MICHIGAN · ELECTRICIAN · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become an electrician in Michigan: get paid to train.
You don't need experience or a contractor job to start this trade: at the largest program open to outside applicants, the training committee places you with a contractor, and you're working for wages in your first week. Michigan has 281 registered electrician apprenticeships, with 7,690 people in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you how applying works and where every program is.
01 THE PAY
How much do electrician apprentices make in Michigan?
The median starting wage was $20.25 an hour across 5,471 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $35.20 an hour. These are different groups of apprentices, not the same people tracked from start to finish. The middle half of starting wages fell between $17.00 and $25.23 an hour.
The median across 5,471 recent starting records from 232 programs. The middle half earned between $17.00 and $25.23 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $20.25 works out to about $810 before taxes.
The Detroit Electrical Industry Training Center publishes what its five-year inside wireman apprentices earn: $25.23 an hour entering the program, $42.05 an hour by the end of it, and $56.07 an hour to start after graduating. Pay is set as a percentage of the journeyman rate and rises as you meet program requirements; the step schedule between those endpoints is not published.
Michigan sets wage floors for state-funded construction, county by county. The published schedule lists the electrician journeyman rate for Wayne County at $83.54 an hour. That rate applies on public projects only, not across the market, and it describes journeymen, a different population from the apprentice figures on this page.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest program open to outside applicants, you can apply at age 17. You need a high school diploma or GED, your transcript, and one completed year of high school algebra. Bring a photo ID and your Social Security number to the aptitude test. A criminal record does not automatically disqualify you. The program reviews criminal history case by case.
Finishing takes three to five years. The Detroit training center runs three programs: a five-year inside wireman apprenticeship and three-year sound-and-communication and residential programs. School is one full eight-hour day every other week, with online homework done before class, and the rest of the time you're on the job. Applying costs $50 for the inside program and $30 for residential, a starter tool kit runs $300 to $500 at the program's discounted price, and tuition comes out of your pay by payroll deduction; the amount is not published.
The two largest sponsors in the federal count are not programs you apply to. Ford and Chrysler run Michigan's largest registered apprenticeship programs, training their own employees inside their plants; you get in by working there, not by applying to a program. For an outside applicant, the largest sponsors are the union training committees, the JATCs, run by the electricians' union and participating contractors, along with utility programs and the Michigan Works! agencies that sponsor training across several employers. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and ask how and when they take applications.
Applications are closed right now. The Detroit program takes applications once a year through its online portal, and it says the next application dates will be posted in the spring of 2027. Its homepage still shows an older window that has already passed; the application page is the one to trust, so check it before you plan around a date.
Applications happen once a year through the program's online portal, only while the window is open. Create your portal account at least a week ahead, and have your work history ready. The application fee is $50 for the inside program and $30 for residential, paid when you apply.
After the window closes you upload your transcripts and records, then take the program's aptitude test. Qualified applicants go onto a ranked selection list that holds for one year; if you're not selected in that year, you apply again.
The training committee places you with a signatory contractor doing electrical construction work, and you're on the job, earning wages, in your first week. Getting to the job site and to class is your responsibility, and job locations change often.
Within 30 days of being hired, you register with the state as an electrical apprentice: $15, renewed every year, and required for you to be on a job site at all. Then it's work plus school until you have the hours: the journeyman exam comes once you're at least 20, with 8,000 hours and four years as an apprentice behind you.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered electrician apprenticeship in Michigan
All 281 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 15 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 281 programs. A zero means no apprentices were recorded in training in this dataset; it does not necessarily mean the program has closed.
The biggest programs
Smaller and single-company programs
SHOW ALL 252 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Michigan licenses you in your own name
Michigan licenses electricians at the state level: you need a license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. It starts with the $15 apprentice registration, and the journeyman license comes later, on hours and an exam. One thing worth knowing: the state's own application form says the City of Detroit issues its own electrical licenses and registrations, so check with the city if you live there. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How electrician licensing works in Michigan05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, and the two medians and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Detroit Electrical Industry Training Center application, program, and FAQ pages, detroiteitc.org, accessed 2026-09-03. The application model, the fees, the wage endpoints, the class schedule, and the requirements on this page.
- Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, electrical licensing pages and apprentice registration form BCC-0704, michigan.gov/lara, accessed 2026-09-03. The $15 registration and its terms, the journeyman requirements, and the City of Detroit note.
- Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Wayne County prevailing wage schedule, November 2025 edition, michigan.gov/leo, accessed 2026-09-03. The Wayne County rate; the state updates these schedules each November.
- 11 Michigan filings in the source data name a different state inside their own registration numbers. They are under review, and no figure on this page counts them.
EVERY FIGURE ON THIS PAGE IS FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP DATA, EXTRACT OF AUGUST 17, 2026, EXCEPT THE SOURCE-MARKED RATES IN THE MONEY SECTION.