PENNSYLVANIA · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Pennsylvania: get paid to train.
You can start this trade two very different ways. At the largest sponsor you can apply without a job or even a diploma, for a $125 fee, and the association works to place you with a contractor. At the largest plumber-only school, a licensed master plumber hires you first, and your tuition goes through your employer. Pennsylvania has 117 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,960 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 Pennsylvania?
The median starting wage was $20.68 an hour across 1,247 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $34.87 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 $16.00 and $24.01 an hour.
The median across 1,247 recent starting records from 27 programs. The middle half earned between $16.00 and $24.01 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $20.68 works out to about $830 before taxes.
The plumbing contractors' association school in Aston enrolls you only once you work full time for a licensed master plumber. At the latest posted rates, a year of the four-year program costs $4,200 with an association-member employer and $4,700 otherwise, and the school requires the payment to come through your employer; if the money is yours, you hand it to your employer and they send it in. Neither this school nor the state's largest sponsor publishes an apprentice wage.
Pennsylvania has no statewide plumbing license. In Delaware County, a council of municipalities gives the journeyman exam: $225 to apply, 100 code questions plus plumbing math and a drawing to size, and you sit it after four years of full-time work for a registered master plumber, documented with tax forms. The Aston school issues your federal completion certificate, and its own paperwork says the council, not the school, decides who takes the exam. Other counties and cities set their own rules.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest sponsor, ABC Keystone, you can apply without a job in the trade, and a diploma or GED is helpful but not required. The fee is $125 and not refundable, the association works to connect applicants with member companies for employment, and a math entrance test decides whether you also take a construction math class; scoring 80% skips it. What it does not publish: tuition, wages, or how long its plumbing program runs. You have to ask.
The largest plumber-only school takes four years. At the Aston training center you enroll only if you already work full time for a licensed master plumber and hold a diploma or GED. The apprenticeship is 8,000 hours on the job plus 576 hours of classroom instruction, one school night a week from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. The rules are strict: four missed nights a year with no make-up nights, phones go in a holder during class, you bring your own laptop or tablet, and your grades are mailed to your employer twice a year.
Most of the rest are union committees and companies. The plumbers-and-pipefitters union committees in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Scranton train the next tier of apprentices with participating contractors, and 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.
If you already work for a licensed master plumber, the Aston school's current year starts in mid-September, and tuition is due in full before the first night. ABC Keystone's enrollment for the current school year is closed; it points applicants at the next one and publishes no opening date. Check both before you plan around either.
For the Aston school, the first requirement is a job: full-time work for a licensed master plumber. The enrollment form collects your employer's license number, and your employer signs it with you.
You send in the enrollment form with a copy of your diploma or GED, and tuition goes through your employer before classes start. There is no application fee and no entrance exam, and there are no refunds after the first night of school.
Class runs 6:30 to 9:30 pm one night a week in Aston, with 144 required hours a year over four years. Four missed nights a year is the limit, there are no make-up nights, and you need a 70% average in each class to advance to the next year.
After the four years, the Delaware County municipalities' plumbing council gives the journeyman exam: $225, 100 code questions plus plumbing math and a drawing, with your four years of work documented by tax forms. The school issues the federal completion certificate; the council decides who sits the exam.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Pennsylvania
All 117 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 14 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 117 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 107 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Licensing depends on where you work
Pennsylvania has no statewide plumber license. Cities and counties issue their own, each with its own rules, and they change across a city line. Before you count on your hours, check the rules where you plan to work.
How plumber licensing works in Pennsylvania05 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.
- ABC Keystone apprenticeship enrollment pages, abckeystone.org, accessed 2026-09-03. The $125 fee, the placement model, and the math-exam rule on this page.
- PSA PHCC apprenticeship school enrollment packet for the 2026-2027 school year, psaphcc.com, accessed 2026-09-03. The employment requirement, the tuition schedule, the four-year shape, and the class rules on this page.
- Delaware County Municipalities Plumbing Council journeyman exam packet, posted at psaphcc.com, accessed 2026-09-03. The $225 exam, its contents, and its requirements.
- 31 Pennsylvania 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.