Industrial Electrician Salary by State 2026

Industrial electrician salary by state

The table reports the median annual wage for electricians in each state. Each state name links directly to its O*NET wage page, where readers can inspect the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles and metro-area detail. The national median is $63,190, or $30.38 per hour.

These are occupational wages, not a promise that every factory will pay the same rate. Industrial work can add shift differential, call-in pay, overtime, licensing premiums, and controls experience to base compensation. Use the median as a market anchor, then test it against local job postings and recent candidates.

Hourly equivalents divide annual median wages by 2,080 hours. They are calculated comparisons, not separately published state hourly figures. Original median values: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, delivered through the linked O*NET state pages.

What counts as an industrial electrician?

“Industrial electrician” is a job title used by employers, not a separate federal occupation code. This report uses Standard Occupational Classification 47-2111, Electricians. O*NET describes the occupation as installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical wiring, equipment, and fixtures while ensuring work follows relevant codes. The classification includes titles such as maintenance electrician, electrical technician, inside wireman, and industrial electrician. See the complete O*NET occupation definition.

That definition is broad. A residential wireman and a plant electrician can appear in the same wage pool even though the daily work differs. Factory roles are more likely to involve motor controls, variable-frequency drives, programmable logic controllers, three-phase distribution, instrumentation, lockout procedures, and troubleshooting under production pressure. The table is strongest as a geographic labor-market benchmark. It is not an industrial-only wage survey.

BLS uses the same occupation in its national outlook. The agency reports a 2023 median wage of $61,590 and projects 11% employment growth from 2023 through 2033, faster than the average for all occupations. O*NET's current wage presentation shows a newer $63,190 national median. The dates differ because federal products update on different schedules.

Highest-paying states for industrial electricians

Oregon leads at $101,310, followed by Illinois at $99,560 and Hawaii at $96,460. Illinois and Washington also sit near the top of the state list. Those nominal wages reflect local construction markets, union density, prevailing wage rules, living costs, and the mix of employers competing for licensed talent.

A high state median does not automatically produce better purchasing power. Housing and commuting costs can consume much of the difference. A recruiter comparing Oregon with Arkansas should price the actual labor market around the plant, not simply copy the statewide gap. O*NET state pages expose metro and nonmetro detail for exactly that reason.

The bottom of the ranking deserves the same caution. Arkansas has a $49,070 median, but a specific chemical, steel, food, or automotive plant may pay far above its state figure. Scarce controls skills, rotating shifts, and hazardous environments can move a job well beyond the median.

Industrial electrician pay versus general electrician pay

Industrial electricians usually bring a different risk profile and skill mix than construction electricians. The plant may need a person who can diagnose an intermittent sensor fault, read a ladder diagram, replace a drive, megger a motor, and return a constrained line to service without creating a second problem. Employers frequently pay for that breadth through a higher base rate, premium shifts, or overtime rather than through a standardized occupational title.

The federal dataset does not isolate that premium, so this page does not invent one. The defensible comparison is the local electrician median plus evidence from your own offers, exits, and time-to-fill. If your open maintenance electrician role remains vacant at the state median, the market is telling you that the relevant industrial skill bundle costs more.

Overtime matters too. The table shows annualized straight-time equivalents. It does not add overtime, bonuses, per diem, on-call pay, or shift differential. A technician working regular weekend callouts may earn substantially more than the displayed figure even when the posted base wage looks ordinary.

Seven factors that move an industrial electrician salary

Controls and automation ability

Plants place a premium on electricians who can work beyond power distribution. PLC diagnostics, industrial networks, servo systems, robotics interfaces, VFD programming, and instrumentation shorten downtime. A person who can identify whether a failure is electrical, mechanical, or logic-related is easier to deploy across a maintenance shift.

Industry and process risk

Continuous-process operations lose money quickly during an outage. Chemical, paper, metals, semiconductor, food, and high-volume automotive facilities can therefore justify stronger compensation than small, lightly automated plants. Pay can also rise where arc-flash exposure, classified locations, high voltage, or strict sanitary requirements narrow the qualified labor pool. NIOSH explains why electrical work demands formal controls in its electrical safety guidance.

