TENNESSEE · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Tennessee: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start, and you don't always have to wait: the Memphis local takes applications online year round, while the Chattanooga committee opens once a year in March. Tennessee has 28 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,644 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 Tennessee?
The median starting wage was $18.56 an hour across 324 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. The middle half of starting wages fell between $16.00 and $21.41 an hour. These are starting wages recorded at different programs, not one program's scale. The largest committees state pay as a percentage of a journeyman rate or not at all, so the cards below show what the programs themselves say about pay.
The median across 324 recent starting records from 13 programs. The middle half earned between $16.00 and $21.41 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $18.56 works out to about $740 before taxes.
Apprentices at the Chattanooga plumbers' and steamfitters' committee start at 55% of the journeyman worker's wage rate, with yearly increases if progress is satisfactory. The committee does not publish the journeyman rate itself in dollars, so the percentage is the whole of what it says about pay.
The contractor association's trades academy charges tuition instead: $2,900 a year in Middle Tennessee and a flat $2,000 a year at its Knoxville academy, books included, due by the first day of class. Its own page warns that job placement is never guaranteed, and that students who enroll without an employer are trainees, not registered apprentices, until they are working in the trade.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
The Chattanooga committee opens once a year. Applications for its five-year program are available every year in the month of March, picked up in person at the training center on Tuesdays and Thursdays during posted hours, and the committee says the application process takes about an hour. Bring your official high school transcript or GED scores, a valid driver's license, and a certified birth certificate or Social Security card. You must be 18 by September 1.
One route starts with the employer. The Knoxville contractors' association school takes anyone 17 or older, and its requirements list starts with working for a contractor in the trade. If you are not in the trade yet, it requires a resume instead. The plumbing program runs four years, with classes once a week at 5 pm from August to May, and you work full time while attending.
The largest sponsors are union training committees and contractor associations. The Nashville local, the largest program in the federal count, publishes its requirements and a $25 application fee but not its wage rates: those are published for members and contractors, not applicants. The Memphis local takes applications online year round and will accept an application even with questions left blank. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
The Chattanooga committee takes applications once a year, in the month of March, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at its training center. The contractor association's academy opens applications each April for classes that start in September and closes them about a month before the first day. The Nashville and Memphis locals accept applications year round. If March is months away, apply to one of the year-round programs instead.
Applications must be picked up and signed for in person by the applicant, and the completed form goes back to the same training center on Riverside Drive. To receive one you need your official transcripts or GED scores with you, plus a valid driver's license and a certified birth certificate or Social Security card.
Each applicant must pass the ACT WorkKeys exam with a score of 4 or higher in each of its three sections: Applied Math, Workplace Documents, and Graphic Literacy. Applicants accepted into the program are then required to submit to drug screenings.
The five-year program is divided into ten periods, each with 1,700 to 2,000 hours of on-the-job training and at least 216 classroom hours. Apprentices work the same hours as journeymen and attend night classes twice a week on top.
After the fourth period, apprentices choose their path: plumber, pipefitter and welder, or HVAC service. Completing the five years also earns up to 32 free college credits that can count toward an associate degree at Chattanooga State.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Tennessee
All 28 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 10 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 28 programs. Prison-run programs keep their overall rank but are listed separately below. 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 16 SMALLER PROGRAMS
Run inside state prisons
1 of the 28 programs is run inside a state prison and trains people who are incarcerated. It's part of the state's count, but you cannot apply to it from outside, and none of the wage numbers above include it.
04 LICENSING
Tennessee licenses you in your own name
Tennessee licenses plumbers at the state level: the limited licensed plumber credential is issued in your own name by the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, and its application requires one year of plumbing experience, proved by a local license or a notarized verification. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Tennessee05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, the starting median and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Chattanooga plumbers' and steamfitters' committee apprenticeship and application pages, ualocal43.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The March window, the WorkKeys scores, the 55% statement, and the five-year structure on this page.
- Knoxville PHCC apprenticeship school page, taphcc.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The route through an employer, the age minimum, and the class schedule on this page.
- Associated Builders and Contractors of Greater Tennessee education and application pages, abctn.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The tuition figures, the April rule, and the trainee distinction on this page.
- Nashville and Memphis plumbers' locals' training and application pages, local572.com and ua17.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The $25 fee, the requirements, and the open online application on this page.
- 18 Tennessee 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.