Electrician Salary in Louisiana 2026,
$61,540 Median | BLS Data by City

Louisiana electricians earn a median $61,540 a year, or $29.59 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $38,750 at the 10th percentile to $81,810 at the 90th. That is only 2.6% below the national median of $63,190 — an unusually small gap for a state with Louisiana's cost of living, and the reason is the concentration of industrial electrical work on the Baton Rouge to New Orleans corridor.

Baton Rouge, at $65,330, followed by Lake Charles $63,620, New Orleans-Metairie $62,490, Monroe $60,940 and Shreveport-Bossier City $60,830. The top two are the plant markets: Baton Rouge sits in the middle of the chemical corridor and Lake Charles serves the LNG and refining complex in the southwest. New Orleans-Metairie is the biggest employer of electricians in the state but pays below both, because its work mix leans commercial and service rather than capital construction.

Not for individuals. The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors licenses the contracting business that performs electrical work above the statutory threshold, through a qualifying party who passes the board's examination. The journeyman and master credentials that individual electricians hold are issued by municipalities — New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport and others each run their own — so a card that qualifies you in one Louisiana city does not automatically qualify you in the next. Budget for a local exam when changing markets.

Less than it used to. Louisiana moved to a flat 3% individual income tax in 2026 from a graduated schedule topping out at 4.25%, with a larger standard deduction alongside it, so the $61,540 median is taxed at a low and predictable state rate. The offset is sales tax: Louisiana's combined state-and-local rate is among the highest in the country, which matters for a trade that buys its own tools and vehicle.

It is one of the strongest in the country for it. The location quotient of 1.12 on 10,550 jobs reflects a petrochemical, refining and LNG base that runs scheduled turnarounds every year and periodically adds new capital projects. The trade-off is volatility — the same concentration that pushes Baton Rouge to $65,330 also means work is scheduled in bursts, and electricians in these markets typically plan around turnaround seasons rather than a flat annual calendar.

Because the marginal employer is an industrial contractor, not a homebuilder. In most low-wage states the electrician median is set by residential and light commercial work, which prices off local construction costs. Louisiana's is partly set by refinery and chemical-plant maintenance, which prices off a national market for craft labour and competes with Gulf Coast turnaround travel rates. That pulls the whole distribution up — visible in a 75th percentile of $72,840 and a 90th of $81,810 that would look ordinary in a much richer state.

OEWS reports wages for people employed at Louisiana establishments in May 2025, and a turnaround-heavy market moves people in and out of the state on short contracts. Travelling craft workers on a Louisiana project can be counted here, and Louisiana-based electricians working out of state on a contract are not. On top of that the annual figures assume year-round employment, which for project-based industrial work is often the exception. Read the band, not the point estimate, and treat the $61,540 median as the midpoint of several quite different working patterns.

Three mechanics, in order of effect. First, per-diem and travel allowances on plant work, which are not wages but materially change take-home and are invisible in the OEWS figure. Second, overtime during turnarounds — extended shift schedules are normal and push annual earnings above the hourly-implied rate. Third, holding the right municipal card for the market you want, since the local licence is a hard gate on who may pull permits and therefore on who gets promoted to leadman.