Shift and schedule

Second shift, third shift, rotating schedules, twelve-hour crews, and weekend coverage are harder to staff. A visible differential makes the inconvenience concrete. Hiding an undesirable schedule behind “flexibility required” tends to produce weak applicants and late-stage withdrawals.

License and credentials

State and local licensing structures vary. Some facilities require a journeyman credential, while others hire maintenance technicians based on apprenticeship, military, technical-school, or plant experience. NFPA 70E training, OSHA knowledge, and manufacturer certifications can support a higher band, but they do not replace demonstrated troubleshooting ability.

Location and commute

A rural plant may face little nearby competition but a very shallow talent pool. A metro plant sees more candidates and more employers. Commute distance, winter travel, tolls, and the availability of reliable housing all affect what workers will accept.

Overtime and call-in expectations

Candidates evaluate total earning potential and schedule control together. Guaranteed overtime can attract one person and repel another. State the likely hours, call rotation, minimum call-in pay, and recent overtime history during the first conversation.

Team depth and working conditions

A well-staffed crew with clean documentation is a different job from being the only electrician in a plant full of obsolete controls. Compensation should reflect documentation quality, spare-parts support, capital plans, heat, noise, travel, and the number of systems one person is expected to cover.

How manufacturers should use this salary benchmark

Start with the linked state median, then collect three local inputs: what qualified candidates currently earn, what nearby plants advertise, and what your last successful hire accepted. Build a range around the level of independence the job requires. A trainee who shadows a senior electrician should not share a band with the person carrying weekend call and troubleshooting the plant alone.

Write the posting like a maintenance professional. Name the voltage, controls platforms, shift, overtime pattern, license requirement, reporting line, and major equipment. Separate true requirements from skills the company can teach. A vague posting attracts broad traffic but gives experienced industrial electricians no reason to respond.

Track offer acceptance and vacancy cost, not applicant count. If a line loses $8,000 an hour and the plant waits ten weeks to approve an extra $4 an hour, the wage decision may be backward. The correct pay band is the one that secures competent coverage at a lower total cost than chronic vacancy, contractor dependence, or repeat downtime.

Retention starts before the offer. Show candidates the maintenance shop, electrical rooms, controls inventory, shift handoff, and preventive-maintenance system. Skilled tradespeople can tell quickly whether a plant invests in maintenance or merely reacts to breakdowns. Pay gets attention, but tools, staffing, training, and management determine whether the hire stays.

Build a pay range that operators can explain

A useful range has visible steps. Entry-level workers may perform inspections, replace known components, and complete planned work under supervision. Mid-level electricians should troubleshoot common production systems independently. Senior people may own controls standards, train apprentices, lead shutdown work, and handle difficult faults without outside help. Put those distinctions in writing. When employees can see what earns the next rate, the pay system feels less arbitrary.

Avoid a range so wide that it communicates nothing. A posting that says $25 to $48 per hour makes candidates assume the top number is fiction. If the spread is real, explain the qualifications attached to each zone. State the shift premium separately and clarify whether overtime is mandatory, voluntary, seasonal, or tied to call rotation.

Calculate the cost of an open position

The vacancy cost includes more than recruiter fees. Add contractor invoices, maintenance overtime, supervisor coverage, delayed preventive work, repeat failures, slower changeovers, and production losses that a fully staffed crew could have prevented. A plant may discover that moving an offer by $6,000 is cheap compared with another month of vacancy.

Use the same math for retention. If a dependable electrician leaves over a small market adjustment, replacement costs can erase years of savings. That does not mean matching every outside offer. It means comparing compensation with the real operating value and replacement difficulty of the role.

How to read regional salary patterns

The state ranking shows clear regional variation, but it should not be read as a simple map of industrial demand. Oregon, Illinois, Hawaii, and Washington occupy the upper tier for different reasons. Their statewide electrician markets include local licensing rules, construction cycles, public works, union contracts, and high living costs. Manufacturing employers compete inside those broader markets even when factory hiring is not the main force behind the median.

