
The median is $78,160 a year, about $37.58 an hour. The top quarter earns above $101,410, and the top ten percent above $118,820. Helpers have a median of $46,750.
