To work as an electrician in Texas, you need your own license from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The license belongs to you and not to your employer, so you keep it when you change jobs.
Dates if you start in Nov 2026 and work 40 hours a week.
First: get your apprentice license from TDLR, $20. You must be 16 or older.
Dates are estimates. Only hours under a master electrician licensed in Texas count.
Pick your state to see whether TDLR recognizes your license.
You must have passed that state's exam and held your license for at least 1 year. See your steps
Steps for: New to the trade. The dates follow your ladder. Change where you are, your start month or your hours a week at the top of the page.
Step 1, Start here
You need the apprentice electrician license before you do any electrical work, including on your first day. You must be at least 16 years old. Apply to TDLR online and pay the $20 fee.
This license allows you to do electrical work under the on-site supervision of a master electrician, a journeyman electrician or a residential wireman.
If you apply online and report no criminal convictions, TDLR issues you a temporary license. The temporary license lasts 21 days and can't be renewed, and you can start work with it.
If you have a criminal conviction, TDLR reviews your case before it decides on your application.
Step 2,
Find a job with a licensed electrical contractor. You can apply to a contractor directly, or you can apply to a registered apprenticeship (a paid job with training). A city, a school district or another public employer can also hire you as an apprentice.
An apprenticeship is a paid job with training. You work for an employer and you learn the trade on the job. Texas has 197 registered electrician apprenticeship programs. The median wage is $16.25 an hour at the start and $26.83 an hour at the end.
The programs with the most active apprentices
Step 3,
Write down your hours from your first day, with the name of the master electrician who oversees your work. Your hours count toward the journeyman electrician license only if a master electrician licensed in Texas oversees them.
If a journeyman electrician or a residential wireman supervises you on site, your hours still count. The master electrician licensed in Texas who is responsible for the work must sign for your hours.
Optional, at 4,000 hours
This license allows you to wire homes and apartment buildings up to 4 stories.
What you need: Your hours must be under a master electrician or a residential wireman licensed in Texas. You must also pass the Texas Residential Wireman examination.
If you complete a career and technology education program that TDLR approves, you don't need the hours. You must still pass the exam.
Step 4,
Ask each master electrician who oversaw your work to sign an Experience Verification Form for your hours. Contact every master electrician before you apply, because the signed forms go in with your application.
Step 5,
Once you complete 7,000 hours, download the journeyman electrician license application from TDLR's website. Mail your application to TDLR at PO Box 12157, Austin, TX 78711-2157, with your signed forms and the $30 fee.
You have 1 year from the day TDLR receives your application to pass the exam and complete your 8,000 hours.
TDLR accepts this application by mail only, and TDLR doesn't refund the fee.
Step 6,
Once TDLR approves your application, book your exam with PSI (the company that gives the exam). The exam has 2 parts and costs $78. You receive your license after you pass the exam and complete all 8,000 hours.
This license allows you to do electrical work under the general supervision of a master electrician, and supervise apprentices on site.
What you need: Your hours must be under a master electrician licensed in Texas. You must also pass the Texas Journeyman Electrician examination.
Step 1, Start here
Your hours count toward the journeyman electrician license only if a master electrician licensed in Texas oversees them. If a journeyman electrician or a residential wireman supervised you on site, your hours still count. The master electrician licensed in Texas who is responsible for the work must sign for them.
Step 2,
| Your hours | What you can do |
|---|---|
| 4,000 | Get the residential wireman license, after you pass its exam |
| 7,000 | Apply to TDLR and take the journeyman electrician exam |
| 8,000 | Receive the journeyman electrician license, after you pass the exam |
| 12,000 | Get the master electrician license, once you hold the journeyman license for 2 years |
Step 3,
Ask each master electrician who oversaw your work to sign an Experience Verification Form for your hours. The signed forms go in with your application.
Step 4,
Mail your application to TDLR at PO Box 12157, Austin, TX 78711-2157, with your signed forms and the fee. The fee is $30 for the journeyman electrician license and $45 for the master electrician license.
Step 5,
Once TDLR approves your application, book your exam with PSI. You have 1 year from the day TDLR receives your application to pass the exam and meet every other requirement.
Step 1, Start here
TDLR recognizes a journeyman electrician license from 10 states and a master electrician license from 7 states. If you hold one of these licenses, you can get the Texas license without taking the Texas exam.
| Texas license | TDLR recognizes it from |
|---|---|
| Journeyman electrician | Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming |
| Master electrician | Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina and Ohio |
For the master electrician license, TDLR recognizes only the Class A master electrician license from Iowa and only the master electrician license from Arkansas. From Louisiana, TDLR recognizes the state contractor's license, and you must live in Louisiana. From North Carolina, TDLR recognizes the master electrician license or the unlimited electrical contractor license. If your license is from Alabama, TDLR asks you for a copy of your Class A license.