The Midwest tells a more mixed story. Illinois reaches $99,560, while neighboring Indiana reports $68,490 and Wisconsin reports $76,540. A multi-plant company should resist applying one regional band across all three. State borders can separate very different labor institutions and metro catchment areas.

Southern states cluster closer to or below the national median, but there are meaningful differences. Alabama's median is $55,690, Tennessee's is $61,090, and Louisiana's is $61,540. Gulf Coast process industries may still pay much more than the statewide number for refinery, chemical, and marine electrical experience.

Western resource states also require local reading. Wyoming's median reaches $76,120, while New Mexico reports $58,390. Travel, energy projects, mine work, and remote-site schedules can change compensation in ways a statewide annual figure cannot capture.

Base wage is only part of total compensation

Two offers with the same hourly rate can have very different value. Health-plan employee cost, retirement match, tool allowance, boot reimbursement, paid training, vacation, holidays, shift differential, bonus design, and overtime availability all affect the final decision. Spell them out in dollars where possible. “Competitive benefits” is not useful to a candidate comparing actual paychecks.

Schedule quality often matters as much as money. Fixed shifts may attract experienced workers who are tired of rotating. A compressed schedule can create longer weekends but also longer days. Predictable shutdown calendars help families plan. On-call rotations become easier to accept when the company defines response expectations, minimum call-in pay, and how often calls really occur.

Training can be compensation when it has portable value. Paid PLC courses, instrumentation training, license preparation, and structured advancement give a capable maintenance technician a reason to stay. Training agreements should be clear and reasonable. A punitive repayment clause can turn a benefit into a warning sign.

Finally, do not overlook the condition of the plant. Good prints, labeled panels, maintained test equipment, stocked critical spares, and supervisors who support safe troubleshooting make the work sustainable. No salary table measures those factors, but skilled candidates will.

Industrial electrician career and training path

BLS says most electricians learn through a four- or five-year apprenticeship. Apprentices receive paid on-the-job training and technical instruction. State licensing rules differ, so workers and employers should verify the authority with jurisdiction over the worksite.

Industrial candidates may also arrive through military electrical specialties, two-year electromechanical programs, construction work, or internal maintenance progression. The federal Apprenticeship.gov career portal helps job seekers find registered programs. For manufacturers, registered or structured in-house apprenticeships create a longer-term answer when every nearby plant is bidding for the same small group of journeymen.

The best development plans combine electrical fundamentals with plant-specific systems. A new hire needs prints, safe work practices, fault-finding methods, controls access, and supervised exposure to real failures. Training only on ideal classroom panels leaves a gap when a thirty-year-old machine stops at 2 a.m.

Methodology and limitations

We collected the 50 states plus the District of Columbia from O*NET's local wage pages for SOC 47-2111. O*NET presents wage data sourced from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. Each value in the main table links to the state record used. We ranked published medians from highest to lowest and calculated hourly equivalents by dividing annual pay by 2,080.

The page contains 58 reported or calculated data points. The five source families cover occupation definitions, state and national wages, outlook, apprenticeship, and electrical safety. Calculated ranks, hourly equivalents, and percentage differences are clearly labeled and trace back to linked wage values.

Limitations matter. SOC 47-2111 includes electricians outside manufacturing. State medians blend industries, experience levels, union and nonunion employers, metropolitan and rural markets, and different shift structures. Annual wage figures exclude some forms of variable compensation. This report should support a compensation review, not replace a local wage survey or legal guidance.

Federal data is revised on a schedule. We record the update date so publishers can distinguish this edition from later releases. If you quote a state figure, link to both this analysis and the underlying O*NET state page.

Sources

1. O*NET OnLine, Electricians 47-2111.00, occupation definition, alternate job titles, national wage data, and links to local wages.
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Electricians, national and geographic wage program.
3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Electricians, median pay, training path, and employment outlook.
4. Apprenticeship.gov, Career Seekers, registered apprenticeship search and career information.
5. NIOSH, Electrical Safety, occupational electrical hazard and prevention guidance.