MICHIGAN · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Michigan: get paid to train.
You can apply to this trade's largest open program any day of the year: it takes applications online with no window and no fee, and its five-year apprenticeship pays you while you train, including one paid school day every two weeks. Michigan has 37 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 3,298 apprentices in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you where they are and how applying works.
01 THE PAY
How much do plumber apprentices make in Michigan?
The median starting wage was $19.25 an hour across 565 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $38.06 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 $17.75 and $22.75 an hour.
The median across 565 recent starting records from 27 programs. The middle half earned between $17.75 and $22.75 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $19.25 works out to about $770 before taxes.
Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 333 starts its apprentices at 45% of the journeyman scale, with raises every six months if program requirements are met. The actual dollar scale is not published; it sits behind the union's member login. What the program does say: being accepted is, in its words, similar to a full-ride, tuition-free scholarship, health and dental coverage for your spouse and children starts after one week of work, and your school day every two weeks is paid at your hourly wage.
Michigan registers plumbing apprentices through the state licensing department. Registration costs $15, must happen within 30 days of starting work as an apprentice, and renews every year. Any hours you work while the registration is lapsed or expired do not count toward the hours required for the journey plumber exam, so register on time and keep it current.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest program open to outside applicants, you must be 18 and have a high school diploma or GED. With your application, you upload your official transcript, birth certificate, and driver's license. The only test comes before you apply: the ACT WorkKeys assessment. You need a score of at least 4 in each of the three sections and a combined score of at least 14, so you must score above 4 in at least one section.
The program takes five years. The first year is probationary. School is one eight-hour day every two weeks at the training centers in Lansing and Jackson, and you're paid your hourly wage for attending. Apprentices train across plumbing, pipefitting, and heating-and-cooling service work, and your on-the-job hours build toward the state plumbing license and other certifications.
The two largest sponsors in the federal count are not programs you apply to. Ford and Chrysler run Michigan's largest registered apprenticeship programs, training their own employees inside their plants; you get in by working there, not by applying to a program. For an outside applicant, the largest sponsors are the union plumbers-and-pipefitters training committees, run with participating contractors, from Lansing and Saginaw to Coopersville and Troy. Many smaller programs are individual companies training their own hires. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and ask how and when they take applications.
There isn't one to wait for: the program takes applications year-round through its online form, with no fee and no posted deadlines. That is what its website and application say today; have your WorkKeys scores in hand before you start.
ACT WorkKeys comes first, at a testing site near you: Workplace Documents, Applied Mathematics, and Graphic Literacy. You need at least a 4 in each section and a 14 in total to move forward in the application process.
The application is online, open year-round, and free. You upload your birth certificate, your diploma or GED with the transcript, your WorkKeys scores, both sides of your driver's license, and a DD-214 if you served. The program does not publish how applicants are ranked or how long selection takes.
You start as a probationary apprentice for one year, around 1,700 to 2,000 hours on the job, working under a journeyman. You agree to buy text materials as required and to get yourself to job sites and to class.
Within 30 days of starting, you register with the state as a plumbing apprentice: $15, renewed every year. Hours worked while the registration is lapsed do not count toward the journey plumber exam, which requires 6,000 hours over at least three years as an actively registered apprentice.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Michigan
All 37 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 13 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 37 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 25 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Michigan licenses you in your own name
Michigan licenses plumbers at the state level: you need a license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. It starts with the $15 apprentice registration, and the journey plumber license comes later, on hours and a two-part exam. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Michigan05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, and the two medians and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 333 apprenticeship pages and online application, ua333.org and form.jotform.com, accessed 2026-09-03. The application model, the WorkKeys requirement, the 45% figure, and the schedule on this page.
- Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, plumbing licensing pages and apprentice registration form BCC-3328, michigan.gov/lara, accessed 2026-09-03. The $15 registration, the 30-day rule, and the lapsed-hours rule.
- 11 Michigan 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.