ARIZONA · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Arizona: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start. Most of the state's plumber training runs through one Phoenix union program, which keeps a waitlist instead of a fixed season, and school programs in Mesa and on the Tohono O'odham Nation offer other routes. Arizona has 18 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,574 apprentices in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you where they are and how each application works.
01 THE PAY
How much do plumber apprentices make in Arizona?
The median starting wage was $21.41 an hour across 486 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. The middle half of starting wages fell between $20.57 and $23.70 an hour. These are starting wages recorded at different programs, not one program's scale. The largest program prints all of its pay steps in dollars, so the cards below show what the programs themselves say about pay.
Arizona's plumber wage records in the federal file are heavily concentrated in one program. The Arizona Pipe Trades apprenticeship in Phoenix accounts for 85.0% of the wage records behind this median, so the figure mostly describes its apprentices.
The median across 486 recent starting records from 11 programs. The middle half earned between $20.57 and $23.70 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $21.41 works out to about $860 before taxes.
The Arizona Pipe Trades wage sheet prints every pay step in dollars. First-year apprentices earn $26.43 an hour, and the yearly steps rise to $39.89 in the fifth year. The journeyman rate behind those steps is $53.85 an hour on commercial work and $59.60 on industrial work. Each raise also depends on hours worked, with the first at 1,700 hours on the job.
Sun Mechanical, a Tucson mechanical contractor, runs its own registered program, and you join by being hired. The company compares its four-year apprenticeship to a $30,000 full-ride scholarship, and it pays apprentices for classroom time as well as job time. The company says finishing apprentices can be certified as journeyman plumbers. It does not publish the wage scale itself.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
The union program keeps a waitlist, not a season. The Arizona Pipe Trades apprenticeship, a five-year program in plumbing and pipefitting, takes applications on an as-needed basis and announces open dates on the front page of its website. When applications are closed, you join the waitlist, and the committee emails you the next steps once a round opens. You need to be at least 18 with a diploma or GED and two forms of identification, one with a picture. No experience is required, and the program prefers that people with experience complete the full apprenticeship anyway.
The school routes take you without an employer. The East Valley technical institute in Mesa runs a registered plumbing apprenticeship, and completing its 360-hour pre-apprenticeship certificate is the first step toward applying. Its coordinators then guide you through the apprenticeship application itself. On the Tohono O'odham Nation, the community college in Sells runs a year-round program with a monthly stipend for full-time apprentices, and accepted applicants enroll in August or January.
The state licenses the business. Your city may license you. Arizona has no state license for individual plumbers. State law exempts anyone working for wages, and what the state licenses is the plumbing contractor. Phoenix draws its own line. Inside the city, permitted plumbing work must be done by a licensed journeyman or apprentice. The apprentice license takes a notarized employer letter and no exam, and the journeyman license takes an exam plus four years of experience. The union program requires the Phoenix license before an apprentice can finish. Check the rules for the city where you will actually work. Then pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
The union program posts no season at all. It announces application rounds on the front page of its site, the waitlist is how you hear about them, and applications were closed when we checked. The community college in Sells enrolls accepted applicants in August and January, and the Mesa institute takes pre-apprenticeship applications through its own site. If something here has changed when you read this, each program posts its current status on its own site.
The waitlist form asks for your name, date of birth, contact details, whether you have a diploma or GED, and whether you are a veteran. When the committee opens a round, it emails you instructions and a link to the application. The front page of the program's website is the only announcement channel, so check it while you wait.
Once notified, you take an in-person aptitude test with personality, logic, and mechanical questions. There is no study guide for the test. An interview phase follows, and applicants with prior experience discuss it there. The program says it has preference programs in place for military veterans.
The first twelve months after you sign the apprentice agreement are probationary. You must be available for work at least 1,600 hours a year, and the union dispatches apprentices to jobs first in, first out. Turning down two work calls within twelve months earns a negative action and moves you to the bottom of the out-of-work list.
Advancement runs on cumulative hours: 1,700 for the second year, 3,400 for the third, 5,100 for the fourth, and 6,800 for the fifth, each with a passing grade and a satisfactory evaluation. Turning out takes 1,200 hours of classroom instruction and a score of 75% or better on the journeyman turnout exam, and the checklist includes a City of Phoenix license and trade certifications. Tuition is charged, due each semester, with a book fee on top.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Arizona
All 18 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 7 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 18 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 14 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
The license question is answered city by city
Arizona issues no state license to an individual plumber, and what the state licenses is the plumbing contractor. Cities answer the individual question their own way. Phoenix licenses both journeyman and apprentice plumbers for permitted work inside the city, and other cities set their own rules. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the sources for each.
How plumber licensing works in Arizona05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, the state starting median and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Arizona Pipe Trades apprenticeship fact sheet, FAQ, and rules and regulations, pipetrades.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The waitlist model, the aptitude test, the hour benchmarks, the classroom hours, the turnout requirements, and the tuition rule on this page.
- Arizona Pipe Trades wage and fringe rate sheet and the Local 469 working agreement, ualocal469.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The $26.43 to $39.89 pay steps, the $53.85 and $59.60 journeyman rates, and the dispatch rules on this page.
- Sun Mechanical apprenticeship page, sunmechanical.net, accessed 2026-09-04. The $30,000 comparison and the four-year company program on this page.
- East Valley Institute of Technology apprenticeship and plumbing program pages, evit.edu, accessed 2026-09-04. The pre-apprenticeship rule and the 360 hours on this page.
- Tohono O'odham Community College apprenticeship page, tocc.edu, accessed 2026-09-04. The year-round program, the stipend, and the August and January enrollment on this page.
- Arizona Revised Statutes sections 32-1121 and 32-1122, azleg.gov, and the Registrar of Contractors' apprenticeship and license classification pages, roc.az.gov, accessed 2026-09-04. The state licensing facts on this page.
- City of Phoenix journeyman and apprentice licensing page, phoenix.gov, accessed 2026-09-04. The city license facts on this page.
- 4 Arizona 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.