How much do electricians make in Massachusetts in 2026?

The median electrician in Massachusetts earns $79,420 a year, which works out to roughly $38.18 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's a strong middle-of-the-road figure, but the spread across the pay scale is wide enough that where you land matters a lot.

At the 25th percentile, electricians in the state take home $57,860 annually — about $27.82 an hour. These are typically workers earlier in their careers, apprentices who have recently obtained their journeyman license, or those working in lower-wage corners of the state or in sectors that simply don't pay top dollar. If you're here, you're not underpaid by national standards, but you have clear room to move up.

The 75th percentile lands at $100,480 per year, or approximately $48.31 an hour. That's not a ceiling — it's just where the top quarter starts. Electricians who reach this tier usually have years of journeyman experience, a Massachusetts Master Electrician license, or they're working on large commercial and industrial projects where the scope and liability demand higher pay.

The gap between the 25th and 75th percentile — roughly $42,600 per year — tells you something important: skill level, license grade, and the type of work you take on have a bigger effect on your paycheck than almost anything else.

Massachusetts has a well-defined licensing ladder. You start as an apprentice, typically in a four- or five-year program, then sit for the Journeyman (Journeyworker) Electrician exam issued by the Board of State Examiners of Electricians. After enough supervised hours, you can pursue the Master Electrician license, which opens the door to pulling permits, running your own jobs, and moving into supervisory or contractor roles — all of which push pay toward and past the 75th percentile.

Geography inside the state plays a real role. The Greater Boston metro — Suffolk, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Essex counties — drives the highest wages, driven by dense commercial construction, life sciences facilities, data centers, and institutional work at hospitals and universities. The cost of doing business is high, clients have deep pockets, and skilled electricians are in demand. Western Massachusetts and more rural parts of the state tend to run lower, closer to the 25th-percentile range.

The type of employer matters too. Large commercial and industrial contractors on multi-year projects generally pay more than residential service companies. Government and institutional work, like municipal buildings or MBTA infrastructure, often comes with its own pay scales built into the contracts. Specialty work — high-voltage transmission, industrial controls, data and communications cabling — typically commands a premium over straight residential wiring.

Overtime is a legitimate pay lever for electricians. A journeyman at the median wage earning 10 hours of overtime per week at time-and-a-half adds roughly $29,700 to their base annual income, pushing total compensation well above $109,000. That's not unusual during peak construction seasons in Massachusetts, which tend to run from spring through late fall when exterior and structural work is moving fast.

Some electricians in Massachusetts work under collective bargaining agreements. If that applies to you, your pay, overtime rules, and benefit contributions are set by your local agreement — check that document directly for the numbers that govern your situation. The BLS figures here cover union and non-union workers together.

Benefits are part of the total picture the BLS wage data doesn't capture. Health insurance, pension contributions, annuity funds, and paid leave all add value that doesn't show up in the hourly rate. A journeyman whose employer covers family health insurance and contributes to a defined-benefit pension is better compensated than the raw wage number suggests.

If you're trying to move your number up, the path is straightforward: get your Master Electrician license if you don't have it, pursue any specialty certifications relevant to high-demand sectors in the state (industrial automation, EV charging infrastructure, and photovoltaic systems are all growing), and target employers working on large commercial or industrial projects. Each of those steps is concrete and pays off in wages you can see on your next offer letter.

All figures on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025.