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One year with an engineering degree
Ten years with no schooling at all
$62,900 a year, about $30.24 an hour
Missouri has manufacturing and aerospace around St. Louis, distribution and rail through Kansas City, hospitals and universities in both, and agricultural processing across the rural counties. The day-to-day looks like:
There is no Missouri journeyman electrician license and no state master license. There is no state electrical board issuing credentials to individuals at all.
Cities and counties handle it, and most of them skip the journeyman tier entirely, licensing only at master or contractor level. Some rural counties require nothing whatsoever. Jefferson City is one of the few places in the state that issues a journeyman license.
So for most people, working as an electrician in Missouri means getting hired by a licensed contractor and getting paid while you learn. No card, no exam, no fee at the door.
What changes that is where you work and how far you want to go. Call the building department in your city and ask two things: do you license electricians, and at what level?
The City of St. Louis runs its own program separately from the county. Springfield and Columbia each have their own. A master license from one Missouri city does not carry authority in another.
One thing in your favor: the map cannot grow. A city or county that did not have the power to license electricians before August 2017 cannot take it up now, so the places that require nothing today will keep requiring nothing.
Get hired. In most of Missouri, that is the whole of the entry, and an apprenticeship pays you while it builds the hours a license would ask for later.
SkillUp houses short, low-cost programs in one place so you’re not calling around. Our Missouri training catalog only lists programs we have checked for cost, length, and whether they lead to work.
Missouri employs about 12,780 electricians, and the median is $65,410 a year, or $31.45 an hour.
To do that, you'll need the statewide electrical contractor license you can choose to hold instead of applying separately in every city you work in.
It is optional, and cities keep their own licenses for everyone who does not hold one. But under state law, every political subdivision has to accept a statewide license in place of its local one, both for doing the work and for pulling permits. A city cannot make you sit its exam or prove your proficiency again.
It can still require a plain business license, charge for permits, ask for a bond, and inspect your work. What it cannot do is put another trade exam in front of you.
The law has teeth. A licensee who is refused can complain to the division, and if a city is still not complying 30 days later, the state withholds its local sales tax revenue until it does.
There are five ways to qualify, and the shortcuts are worth planning around:
You also need $500,000 of liability insurance, and the license renews every three years. Missouri counts documented military electrical training toward the hours, so bring your DD-214 and training transcripts if that applies.
SkillUp is so much more than a job board. Our free tools support you through each step:
In most of the state, no. There is no state journeyman or master license, and most cities and counties license only at master or contractor level. Some rural counties require nothing at all.
Not from the state. A few cities issue one, and Jefferson City is among the few that do, but most Missouri jurisdictions skip the journeyman tier entirely.
Call the building department where you plan to work and ask whether they license electricians and at what level. What each asks for varies widely, and a license from one Missouri city does not carry authority in another.
An optional license from the Office of Statewide Electrical Contractors that you can hold instead of applying separately in each city. Every city has to accept it in place of its own license, for doing the work and for pulling permits, and cannot make you sit another trade exam. Local business licenses, permits, bonds, and inspections still apply.
12,000 hours on experience alone, 10,000 with a journeyman certificate from a federally approved apprenticeship, 8,000 with an associate degree, or 4,000 supervising hours with a four-year degree. Holding a local contractor or master license for six of the last eight years also qualifies.
Yes. Documented military electrical training and experience counts toward the practical hours for the statewide license. You submit your DD-214 with training transcripts.
Not currently. The law allows the state to require it by rule, and the office has said to watch for updates, but none is in force.
The median is $65,410 a year, about $31.45 an hour. The top quarter earns above $93,760, and the top ten percent above $104,060.
