TEXAS · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Texas: get paid to train.
You can enter this trade without paying tuition upfront. At the largest program open to outside applicants, contractor training funds cover the roughly $12,000 cost of the five-year apprenticeship. Instead, you sign a scholarship loan agreement. Complete the program and work another four years for participating union contractors, and that obligation is forgiven. Texas has 83 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 6,896 apprentices in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you where they are and how to find one near you.
01 THE PAY
How much do plumber apprentices make in Texas?
The median starting wage was $19.42 an hour across 2,655 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $29.24 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 $15.60 and $22.15 an hour.
The median across 2,655 recent starting records from 34 programs. The middle half earned between $15.60 and $22.15 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $19.42 works out to about $780 before taxes.
The Houston Area Plumbing JAC puts the cost of its five-year apprenticeship at about $12,000, covered by contractor training funds. Instead of paying tuition upfront, you sign a scholarship loan agreement. Complete the apprenticeship and work another four years for participating union contractors, and the loan is forgiven. Leave early, and the remaining balance becomes due with interest. The program does not publish its actual apprentice wage rates. Apprentice pay is set as a percentage of the journeyworker rate and increases as you progress through the program.
Texas registers plumber's apprentices through the state plumbing board. Registration costs $15 and is available starting at age 16. Hours worked before you register do not count toward the experience required for the licensing exams later, so get registered before you start earning those hours.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience is required going in. The entry requirements are mostly documents, not years on the job. At the largest program open to outside applicants, you must be 18 by the time you're registered, although 17-year-olds can apply and be ranked. You also need a high school diploma or GED and official transcripts.
The program takes five years. You'll complete 8,500 to 10,000 hours on the job along with scheduled classroom training. Contractor training funds cover the schooling through the scholarship-loan arrangement described above. The program does not publish an application fee on its website. Registration and administrative fees are set in the committee's own correspondence, and you are responsible for your books. Attendance is strict: missing 24 hours of in-person class cancels your apprenticeship agreement.
Smaller programs are often individual companies training their own employees. For those, search the program name with its city and ask when and how they take applications.
Applications are closed right now. The next window runs October 15 through December 31, 2026, online at the program's portal, for Houston classes starting in spring 2027; the Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, and Beaumont classes start later in 2027. Their portal posts the status; check it before you plan around it.
Apply during an open application window through the program's online portal. You first request an account and wait for approval, so start early. You'll upload an ID, a signed Social Security card, your birth certificate, and your diploma or GED along with the required transcript.
Everyone who meets the requirements is interviewed. Complete applications are handled oldest first, and each interview is scored out of 20 points. Selection is based on that score. If you qualify but aren't selected, you remain in the applicant pool for two years.
If you're selected, you may need to complete a physical-fitness test and a drug screening before employment.
Once accepted, you're registered with the apprenticeship committee and with the Texas plumbing board. Your state apprentice registration is what allows your work hours to count toward future licensing requirements. From there, the apprenticeship runs for five years.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Texas
All 83 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 43 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 83 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 58 SMALLER PROGRAMS
Run inside prisons
The 4 programs in this section are the ones the federal data marks as training people who are incarcerated: Windham School District, the school system inside Texas state prisons, and three federal correctional institutions. They're part of the state's count, but you cannot apply to them from outside, and none of the wage numbers above include them.
04 LICENSING
Texas licenses you in your own name
Texas 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 tradesman and journeyman licenses come later, on hours and exams. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Texas05 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.
- Houston Area Plumbing JAC application portal and Plumbers Local 68 apprentice handbook, 2025 revision, plu68.com, accessed 2026-09-02. The window, the requirements, the scholarship terms, and the schooling cost on this page.
- Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, apprentice registration, tsbpe.texas.gov, accessed 2026-09-02. The $15 registration and the hours rule.
- Windham School District 2025 to 2029 strategic plan, wsdtx.org, accessed 2026-09-02. That its schools serve people incarcerated in Texas prisons.
- 35 Texas 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.