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How to Become an Electrician in Tennessee

Tennessee has three layers of electrical licensing, and none of them is called journeyman. Which one applies to you depends on the size of the job and whether your city operates its own codes office. Here’s how to tell them apart.

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What You Need to Know

Tennessee at a Glance

State journeyman license

None. The state licenses by project size.

What determines your license

Job size and your local codes office

Median pay in Tennessee

$61,090 a year, about $29.37 an hour

What Electricians Do in Tennessee

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:

  • Running conduit and pulling wire in plants, warehouses, commercial buildings, and homes
  • Reading prints and troubleshooting power, lighting, and control systems
  • Industrial maintenance work, which pays well and runs year-round
  • Service calls, where diagnosis matters more than installation speed
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The Low-Down on Tennessee's Licenses

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:

  • Limited Licensed Electrician (LLE): A state permit for electrical work costing less than $25,000. It applies only where the local government has no codes office of its own and relies on the State Fire Marshal for permits and inspections.
  • Electrical Contractor (CE): The state contractor license with a CE classification, for any electrical work costing $25,000 or more. Accepted statewide, and roughly equivalent to what other states call a master license.
  • Local licenses: Journeyman and master licenses issued by the bigger cities and counties. Where a local codes office exists, its license applies regardless of the job size.

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.

How to Start

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.

  • Registered apprenticeships: IBEW locals and their joint training committees run programs across the state, and Independent Electrical Contractors and Associated Builders and Contractors both run merit-shop alternatives. Four to five years, paid, classroom included.
  • TCAT programs: The Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology offer electrical programs across the state, and they are among the cheapest post-secondary options in the country.
  • Ask locally, early: Call the codes office where you plan to work before you plan anything else. Whether your area has one decides which of the three layers applies to you.

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.

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What Electricians Earn in Tennessee

Tennessee employs about 17,070 electricians, and the median is $61,090 a year, or $29.37 an hour.

  • Bottom ten percent: $39,600
  • Median: $61,090
  • Top quarter: above $76,060
  • Top ten percent: above $92,160
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How to Get the LLE License

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.

What the Bigger Cities Require

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.

Coming From Another State?

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.

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FAQs

Is there a Tennessee journeyman electrician license?

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.

Do I need a license to work as an electrician in Tennessee?

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.

What is a Limited Licensed Electrician?

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.

What does the CE contractor license take?

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.

Does a CE license replace local licenses?

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.

Does a license from one Tennessee city work in another?

No. Local licenses do not carry across jurisdictions. The state CE license is the only credential accepted statewide.

Does Tennessee have reciprocity with other states?

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.

How much do electricians make in Tennessee?

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.