TDLR doesn't recognize a license from another state for the apprentice electrician license, the residential wireman license or the electrical contractor license.
Step 2,
You must have passed that state's exam and held your license for at least 1 year. You also need 8,000 hours under a master electrician for the journeyman electrician license, or 12,000 hours for the master electrician license.
For the master electrician license, you also need at least 2 years as a licensed journeyman electrician. If your license is from Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska or Ohio, you need 1 year.
Step 3,
The fee is the same as for an applicant in Texas, which is $30 for the journeyman electrician license and $45 for the master electrician license.
If your license is from any other state, ask TDLR before you move. If you move from Texas to another state, ask the office that issues electrician licenses in that state whether it recognizes your Texas license.
2 more licenses if you want to oversee other electricians or run an electrical business.
This license allows you to oversee other electricians' work for an electrical contractor. You're responsible for that work meeting code.
What you need: You must hold the journeyman electrician license for at least 2 years. You must also pass the Texas Master Electrician examination.
This license allows you to run your own electrical business.
What you need: You must employ a licensed master electrician or be one yourself. You also need insurance (below).
You need general liability insurance of at least $300,000 for each occurrence and $600,000 in total. You also need at least $300,000 in total for products and completed operations.
You must send TDLR proof of workers' compensation insurance, a certificate of authority to self-insure, or a statement that you chose not to carry workers' compensation insurance. If you choose not to carry it, you must also file a notice of no coverage with the Texas Department of Insurance.
Each time you renew, you must send TDLR proof of insurance. You don't need continuing education to renew this license.
TDLR also issues these 9 licenses, and each license has its own requirements.
| Exam | Parts | To pass |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Journeyman Electrician examination | National Electrical Code: 59 questions in 130 minutesCalculations: 26 questions in 110 minutes | 70% on each part |
| Texas Master Electrician examination | National Electrical Code: 75 questions in 150 minutesCalculations: 33 questions in 170 minutes | 70% on each part |
| Texas Residential Wireman examination | One part: 85 questions in 260 minutes | 70% |
To take an exam, send your application to TDLR first. Once TDLR approves your application, TDLR sends you a notice and you book your exam with PSI.
You can take the journeyman electrician exam once you complete 7,000 hours. You can also take it once you complete a registered apprenticeship and file TDLR's eligibility form. You have 1 year from the day TDLR receives your application to pass. During that year, you can retake the exam as many times as you need.
If you fail 1 part or both parts of the journeyman or master exam, you pay $78 to retake it. TDLR says you may have to pay the fee again each time you retake the residential wireman exam. The apprentice electrician license has no exam.
$28.16an hour
$58,570 a year, full time
Half of the electricians on a payroll in Texas earn more than $28.16 an hour, and half earn less. The middle half earn $22.44 to $34.20. The lowest-paid 10% earn $18.23 or less, and the highest-paid 10% earn $38.61 or more.
These figures cover everyone on a payroll as an electrician in Texas, from apprentices to people with decades in the trade, so they aren't a starting wage. The survey counts 76,770 jobs and doesn't include self-employed electricians. The yearly figure is for full-time work all year, which is 2,080 hours.
| If your license expired | What you do |
|---|---|
| Up to 90 days ago | Pay 1.5 times the renewal fee |
| More than 90 days ago | Pay 2 times the renewal fee |
| More than 18 months ago | Renew by mail and ask TDLR's executive director to approve your renewal |
| More than 3 years ago | You can't renew. Apply as a new applicant and retake any exam the license requires. |
You can't do electrical work while your license is expired.
TDLR's license search shows active licenses only, so an expired license doesn't appear in a search.
If you work full time, you reach the 8,000 hours for the journeyman electrician license in about 4 years. If you work fewer hours each week, it takes longer.
Yes. The apprentice electrician license requires no experience, and you learn the trade on the job. When an employer hires you, ask which master electrician will sign for your hours.
The apprentice electrician license costs $20. The journeyman electrician license costs $30, and the journeyman electrician exam costs $78. You pay the same fee again each year when you renew your license.
The dates on your ladder are worked out from the hours TDLR requires and the hours a week you pick.
Pick what you want to hear about. You get one short email when it happens.
Alerts for: Electrician in Texas
