01
Requirements and steps
We use the licensing authority's published requirements throughout this page. If the licensing authority doesn't publish a requirement, we don't guess.
1Figure out which license you need
Start from where you will actually be working rather than from where you live. Every license below is issued by a city or a county, and the office across the line can require something different. Then read the classes for that place: some are held by the worker and some by the business.
2Choose the license class you're working toward
Each license class below has its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. Start with the class you're working toward: everything below depends on it. We use the licensing authority's official license names, so you'll see the same terms on its forms.
3Build the required experience
The experience requirements for each license are quoted below exactly as the licensing authority publishes them. The licensing authority decides whether your experience qualifies, so keep your own record from day one and make sure your employer can verify your hours.
4Take the exam
If your license requires an exam, the exam name and its fee are listed under that license class. The licensing authority and the testing company are often different organizations, so the exam fee is often paid to the testing company. That's why the exam fee may appear in the candidate bulletin instead of the fee schedule.
5Apply, pay, and keep it current
Each license class below lists the fees the licensing authority publishes for it. Renewal varies by class too, so check the renewal period and fee for the class you are working toward rather than for the trade as a whole.
02
If you want to do the work
This page is short because Pennsylvania is, not because nobody looked. The state licenses neither the worker nor the business, so there is no statewide license to list and no statewide fee schedule to print. What there is instead is city licenses. Each holds in its own city and nowhere else. The one that matters to you is where the job is, and it can change across a city line.
One of Pennsylvania's license is held by the worker. Each is a separate license with its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. The ones below come from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Not published for any class here: job hours or an exam fee. Pennsylvania does not publish a reciprocity list for these licenses.
Electrical Trade License (City of Pittsburgh)5
Held by the worker · issued by Pittsburgh
$92 for the license itself.6 International Code Council, proctored by Pearson VUE administers the exam.5 You renew this every year, for $92, with 8 hours of approved continuing education.5
Worth knowingThe city's schedule prices this license at $90. The board puts the yearly cost at $92, adding the $2 technology fee that its own schedule files under permits. One figure covers the first license and every renewal, due when you apply and again each year.
Electrical Trade License (City of Pittsburgh)
A resume or documentation establishing a minimum of six (6) years of a combination of experience and education.5
The body that issues this class of license5City of Pittsburgh, Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections Where that body publishes this class of license5https://www.pittsburghpa.gov/Business-Development/Permits-Licenses-and-Inspections/Licenses/Trade-Licenses Pittsburgh doesn't list classroom hours or an application fee.
03
Apprenticeship and hours
Nothing on this page counts your time in hours. Where a board states the requirement in years instead, the years are in its own wording with each class, and turning them into hours would need a working week no board here publishes.
Not published for any class here: whether the hours can be earned online.
04
What it pays
Among the electricians on a payroll in Pennsylvania, half earn more than $32.50 an hour and half earn less. The federal wage survey puts the annual figure at $67,600.2
- $21.92The bottom tenth earn this or less2
- $58.95The top tenth earn this or more2
These figures cover every experience level, from first-year apprentices to workers with decades on the job, so this is not what an apprentice earns. The survey counts 22,730 of these jobs. Self-employed workers are not included in the survey.2
The yearly figure assumes 2,080 paid hours, which is full time with no long gaps. Actual earnings can be lower where work is interrupted or seasonal.
Figures from the federal wage survey for May 2025, read 2026-08-16. The survey’s state file is a spreadsheet in a zip, not a web page.
05
If you want to run an electrical business
This credential applies if you plan to take work in your own name. It is issued to the business itself rather than to any one person.
Electrical Contractor License (City of Philadelphia)3
Held by the business · issued by Philadelphia
8 hours in a classroom.3 $60 to apply.3 $262 for the license itself.3 International Code Council administers the exam.3 You renew this every year, for $202, with 8 hours of approved continuing education.3
Worth knowingEight hours before your first application, and eight more before every renewal. The courses have to fall in the year before you apply.
Worth knowingThat $60 comes off the $262 rather than sitting on top of it. It is nonrefundable, so a refused application costs you $60 and gets you nothing back.
Worth knowing$262 is the whole price, and the $60 application fee is the first installment of it. Renewal is cheaper, at $202.
