Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes (State Plumbing Board)
Michigan licenses individual plumbers. You need a state license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for.
Every requirement on this page belongs to a license class the state names itself. Each one has its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. There are four of them here, so read the one you are aiming at rather than the page as a whole.
What Michigan licenses
Both answers come directly from the state licensing authority.
| Master plumber's license | 4,000 hours on the job |
|---|---|
| Journey plumber's license | 6,000 hours on the job |
| The exam fee | $100 |
We use the state's published licensing requirements throughout this page. If the state doesn't publish a requirement, we don't guess.
There are two different licensing paths here: one for people working as plumbers, and one for the contracting business. If you're starting your career, focus on the worker license first. You may need the one for the business later, if you decide to run the contracting business yourself.
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 state's official license names, so you'll see the same terms on its forms.
The experience requirements for each license are quoted below exactly as the state 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.
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.
Each license class below lists the fees the state 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.
Three of Michigan's licenses are held by the worker. Each is a separate license with its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules.
Not published for any class here: classroom hours or an application fee. Michigan does not publish a reciprocity list for these licenses.
Held by the worker · issued by the state
$15 for the license itself.8 You renew this every year, for $15, with no continuing education required.9
The state doesn't list job hours, an experience bar, an exam name, who runs it or an exam fee.
Held by the worker · issued by the state
6,000 hours on the job.2 $40 for the license itself.11 $100 to take the exam.9 PSI administers the written examination; the Bureau of Construction Codes administers the hands on practical skills examination itself administers the exam.2 You renew this every year, for $40. The published renewal requirements do not list any additional hours requirement.9
Worth knowingYou send this $40 in with your application, and it is the license fee. There is no second charge to apply.
Worth knowingThe law sets $100. You pay PSI, the state's testing vendor, rather than the state. Nothing we read says whether the hands-on part costs extra.
Held by the worker · issued by the state
4,000 hours on the job.2 $300 for the license itself.1 $100 to take the exam.9 PSI administers the exam.2 You renew this every three years, for $300. The published renewal requirements do not list any additional hours requirement.9
Worth knowingThese 4,000 hours sit on top of a journey license you already hold. Getting that one took 6,000 hours, so the total is 10,000.
Worth knowingA master plumber pays $300 where a master electrician pays $50, out of the same bureau. If you are a plumbing contractor as well, you pay the contractor fee and not this one on top.
Worth knowingThe law sets $100. You pay PSI, the state's testing vendor, rather than the state.
There are two license levels here, and each is a separate license. The hours below are totals for each license, not additional hours on top of the last one. The hours here are on-the-job hours, not classroom hours.
Journey plumber's license
Has not less than 6,000 hours experience attained over a period of not less than 3 years as an actively registered plumbing apprentice in the practical installation of plumbing under the supervision of a licensed master or journey plumber.2
Master plumber's license
Must have 4,000 hours experience in work as a journey plumber over a period of not less than 2 years immediately preceding the date of the application. Any lapses in licensure in the 2 years immediately preceding the application will not meet requirements.2
37 registered apprenticeships train Michigan plumbers. People who finished one recently left at a median of $38.06 an hour.
See every program and what they payAmong the plumbers on a payroll in Michigan, half earn more than $38.56 an hour and half earn less. The federal wage survey puts the annual figure at $80,190.6
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 14,120 of these jobs. Self-employed workers are not included in the survey.6
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.
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.
Held by the business · issued by the state
$300 for the license itself.13 $100 to take the exam.9 PSI administers the exam.13 You renew this every three years, for $300, with no continuing education required.9
Worth knowingThe law sets $100. You pay PSI, the state's testing vendor, rather than the state.
Plumbing contractor license
The applicant must either hold a master plumber license or employ the holder of a master plumber license as his or her representative.2
The state doesn't list job hours.
PSI administers the written examination; the Bureau of Construction Codes administers the hands on practical skills examination itself and PSI 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. Exam fees are listed with each class above.
The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes (State Plumbing Board) issues all worker and contractor credentials covered on this page.
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes (State Plumbing Board)12
Check a license
This is the state's own search, so what comes back is the register itself rather than somebody's copy of it.
the worker and the business: https://aca-prod.accela.com/LARA/GeneralProperty/PropertyLookUp.aspx?isLicensee=Y&TabName=APO5
Michigan does not publish a list of the states whose plumber licenses it recognizes. Moving to Michigan? Contact Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes (State Plumbing Board) and ask whether your current license will be recognized. Leaving? Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work.
Michigan licenses individual plumbers. You need a state license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. Michigan licenses plumber contractors as well. Taking work in your own name, rather than working for somebody who holds that license, needs a second and different one.
Michigan publishes an hours figure for two of the four license classes here: Master plumber's license, 4,000 hours on the job and Journey plumber's license, 6,000 hours on the job. Each figure belongs to the class it is named under and to no other. The state does not publish a working week, so nothing here turns hours into months. How fast you get there depends on how many you work in a year.
The middle half of the plumbers on a payroll in Michigan earn between $27.93 and $45.86 an hour, and half of all of them earn more than $38.56. 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.6
The top tenth of plumbers on a payroll in Michigan earn above $49.73 an hour, which over a 2,080-hour year comes to more than $103,430. 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. So yes for at least one in ten: the top tenth here clear $100,000 on straight time alone.6
The state publishes these: $15 to be issued Apprentice plumber registration, $40 to be issued Journey plumber's license, $300 to be issued Master plumber's license and $300 to be issued Plumbing contractor license. 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.
Not as a published rule: Michigan 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.