01
At a glance
| Master Plumber License (City of Buffalo) | 6,000 hours on the job |
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| The exam fee | $1,115 |
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02
Requirements and steps
We use the licensing authority's published requirements throughout this page. If the licensing authority doesn't publish a requirement, we don't guess.
1Figure out which license you need
Start from where you will actually be working rather than from where you live. Every license below is issued by a city or a county, and the office across the line can require something different. Then read the classes for that place: some are held by the worker and some by the business.
2Choose the license class you're working toward
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 licensing authority's official license names, so you'll see the same terms on its forms.
3Build the required experience
The experience requirements for each license are quoted below exactly as the licensing authority 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.
4Take the exam
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.
5Apply, pay, and keep it current
Each license class below lists the fees the licensing authority 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.
03
If you want to do the work
This page is short because New York is, not because nobody looked. The state licenses neither the worker nor the business, so there is no statewide license to list and no statewide fee schedule to print. What there is instead is city licenses. Each holds in its own city and nowhere else. The one that matters to you is where the job is, and it can change across a city line.
Two of New York's licenses are held by the worker. Each is a separate license with its own experience requirements, fees and exam rules. The ones below come from New York City and Buffalo.
Not published for any class here: classroom hours or an application fee. New York does not publish a reciprocity list for these licenses.
Journeyman Plumber/Fire Suppression Piping Installer Registration (New York City)5
Held by the worker · issued by New York City
$50 for the license itself.6
Worth knowing$50 is the whole cost of this registration. The city's chart charges nothing to apply, to renew or to take an exam for it.
Journeyman Plumber/Fire Suppression Piping Installer Registration (New York City)
Have at least Five (5) years of full-time experience performing plumbing or fire suppression piping under the direct and continuing supervision of a licensed Master Plumber or a licensed Master Fire Suppression Piping Contractor or equivalent, where at least one (1) year of experience was in New York City.5
The body that issues this class of license5New York City Department of Buildings Where that body publishes this class of license5https://www.nyc.gov/site/buildings/industry/obtain-a-journeyman-plumber-fire-suppression-piping-installer-registration-or-gas-work-qualification.page New York City doesn't list job hours, an exam name, who runs it or an exam fee.
Journeyman Plumber License (City of Buffalo)8
Held by the worker · issued by Buffalo
City of Buffalo examining board of plumbers administers the exam.8
The body that issues this class of license8City of Buffalo Department of Permit & Inspection Services, Plumbing Division (examining board of plumbers) Where that body publishes this class of license8https://www.buffalony.gov/530/Plumbing Buffalo doesn't list job hours, an experience bar, an exam fee, a license fee or renewal terms.
04
Apprenticeship and hours
One license here publishes an hours figure. The hours here are on-the-job hours, not classroom hours. A board can require thousands of one and none of the other.
- 6,000Master Plumber License (City of Buffalo)7
Master Plumber License (City of Buffalo)
Minimum Qualifications: 6,000 Hours worked as a Journeyman Plumber as an employee of a licensed Master Plumber, not working for yourself7
05
What it pays
Among the plumbers on a payroll in New York, half earn more than $37.26 an hour and half earn less. The federal wage survey puts the annual figure at $77,490.2
- $22.18The bottom tenth earn this or less2
- $62.70The top tenth earn this or more2
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 23,210 of these jobs. Self-employed workers are not included in the survey.2
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.
06
If you want to run a plumbing business
These credentials apply if you plan to take work in your own name. Each is issued to the business itself rather than to any one person.
Master Plumber (New York City)3
Held by the business · issued by New York City
$200 for the license itself.3 $1,115 to take the exam.4 You renew this every three years, for $150. The published renewal requirements do not list any additional hours requirement.3
Worth knowingThat $1,115 is two exams added together: $585 for the written and $530 for the practical. You take both. An older city fee chart still shows lower figures, and the license page is the current one. It is the same $1,115 a master electrician pays, because the city uses one form for both.
Master Plumber (New York City)
Have at least seven (7) years of total experience within the ten (10) years prior to application in the installation of plumbing systems and the planning or design of plumbing systems under the direct and continuing supervision of a Licensed Master Plumber in the United States; with at least two (2) years of such experience as a registered journeyman plumber in accordance with the provisions of article 409.4
The body that issues this class of license1New York City Department of Buildings Where that body publishes this class of license3https://www.nyc.gov/site/buildings/industry/master-plumbers-master-fire-suppression-piping-contractor.page New York City doesn't list job hours or who runs it.
Master Plumber License (City of Buffalo)7
Held by the business · issued by Buffalo
6,000 hours on the job.7 City of Buffalo examining board of plumbers administers the exam.8
The body that issues this class of license7City of Buffalo Department of Permit & Inspection Services, Plumbing Division (examining board of plumbers) Where that body publishes this class of license8https://www.buffalony.gov/530/Plumbing Buffalo doesn't list an exam fee, a license fee or renewal terms.
07
The examination
City of Buffalo examining board of plumbers administers two of the three exams named on this page. No examiner is named for the other. 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.
- Master Plumber (New York City)
- Master Plumber written examination and practical examination4
- Master Plumber License (City of Buffalo)
- City of Buffalo Master Plumber exam8
- Journeyman Plumber License (City of Buffalo)
- City of Buffalo Journeyman Plumber exam8
08
The licensing office, and how to reach it
Two different offices issue the licenses on this page, so check the class you are after for the office to contact.
The licensing authority doesn't list who certifies the worker, where that sits, who licenses the business, where that sits, the agency behind this trade or a page for that agency.
09
Bringing a license in, and taking one out
Reciprocity is an agreement between states, and every license on this page belongs to a city or a county. New York City and Buffalo do not speak for each other or for anywhere outside the state. Moving to New York? Ask the office where the job is whether it will recognize your current license. Leaving? Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work.
10
Questions people ask
Do you need a license to be a plumber in New York?
New York does not license individual plumbers. Cities and counties do. You still need a license; there is just no single statewide one, so the rules that apply are the ones where you will be working, and they change across a city line. Contractor licensing is not the state's either. Cities and counties issue it, so taking work in your own name means finding the rules where the job is.
How long does it take to become a licensed plumber in New York?
Not as a number for a person: the on-the-job hours here belong to contractor licenses. No license a person holds on this page publishes an hours figure. Several states on these pages state the requirement in years instead, and turning years into hours needs a working week nobody publishes. So this page prints what was published. The experience wording with each class is where the answer is.
What is a plumber's salary in New York?
The middle half of the plumbers on a payroll in New York earn between $28.83 and $48.67 an hour, and half of all of them earn more than $37.26. 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.2
Do plumbers make 300k?
The top tenth of plumbers on a payroll in New York earn above $62.70 an hour, which over a 2,080-hour year comes to more than $130,420. 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.2
How much does a plumber license cost in New York?
The licensing authority publishes these: $200 to be issued Master Plumber (New York City) and $50 to be issued Journeyman Plumber/Fire Suppression Piping Installer Registration (New York City). 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.
Can I use a plumber license from another state in New York?
Not as a published rule: New York 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.
How long does it take to become a plumber?
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.
Can you become a plumber with no experience?
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.
Is 30 too late to become a plumber?
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.
How hard is the plumber licensing exam?
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.