GEORGIA · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Georgia: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start, but at the largest programs the test comes before the application: the Atlanta union school requires ACT WorkKeys scores before it will send you the application link, and the Savannah local schedules a TABE test through the public workforce office. Georgia has 16 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,253 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 Georgia?
Georgia's plumber wage records in the federal file are heavily concentrated in one program. The Mechanical Trades Institute, the union training school in Atlanta, accounts for 82.5% of the wage records, so a statewide median would mostly reflect that program's pay.
For that reason, the numbers here are program-level figures instead: what the federal records show for individual programs and what the programs publish themselves.
The Mechanical Trades Institute in Atlanta, the union training school, is the largest plumber program in the state and the source of most of Georgia's plumber wage records. In the federal data, its recent plumber apprentices started at a median of $18.65 an hour, and its recent completers left at a median of $39.13.
The institute also prints its current pay scale in dollars: $21.60 an hour in the first year, stepping at 1,700-hour marks to $34.60 in the fifth year, against a $43.23 journeyman rate. Tuition is free. The printed scale sits above the recorded medians because it is the current year's rates, while the records blend several years of starts.
The Savannah plumbers and pipefitters local publishes its apprentice steps as percentages of a $35.45 journeyman rate, from $17.73 an hour in the first year to $28.36 in the fifth, for its most recently published agreement year. Atlanta's journeyman rate is $43.23 in the same trade and the same union. The percentages may look similar, but the dollar amount depends on the journeyman rate each program uses.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
The test comes before the application. At the Mechanical Trades Institute, you take the ACT WorkKeys assessment first, covering applied mathematics and workplace documents. You need at least a Silver or Level 4 score in both sections. You email your scores to the school, and only then does it send you an application link. The application requires a $60 fee, an official transcript, and two forms of identification. Acceptance remains conditional until you pass a drug test. While you wait, you can also apply through the union hall and work as a helper for $14.00 an hour when work is available.
The association academy starts with the employer. At the plumbing contractors' association academy, a participating employer enrolls you. The academy registers you in the federal apprenticeship system, and the employer signs the apprenticeship agreement. The program lasts four years, with 160 classroom hours and 2,000 on-the-job hours each year. Classes are offered in the evenings in Macon or through online coursework. The full year's tuition is due when you apply, but the academy does not publish the amount online, so you have to call for the current price.
You do not need a license to start. Georgia licenses journeyman and master plumbers, and you will need the journeyman license in your own name to work as one, whoever you work for. The state's rule requires one year of experience under a licensed master plumber, three licensed references, and a 70 on the exam. There is no apprentice license and no state apprentice registration; the plumbing chapter of Georgia law does not mention apprentices, and your sponsor registers your apprenticeship with the U.S. Department of Labor. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
The Atlanta school's applications for its Fall 2027 class open November 1, 2026 and close April 30, 2027. The Augusta local holds an application day on September 11, 2026, in person at its training center, and the building locks at 9:00 am with no admittance after. The Savannah local accepts applications until July 1 every year, and the Brunswick local takes them by phone call year round. If a date above has passed when you read this, each program posts its next dates on its own site.
Before the Atlanta school will send you an application link, you take the ACT WorkKeys assessment in applied mathematics and workplace documents at a testing location you choose, at $30 to $40 a section, and score at least a Silver or Level 4 on both. You email the results to the school, and the school sends the link only if both scores meet the minimum.
The application takes a $60 fee, an official transcript with your graduation date, and two forms of identification. The plumbing program takes people in twice a year, in August and February, with interviews in June or July for the fall and December or January for the spring, and the board of trustees decides who gets in. Missing your scheduled interview cancels the application, and acceptance is conditional until a negative drug test and a mandatory orientation.
The first year in the program is a probation period. You work under a journeyman during the day, attend the school's classes on top of that, keep a minimum average of 70, and maintain reliable transportation to anywhere in the local's jurisdiction. The program's stated pace is at least 210 classroom hours and 1,700 on-the-job hours a year.
The plumbing program runs five years; the school's plumbing page lists 8,000 on-the-job hours and 1,200 classroom hours, and each pay step follows the printed scale's hour marks. The school says its finished plumbers leave with a Georgia journeyman license, backflow certification, OSHA 30 safety training, and medical gas certifications. The state's journeyman exam is open after one year of experience, but the program runs the full five.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Georgia
All 16 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 4 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 16 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 12 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Georgia licenses you in your own name
Georgia licenses plumbers at the state level: you need a journeyman license in your own name to work as one here, whoever you work for. The journeyman license takes one year of experience, and a journeyman who later documents five years, two of them licensed, can take the master exams. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exam, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Georgia05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, and the recorded program medians on this page.
- Mechanical Trades Institute applicant information, plumbing, about, and locations pages, mti-jatt.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The application window, the WorkKeys rule, the $60 fee, the pay scale effective August 1, 2026, the free tuition, the $14.00 helper rate, and the five-year shape on this page.
- PHCC of Georgia Academy pages, phccga.com and phccga.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The rule that an employer enrolls you, the yearly hours, the Macon and online classrooms, the federal registration mechanism, and the unpublished tuition on this page.
- UA Local 150 application page, ua150.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The September 11, 2026 application day and the 9:00 am rule on this page.
- UA Local 188 application, training, and wage rate pages, localunion188.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The TABE rule, the July 1 cutoff, the $35.45 journeyman rate, and the percentage steps on this page.
- UA Local 177 apprenticeship page, ualocal177.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The phone-call application on this page.
- Georgia Code section 43-14-8, Georgia licensing rule 121-3-.02, and the state licensing division's plumber pages, sos.ga.gov, accessed 2026-09-04. The one-year experience rule, the three references, the exam score, and the no-apprentice-license fact on this page.
- 12 Georgia 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.