Lineman Salary in Georgia 2026,
$80,080 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $80,080 a year, or $38.50 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 16.0% below the national median of $95,320. The band runs $50,440 at the 10th percentile to $116,900 at the 90th, with the middle half between $61,140 and $100,770. Apprenticeship stage and employer type are what determine position within that spread.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at $83,570, then Gainesville $82,190, Valdosta $81,390, Augusta-Richmond County $80,520 and Columbus $77,640. Under six thousand dollars covers the whole table — an unusually flat spread that tells you Georgia line work is priced by employer and apprenticeship stage rather than by where the poles are.

No. Georgia issues no licence or state credential for power-line work. Entry runs through a registered apprenticeship or a utility's own line worker training programme, and progression from groundman through apprentice steps to journeyman is governed by the employer's programme rather than by the state. Because Georgia's utilities include an investor-owned company, a large network of electric membership cooperatives and municipal systems, those programmes and their pay ladders differ meaningfully between employers.

Mostly cost structure and employer mix. The national median of $95,320 is lifted by high-wage utility markets in the north-east and west with strong bargaining arrangements and much higher costs of living. Georgia's line work is spread across investor-owned, cooperative and municipal employers in a state whose costs sit below the national average outside metropolitan Atlanta. A location quotient of 1.20 shows the state employs plenty of line workers — this is a rate difference, not a demand one, and the $100,770 seventy-fifth percentile is a strong figure for the trade.

Transmission work, crew leadership and troubleman roles, which is what the $100,770 seventy-fifth percentile and $116,900 ninetieth describe. Transmission carries higher voltages, more specialised equipment and stricter qualification requirements than distribution, and troubleman roles combine journeyman skill with independent fault diagnosis. Storm restoration overtime is the other major contributor, and Georgia's flat tax rate means those premium hours are not eroded by a rising marginal rate.

Because there is no single employer market. Georgia's electricity reaches customers through an investor-owned utility, through a large network of electric membership corporations that between them cover much of rural Georgia, and through municipal systems. Each has its own apprenticeship programme, its own pay ladder, its own geographic territory and its own approach to contracting work out. A journeyman lineman's rate therefore depends heavily on which of those employs them, and the routes between them are not always straightforward. That structural fragmentation is the main reason the band from $50,440 to $116,900 is so wide while the metro table spans under six thousand dollars.

SOC 49-9051 pools apprentices, journeymen, transmission specialists and crew leaders across three quite different employer types, so the band describes a career ladder and an employer mix simultaneously. The estimate also reports annual wages in a trade where storm restoration overtime can add substantially to a year's earnings — a hurricane or ice storm season and a quiet one produce different figures at the same rate. And contractor line crews, which do a significant share of Georgia's construction and restoration work, are captured unevenly.

Apprenticeship completion first — reaching journeyman is the single largest step and roughly the distance from the $61,140 quarter-point to the $80,080 median. Employer choice second, which in Georgia genuinely matters given the investor-owned, cooperative and municipal split. Transmission qualification and troubleman roles third, which carry the $100,770 seventy-fifth percentile. And storm restoration availability fourth, since mutual-aid and outage work is where the biggest annual swings come from and Georgia's flat tax leaves those premium hours intact.