Electrical Contractor License (City of Philadelphia)
To qualify, you must have a minimum of four years employment doing electrical work for a company licensed through a local or state jurisdiction.3
The body that issues this class of license3City of Philadelphia, Department of Licenses and Inspections Where that body publishes this class of license4https://www.phila.gov/departments/department-of-licenses-and-inspections/licenses/trade-licenses/ 06
The examination
International Code Council and International Code Council, proctored by Pearson VUE administer the exams on this page between them. The exam provider sets the exam content, publishes the study material and sets retake fees. Use the official exam names below when you look for study material, application instructions or retake information. No page here prices the exam. The fee belongs to whoever administers it and is published in a candidate bulletin rather than in a fee schedule.
- Electrical Contractor License (City of Philadelphia)
- Philadelphia Electrical Contractor Examination3
- Electrical Trade License (City of Pittsburgh)
- National Standard Master Electrician Exam (ICC codes T16, G16 or F16)5
07
The licensing office, and how to reach it
Two different offices issue the licenses on this page, so check the class you are after for the office to contact.
The licensing authority doesn't list who certifies the worker, where that sits, who licenses the business, where that sits, the agency behind this trade or a page for that agency.
08
Bringing a license in, and taking one out
Reciprocity is an agreement between states, and every license on this page belongs to a city or a county. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh do not speak for each other or for anywhere outside the state. Moving to Pennsylvania? Ask the office where the job is whether it will recognize your current license. Leaving? Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work.
09
Questions people ask
Do you need a license to be an electrician in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania does not license individual electricians. Cities and counties do. You still need a license; there is just no single statewide one, so the rules that apply are the ones where you will be working, and they change across a city line. Contractor licensing is not the state's either. Cities and counties issue it, so taking work in your own name means finding the rules where the job is.
How long does it take to become an electrician in Pennsylvania?
Not as a number: Pennsylvania doesn't publish an hours figure for any license on this page. Several states on these pages state the requirement in years instead, and turning years into hours needs a working week nobody publishes. So this page prints what was published. The experience wording with each class is where the answer is.
How much do electricians in PA make?
The middle half of the electricians on a payroll in Pennsylvania earn between $26.51 and $45.92 an hour, and half of all of them earn more than $32.50. These are straight-time figures, before any overtime, at every experience level, counted by the federal wage survey in May 2025. Self-employed workers are not included in them.2
How to make $100,000 a year as an electrician?
The top tenth of electricians on a payroll in Pennsylvania earn above $58.95 an hour, which over a 2,080-hour year comes to more than $122,620. Those are straight-time figures: overtime pay is outside them, and so are self-employed workers. The federal wage survey counts what the top tenth earn above, not how many reach any figure past it.2
How much does an electrician license cost in Pennsylvania?
The licensing authority publishes these: $60 to apply for Electrical Contractor License (City of Philadelphia), $262 to be issued Electrical Contractor License (City of Philadelphia) and $92 to be issued Electrical Trade License (City of Pittsburgh). Each is per class, not per trade. None of them is the exam: where a vendor administers the exam, that fee is the vendor's and lives in its own bulletin.
Can I use an electrician license from another state in Pennsylvania?
Not as a published rule: Pennsylvania publishes no list of the states it recognizes. Bringing a license in and taking one out are two separate agreements, signed and published separately. Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work and ask what it will recognize.
How long does it take to become an electrician?
There is no national answer. Any page that gives you one is averaging states whose requirements differ by thousands of hours. Licensing is set state by state, and in some states city by city, so the honest version of this question has a place in it. What is the same everywhere is the shape: you learn on the job, the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, and the clock starts the day the work does.
Can you become an electrician with no experience?
Yes, and that is the ordinary way in. These trades are learned at work rather than before it, which is why boards mostly require time on the job. What you cannot skip is the paperwork: the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, so the question to ask an employer is who signs, not whether they will train you.
Is 30 too old to become an electrician?
No. Boards set a minimum age, not a maximum. No board on these pages sets an upper limit, and where age shows up at all it is a floor. The real question at 30 is money: an apprenticeship pays you while you learn and school charges you while you learn. That difference usually decides it.
How hard is the electrician licensing exam?
None of the boards on these pages publishes a pass rate. The useful question is who administers the exam: that organization sells the reference material for it and sets what a retake costs.