Electrician Salary in Iowa 2026,
$60,860 Median | BLS Data by City

Iowa electricians earn a median $60,860 a year, or $29.26 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $39,770 at the 10th percentile to $89,480 at the 90th. That is 3.7% below the national median of $63,190. The band's upper reach is the notable part: a 75th percentile of $79,970 is well above the national median, which means Iowa has a substantial, well-paid industrial electrical tier even though its overall median sits below the US figure.

Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, at $76,950, well clear of everything else, with Sioux City second at $73,910. Waterloo-Cedar Falls $63,420, Ames $63,320 and Des Moines-West Des Moines $62,840 form a much lower cluster. The Quad Cities figure comes with an important caveat: that metropolitan area crosses the Mississippi into Illinois, so its published median blends two states' labour markets, wage norms and licensing regimes rather than describing Iowa alone.

Through the Iowa Electrical Examining Board, part of the State Fire Marshal Division. Register as an apprentice, accumulate the required documented on-the-job hours alongside classroom instruction, then sit the journeyman examination. The master licence follows further experience and a separate examination, and it is the credential behind supervising others and holding an electrical contractor licence. Unlike states that license city by city, an Iowa licence is valid statewide.

Particularly so at the top of the trade. Iowa's flat 3.8% individual income tax replaced a graduated schedule reaching 5.7%, and electricians at the $79,970 seventy-fifth percentile or the $89,480 ninetieth were the ones paying that old top rate. High property taxes are the offset. If you are weighing a Quad Cities job, note that the metro spans the state line and the two sides tax and license differently — compare the specific employer's location, not the metro average.

Because the metro is not entirely in Iowa. Davenport-Moline-Rock Island includes Illinois counties, and the published $76,950 median reflects the combined market — including its Illinois union scales and industrial employers — rather than an Iowa-only figure. The underlying Iowa-side reality is still strong, since the region is a manufacturing centre, but a reader planning a move should treat that number as a metro figure spanning two states rather than as an Iowa benchmark.

A genuine two-tier market. Iowa's residential and light commercial electrical work prices against local construction costs and populates the $46,400-to-$60,860 stretch of the band. Its industrial tier — agricultural processing plants, manufacturing, data centres and a very large wind generation fleet — prices against a national market for skilled maintenance and construction electricians, often at union scale, and populates the $79,970-to-$89,480 stretch. Both hold the same Iowa journeyman licence. The decision that separates them is which sector an electrician builds a career in, and it is worth more than any number of years.

Two, and both are about geography. The Quad Cities median of $76,950 is a cross-state metro figure, as above. And the state median of $60,860 pools a heavily industrial eastern and western Iowa with a central Iowa market weighted toward residential and commercial construction — Des Moines-West Des Moines publishes $62,840 despite being the state's largest labour market, which is a composition effect rather than evidence that the capital pays badly. Beyond that, project-based industrial work carries overtime and per-diem that OEWS does not capture.

Sector, licence level and travel. Sector is the largest: moving from residential to industrial or wind service work is the difference between the lower and upper halves of this band. Licence level is the second — the master licence from the Iowa Electrical Examining Board is a hard gate on supervision and on contracting, and it is a state credential that travels within Iowa. Travel is the third: wind service and plant turnaround work in Iowa often involves regional travel with per-diem attached, which materially changes take-home without appearing in the wage figure.