Age 16
8,000 hours under a master electrician
$58,570 a year, about $28.16 an hour
Texas has petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast, data centers and chip fabrication around Austin and Dallas, hospitals and universities in every metro, and housing going up faster than almost anywhere. Day to day:
Texas licenses apprentices, and the bar is low on purpose. You have to be 16 years old. No exam, no experience, and the fee is small. You work under a master electrician, journeyman, or residential wireman while you learn.
That means someone can finish high school with two years of licensed, paid experience already behind them.
One thing to get right, and it is the mistake that costs people the most. Hours worked before your apprentice license exists do not count toward anything. Register first, then start. The license runs a year and renews annually, and if it lapses, you cannot legally do electrical work in Texas.
Get the apprentice license, then find the employer. In Texas, the license comes first, and it is deliberately easy to get.
SkillUp houses short, low-cost programs in one place so you’re not calling around. Our Texas training catalog only lists programs we have checked for cost, length, and whether they lead to work.
Texas employs about 76,770 electricians, and the median is $58,570 a year, or $28.16 an hour.
Texas has had one statewide license since 2004. Here are the rungs on the ladder and what it takes to climb them.
Above that sits the electrical contractor license, which goes to a business rather than a person. It has to be owned by or employ a master electrician and carry general liability insurance.
The journeyman lineman and journeyman industrial electrician licenses are limited licenses, and TDLR does not count them toward a master electrician license. If master is your goal, the standard journeyman is the one to hold.
TDLR offers a military outreach program that covers license renewal for people whose licenses expired while they were on active duty, alongside its wider provisions for service members and spouses.
Texas also holds journeyman reciprocity with several other states and publishes a dedicated reciprocity application among its electrician forms. If you hold a comparable license elsewhere, that is the route you'll take rather than starting over.
SkillUp is so much more than a job board. Our free tools support you through each step:
16 for an electrical apprentice license, which is the youngest entry point of any state we have covered. There is no exam and no experience needed. Electrical sign apprentices have to be 18.
Yes. Anyone performing electrical work in Texas has to be licensed, with limited exemptions. The apprentice license is the entry credential and it is straightforward to get.
No. Hours worked before your apprentice license exists do not count toward a journeyman license. Register first, then start working, and keep the license current, because a lapse stops you working legally.
8,000 hours of on-the-job training under a master electrician, which is about four years of full-time work, plus the journeyman exam.
Yes. Texas has run a single statewide license since 2004 under the Electrical Safety and Licensing Act, so there are no separate city licenses to obtain.
12,000 hours of on-the-job training under a master electrician, and you must have held a journeyman license for at least two years. Journeyman lineman and journeyman industrial electrician licenses are limited licenses and do not count toward it.
Your supervising master electrician submits form ELC017. Apprentices cannot file it on their own behalf, so keep your employer relationships in good order.
The median is $58,570 a year, about $28.16 an hour. The top quarter earns above $71,130, and the top ten percent above $80,300. Helpers have a median of $44,360.
