Journeyman Electrician Salary in Oregon 2026,
$101,310 Median | BLS Data by City

The published figure is $101,310 a year, or $48.71 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, on SOC 47-2111 — Electricians, a row covering the whole trade rather than the journeyman tier alone. The band runs from $59,550 at the 10th percentile to $131,530 at the 90th, and the state figure sits 60.3% above the national median of $63,190.

Through the Building Codes Division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. Register in an apprenticeship programme, log supervised hours under licensed electricians at the ratios the division enforces, complete related instruction, and pass the licensing examination for the General Journeyman licence or a limited residential or specialty licence. Continuing education is required at each renewal.

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, at $105,090, then Albany $100,230, Corvallis $99,880, Bend $99,200 and Salem $98,850. The whole table spans only a few thousand dollars, which is what a statewide individual licensing regime combined with a strong union presence produces — scale-based pay that barely varies by market.

Because Oregon licenses individual electricians rather than only contractors. Registered apprenticeship hours, a licensing examination, mandatory continuing education and enforced supervision ratios all constrain how quickly the workforce can grow, and that constraint meets semiconductor, data-centre and electrification demand. Strong union representation reinforces the effect. A national trade with no national credential prices very differently where the state controls entry.

Not really — it is a licence boundary. The $59,550 to $79,110 lower quartile largely reflects registered apprentices working supervised hours toward the examination, while the $121,680 seventy-fifth percentile and above reflect licensed journeymen in industrial, controls and specialty work. The step between the two is documented hours and a test rather than negotiation.

It moves the constraint from the business to the person. Where a state licenses only contractors, a company can hire anyone it judges competent and put them to work under its licence, so the labour supply is limited only by willingness. Oregon's Building Codes Division decides who may perform electrical work unsupervised, requires documented apprentice hours to get there, enforces how many apprentices may work under each licensed electrician, and requires continuing education to stay current. Each rule slows workforce expansion, and a constrained workforce facing semiconductor, data-centre and electrification demand produces a $101,310 median against a national $63,190.

Three things. It is not journeyman-specific — SOC 47-2111 counts apprentices and licensed electricians together, which is exactly why the band spans $59,550 to $131,530. It is straight-time, so the overtime attached to semiconductor tool installs, data-centre builds and plant shutdowns is excluded. And it omits the self-employed, so electricians who take out a contractor licence and work for themselves leave the row, making the $131,530 ninetieth percentile the top of the employed population rather than the top of the trade.

It leads them. The peer table runs Illinois $99,560, Hawaii $96,460, Washington $95,220, Alaska $89,440 and Massachusetts $79,420 — all strong-licensure or strong-union states, and Oregon above all of them. The interesting comparison is with Washington, which also licenses individual electricians and pays $95,220: Oregon's gross is higher, but Washington levies no income tax while Oregon's runs to 9.9%. Oregon's lack of any sales tax narrows the gap again. On after-tax terms the two are much closer than the gross figures suggest, and the honest answer depends on how much of an electrician's income is spent rather than saved.