VIRGINIA · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in Virginia: get paid to train.
You don't need experience or a test to start at the largest program open to outside applicants, in Richmond: the plumbers' union puts you to work with a contractor first, and its five-year apprenticeship starts once you're on the job, with evening classes and a pay scale posted in its contract. Virginia has 230 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 2,428 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 Virginia?
The median starting wage was $16.00 an hour across 932 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $23.00 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 $14.00 and $19.00 an hour.
The median across 932 recent starting records from 156 programs. The middle half earned between $14.00 and $19.00 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $16.00 works out to about $640 before taxes.
The Richmond plumbers' and steamfitters' local publishes its pay scale in its contract: a first-year apprentice earns 55% of the journeyman rate, $19.80 an hour against Richmond's $36.00 journeyman scale, and the percentage steps up each year to 90 in the fifth. The local's Roanoke-area scale is lower and steps differently, so these figures are the Richmond rates.
Virginia licenses plumbers statewide, and the journeyman application fee is $171.75. Completing a registered apprenticeship is one way to qualify for the journeyman license. You submit the stamped apprenticeship completion form with your application and do not need to complete the experience questionnaire.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest program open to outside applicants, you need a high school diploma or GED and to be at least 18. There is no aptitude test and no application window. You go on the Richmond local's out-of-work list, it calls names in the order they were received, and the local says that once you're placed with a contractor you can enter the apprenticeship. Applicants who already have plumbing experience can take a hands-on skill evaluation for advanced standing.
Finishing takes five years. The Richmond apprenticeship runs five years, with classes from September to April: two evenings a week from 6:30 to 9:30 pm, plus every other Saturday from 7 am to 5 pm. Class time is on your own time. Tuition is $1,100 a year, and the work itself is paid on the published scale, with contractors covering the collectively bargained benefits.
The largest sponsors are union locals and mechanical contractors. The Richmond and Chesapeake locals train with their participating contractors: Richmond's takes applications through its work list year round, while the Chesapeake local opens a posted application window once a year. The Chesapeake local doesn't post its pay scale publicly, but in the federal records its recent plumber apprentices started at a median of $16.84 an hour. Most of the rest are mechanical contractors training their own employees, and many of them train plumbers and electricians side by side. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
Richmond accepts applications year round. Chesapeake uses a fixed application window: its posted dates open in early January and close at the end of May. If you miss that window, you have to wait for the next one. If both programs work for your location, start with Richmond rather than waiting for Chesapeake's next application period.
The Chesapeake local, the other large union program, accepts applications during a posted window on its program page. Classes start each September. When applications are closed, the page lists the dates for the next window.
You must be at least 18, have a high school diploma or GED, hold a valid driver's license, and be able to pass a drug test. A criminal record does not automatically disqualify you, although the program says it may limit which job sites you can access.
Applicants complete a math evaluation as part of the selection process. The first year is a probationary period of 1,700 to 2,000 hours, and you buy your own textbooks.
The Chesapeake apprenticeship requires 10,000 hours on the job plus 1,000 classroom hours over five years. You choose a specialization in the third year and complete OSHA 30, medical gas, rigging, and CPR training along the way.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in Virginia
All 230 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 89 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 230 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 209 SMALLER PROGRAMS
Run inside state prisons
1 of the 230 programs is run by the Virginia corrections department 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
Virginia licenses you in your own name
Virginia licenses plumbers at the state level: you need a license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. As an apprentice you work under a licensed tradesman's supervision, and completing a registered apprenticeship is itself a qualifying route to the journeyman license. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in Virginia05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, the two state medians and the starting-wage band, and the Chesapeake local's recorded starting median on this page.
- Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 10 frequently asked questions and published wage rates, ualocal10.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The Richmond scale, the tuition, the class times, and the work-list model on this page.
- UA Local 110 apprenticeship program page and application, ualocal110.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The window, the evaluation, the hours, and the record policy on this page.
- Virginia DPOR tradesmen pages and license application, dpor.virginia.gov, accessed 2026-09-04. The $171.75 fee and the apprenticeship method on this page.
- 23 Virginia 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.