Electrician Salary in Ohio 2026,
$64,700 Median | BLS Data by City

Ohio electricians earn a median $64,700 a year, $31.11 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $50,120 and $80,500 and a full range of $40,750 to $99,280. The spread within Ohio is driven far more by sector — residential service versus industrial maintenance — than by years in the trade.

Akron pays the most at $77,360, then Lima at $75,600, Toledo at $74,710, Cleveland at $70,860 and Columbus at $64,700. The Akron and Lima figures reflect polymer, refining and heavy manufacturing plants that need resident electrical maintenance, which pays a premium over construction work in the same region.

Not at state level. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, part of the Department of Commerce, issues an electrical contractor licence that covers commercial work statewide — it requires five years of trade experience or an engineering degree plus experience, a passing trade examination, and proof of liability insurance. Journeyman and residential electrician licensing is handled by individual Ohio cities and counties, so requirements vary between Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and the smaller jurisdictions.

It is the clearest single step to the top of the Ohio range, because it lets you bid and hold commercial contracts in your own name across the state rather than working under someone else's licence. The trade-off is that it converts you from an employee into a business owner, with the insurance, bonding and administrative load that implies — the state 90th percentile of $99,280 as a wage figure understates what a busy Ohio contractor earns and overstates what a new one does.

Because Columbus's electrical demand is largely commercial and residential construction driven by population growth, while Akron, Lima and Toledo have concentrated industrial plant that employs electricians directly for maintenance at plant wage scales. Construction electrical work is more cyclical and more competitively bid; plant maintenance carries shift differentials, call-out and shutdown overtime that lift annual earnings.

Pulling the central Ohio market upward from a low base, but slowly. Large fabrication and data centre projects around Columbus draw travelling electricians from across the Midwest, which meets the demand without immediately repricing the local journeyman rate. The durable effect is in commissioning, controls and clean-room electrical work — specialisms that were thin in central Ohio and now command a premium against a Columbus figure of $64,700.

More than the state rate does. At the Ohio median, the flat 2.75% state tax is a smaller deduction than a 2.5% city tax in Columbus, Cleveland or Akron, and an electrician working job sites in several municipalities may face withholding in each. Ohio's reciprocity credits mean you are not generally taxed twice on the same income, but the paperwork and the cash-flow timing are real considerations in this trade.

Two different places. One is the foreman and superintendent track on large commercial and industrial projects, where the base is higher and the overtime substantial. The other is industrial plant maintenance with heavy shutdown and call-out hours. Both are annual-earnings effects rather than hourly-rate effects, which is why the Ohio $99,280 figure at the 90th percentile is not reproducible in a slow year.