COLORADO · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Colorado: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start, and you rarely need to wait: the Denver committee takes applications all year and interviews as needed, and the state's largest sponsor, a training council, will help you find an employer to sponsor you. Colorado has 29 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,460 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 Colorado?
The median starting wage was $22.00 an hour across 601 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $35.68 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 $20.00 and $24.87 an hour.
The median across 601 recent starting records from 20 programs. The middle half earned between $20.00 and $24.87 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $22.00 works out to about $880 before taxes.
The Denver plumbers' committee says job opportunities begin at 50% of the journeyman rate, with scheduled raises tied to completed classroom hours and documented on-the-job training. The committee does not publish the journeyman rate in dollars for applicants. Its wage page says current rates are available to contractors on request and to members through a login.
RK, a Denver mechanical contractor, runs its own registered program, and you join by being hired. The company hires apprentices each summer, and classes run August to May. The published starting wage is between $20 and $21 an hour with up to two merit raises a year, finishing apprentices earn between $25 and $34, and the company covers 100% of the costs for apprentices with good grades and attendance.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
The Denver committee has no application season. Openings and interviews happen as needed rather than on posted dates. Once you receive an application you must submit it within 30 days, upload your documents within 31 days of submitting, and apply no more than once a year. You need to be at least 18 with a diploma or GED and a current driver's license, and every applicant takes an assessment test and a math exam.
The training council finds you the employer. The state's largest sponsor starts with the employer: on-the-job training by day with a contractor and class one night a week, for four years. That is 144 classroom hours a year, and 8,000 hours of work across the whole program. Its own pages say it will help you find an employer to sponsor your apprenticeship, and that the vast majority of tuition is paid by the company that employs you.
Colorado registers apprentices by law. Anyone employed in the plumbing trade without a Colorado license counts as an apprentice and must be registered with the State Plumbing Board. Your employer files the registration within 30 days of your hire date, the fee the state currently lists is $30, and you carry the registration card while working. The state also draws a line worth knowing. Working as a registered apprentice is what the license requires, and a formal apprenticeship program is a separate choice on top. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
None of the three union committees uses a fixed season. The Denver committee posts openings and interviews as needed and takes applications any time, the Colorado Springs local lists its application dates simply as the 2026 to 2027 year, and the Western Slope committee accepts applications year round. The company route follows a calendar instead: RK hires apprentices each summer, with classes from August to May. If something here has changed when you read this, each program posts its current dates on its own site.
The application runs through an online portal, and the clock is personal. Once you receive it, you must submit within 30 days, with no exceptions, and upload every document within 31 days of submitting. That means transcripts, your diploma or GED with scores, proof of birth, and your discharge records if you served. Do not submit more than one application per year.
After you submit the application, a confirmation email brings the next steps: a link to the assessment test, a link to the math exam, and the document upload portal. The committee's contractors require pre-employment and random drug testing.
Applicants are scored on a 100-point scale, and the committee's posted FAQ says 55 points or more is required for placement in the eligibility pool, where you remain for two years or until selected. How many apprentices are selected depends on the industry's needs, so a spot in the pool is a place in line, not an offer.
The first year is probationary, with 1,700 to 2,000 hours on the job. The full apprenticeship runs five years and 8,500 to 10,000 hours, with at least 219 hours of class a year on top. From the fourth year you can choose courses that end in an associate degree along with the trade.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Colorado
All 29 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 3 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 29 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 23 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Colorado licenses you in your own name
Colorado licenses plumbers at the state level: the State Plumbing Board issues the residential, journeyworker, and master plumber licenses in your own name, with the journeyworker license capped at four years and 6,800 hours of practical experience. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Colorado05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, the two state medians and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Denver Plumbers JATC apprenticeship, training, and application pages and its posted applicant FAQ, plumberslocal3.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The 50% figure, the 30-day rule, the point floor, and the five-year structure on this page.
- Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 58 application pages, local58.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The Colorado Springs application dates on this page.
- Western Slope plumbers' and pipefitters' committee pages, local145.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The year-round application rule on this page.
- CITC of Colorado apprenticeship pages, citcinc.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The route through an employer, the hours, and the tuition statement on this page.
- RK Industries apprenticeship program page, rkindustries.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The starting wage, the summer hiring rule, and the cost coverage on this page.
- Colorado State Plumbing Board apprentice, application, and reporting pages, dpo.colorado.gov, the state's apprenticeship information guide dated October 2025, and its plumbing licensing guide, accessed 2026-09-04. The registration law, the $30 fee, and the license hours on this page.
- 10 Colorado 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.