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Skilled trades in Florida
SkilledLadder has guides for 3 trades in Florida so far: electrician, plumber and sprinkler fitter. Each one has its own license and its own rules.
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Electrician
There's no statewide license, but you still need one from the city or county where you work. Its guide covers Miami-Dade County.
$27.52
median pay an hour
49,700
jobs on payrolls
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Plumber
There's no statewide license, but you still need one from the city or county where you work. Its guide covers Hillsborough County.
$25.44
median pay an hour
29,260
jobs on payrolls
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Sprinkler fitter
Work for an employer and you need no state certificate, unless you'll inspect the systems: that takes a permit of its own. Take work in your own name and you need the contractor certificate, from the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of State Fire Marshal. Whether a city or county journeyman license covers this work isn't settled.
$25.44
median pay for plumbers, an hour
Sources
- The licensing boards and agencies listed in each trade's guide: who issues the license
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: median pay and jobs
- Florida Department of Education, annual apprenticeship report: the programs with published pay
Pay and jobs: median pay counts every worker in the trade on a payroll in the state, from first-year apprentices to masters, so it isn't what an apprentice earns. Jobs counts filled positions on payrolls. Someone with 2 jobs counts twice, and the self-employed aren't in it.
Sprinkler fitters: the pay shown is the federal figure for plumbers, the one the sprinkler fitter guide uses, so there's no jobs count for sprinkler fitters.
Programs: Florida's count is the programs whose pay its yearly report publishes, so it isn't a count of every registered program.
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