None. The state licenses by project size.
Job size and your local codes office
$61,090 a year, about $29.37 an hour
Tennessee has automotive and battery plants across the middle of the state, distribution centers around Memphis, hospitals and music industry buildings in Nashville, and steady residential construction almost everywhere. Day to day:
Tennessee has no statewide journeyman or master electrician license. What it has instead, set out in the board’s own application, is three separate things:
Find out whether the place you will be working operates its own codes office. If it does, its rules govern, and the LLE may not help you. If it does not, the LLE is the state credential that covers smaller work.
Get hired by a licensed electrical contractor. Nothing in state law stops you from working while you learn, and the hours are what every local license will eventually require.
SkillUp houses short, low-cost programs in one place so you’re not calling around. Our Tennessee training catalog only lists programs we have checked for cost, length, and whether they lead to work.
Tennessee employs about 17,070 electricians, and the median is $61,090 a year, or $29.37 an hour.
The Limited Licensed Electrician permit costs $50, is valid for two years, and renews for $50. You have to be at least 18 and pass an exam.
The state sets no minimum hours for the LLE, which makes it one of the few state-issued electrical credentials in the country a person can hold early in their career rather than after four years.
That is worth checking against your own plans, because it only helps in jurisdictions without a local codes office, and those tend to be the smaller and more rural ones.
Nashville and Davidson County, Memphis and Shelby County, Knoxville and Knox County, and Chattanooga and Hamilton County all govern their own licensing. Each jurisdiction sets its own hours, exam, and fees.
Nashville requires a completed apprenticeship for a journeyman license, and around six years of experience for a master. Memphis and Shelby County issue their own electrician licenses through the local code enforcement office.
A license from one Tennessee jurisdiction does not carry to another. The state CE license is the only credential that travels.
There is no journeyman reciprocity, because Tennessee has no state journeyman license to reciprocate with. Your out-of-state journeyman card has no standing here on its own.
Contractor licensing is different. The Board for Licensing Contractors holds trade exam reciprocity with several other states, so a comparable license elsewhere can save you the trade exam on a CE application.
SkillUp is so much more than a job board. Our free tools support you through each step:
Not from the state. Tennessee issues a Limited Licensed Electrician permit for work under $25,000 and a contractor license with a CE classification for work at or above it. Individual cities and counties issue journeyman and master licenses.
It depends where you work. Where a local codes office exists, its license applies regardless of job size. Where one does not, the state LLE covers smaller work. Nothing stops you from working for a licensed contractor while you learn.
A state permit for electrical work costing less than $25,000, valid only in areas that use the State Fire Marshal for permits and inspections rather than running their own codes office. It costs $50 and runs two years.
About three years of experience to apply without a board interview, a trade exam, a business and law exam, and $500,000 in general liability coverage. It costs $250 to start and $200 to renew every two years.
It replaces the local exam, not the local license. You still take out each jurisdiction’s license and pay its fees, but you do not have to retake its electrical exam.
No. Local licenses do not carry across jurisdictions. The state CE license is the only credential accepted statewide.
Not for journeyman licensing, since there is no state journeyman license. The Board for Licensing Contractors does hold trade exam reciprocity with several states for contractor licensing.
The median is $61,090 a year, about $29.37 an hour. The top quarter earns above $76,060, and the top ten percent above $92,160. Helpers have a median of $39,710.
