How much do electricians make in Washington in 2026?
Electricians in Washington earn a median $95,220 a year, or $45.78 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 47-2111) — 50.7% above the national median of $63,190, one of the largest premiums for the trade in any state. The band is very wide: $52,170 at the 10th percentile, $66,630 at the 25th, $121,530 at the 75th and $133,950 at the 90th, with the trainee population sitting in the lower half and certified journey-level electricians in the upper. Mount Vernon-Anacortes leads the metros at $104,510, then Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue $101,780, Kennewick-Richland $99,850, Bellingham $97,590 and Longview-Kelso $96,860. Washington employs 19,380 electricians at a location quotient of 1.12. → Full electrician career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $95,220 blends every experience level, apprentice through master. For pay by license level alone, see pay by level below.
- Washington electricians earn a median $95,220/yr ($45.78/hr) per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 47-2111), 50.7% above the $63,190 national median; the state P10–P90 range is $52,170 to $133,950.
- The gap between the $66,630 twenty-fifth percentile and the $121,530 seventy-fifth is the widest in this unit, and it is a credential boundary rather than a seniority gradient. Washington's trainee population — people holding an electrical trainee card and logging supervised hours toward certification — sits in the lower half of the band; certified EL01 journey-level electricians sit in the upper half. Very little of that gap is negotiable; it is earned by hours and an examination.
- All five published metros clear $96,000: Mount Vernon-Anacortes $104,510, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue $101,780, Kennewick-Richland $99,850, Bellingham $97,590 and Longview-Kelso $96,860, against a $95,220 state median. Mount Vernon-Anacortes topping Seattle, and Kennewick-Richland in the Tri-Cities running close behind, reflects industrial, refinery and Hanford-adjacent work rather than commercial construction.
- A 50.7% premium over the national median in a trade with no national credential is what individual state licensing does to a labour supply. Washington's peer table — Oregon $101,310, Illinois $99,560, Hawaii $96,460, Alaska $89,440 and Massachusetts $79,420 — is a list of strong-licensure and strong-union states, and Washington's absence of an income tax puts its take-home ahead of all of them.
Washington Electrician Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Methodology & Sources
How the Washington electrician pay figures on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 47-2111, Washington statewide estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them. OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation in Washington; it does not break pay out by credential or licence level.
Pay by level: the level and career-stage tables on this page distribute Washington's own published BLS pay range across the tiers employers actually hire at. They are GlobalCybers estimates aligned to published percentiles, not separate BLS publications.
Placement sample: GlobalCybers holds no Washington placement sample for this occupation, so this page shows published and percentile-aligned figures only — no placement-based median is claimed anywhere on it.
Washington Markets
Which Washington city pays electricians the most in 2026?
BLS MSA medians for Washington's largest electrician markets — local industrial demand matters more than city size alone.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Mount Vernon-Anacortes leads the state at $104,510.
Washington city pay guide (1)
Getting Licensed
How to become a licensed electrician in Washington, step by step
- 1Get an L&I electrical trainee card immediately
Washington counts only supervised hours logged under a certified electrician toward a certificate of competency, and it enforces trainee-to-electrician ratios on site. Time worked without the card does not count, so this is the first and most consequential administrative step in the state.
- 2Log the hours and pass the EL01 examination
The journey-level certificate of competency is the credential boundary in Washington's wage band. Getting it moves an electrician from the trainee half of the distribution to the certified half — from around the $66,630 twenty-fifth percentile toward the $95,220 median and beyond.
- 3Move into industrial, controls or data-centre work
Mount Vernon-Anacortes at $104,510 and Kennewick-Richland at $99,850 lead the state on refinery, energy and heavy industrial work rather than commercial construction. Plant maintenance, instrumentation and controls, and central Washington's data-centre corridor are what reach the $121,530 seventy-fifth percentile.
- 4Take foreman work or an electrical contractor licence
The $133,950 ninetieth percentile is foreman, general foreman and estimator territory, or the contractor licence that Washington requires separately from the individual certificate. That is the point at which an electrician here prices the work rather than performing it under another licence.
L&I License Levels
How much more does an L&I licence earn you in Washington?
Washington licenses issued by Individual certification, and one of the strictest regimes in the country. Washington is not a contractor-licence-only state: the Department of Labor & Industries Electrical Program issues certificates of competency to individual electricians, with a journey-level (EL01) certificate and specialty certificates including residential (EL06), and requires anyone working toward them to hold an electrical trainee card and log supervised hours in specified categories of work. Trainees must work under a certified electrician at defined ratios and complete annual continuing education. Contractor licensing sits on top of that as a separate requirement. This is the direct explanation for a state median half again the national one: in Washington, the right to do electrical work is held by a person and issued by the state, and the state controls how many people hold it.. Each level's median pay in Washington markets.
Beyond Base Pay
What's a Washington electrician's total compensation, not just base wage?
BLS and verified-placement medians above are base wage only. Total comp for a WA electrician typically adds the following on top.
FAQ
Washington Electrician Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
Outlook & openings: BLS projects 9.5% national employment growth for electricians through 2034 against roughly 81,000 average annual US openings. Washington holds about 2.6% of national employment in the trade, which pro-rates to roughly 2,070 openings a year in the state — a pro-rated national figure, not a separately published Washington projection. The local demand drivers are unusually concrete: data-centre construction in central Washington, semiconductor and aerospace manufacturing, electrification and grid work, and the continued Puget Sound commercial pipeline. The constraint on filling those openings is the certification pathway itself, since trainee hours must be logged under certified electricians at controlled ratios.
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