How much do power-line workers make in South Carolina in 2026?

The median power-line worker in South Carolina earns $76,870 a year, which works out to about $36.96 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's a solid middle-of-the-road figure, but where you land in the range depends heavily on your experience, your employer, and which part of the state you're working in.

The bottom quarter of earners — workers in the 25th percentile — bring in $60,200 a year, or roughly $28.94 an hour. These tend to be newer linemen, apprentices nearing journeyman status, or workers at smaller rural co-ops with tighter wage scales. The top quarter clears $95,430 a year, about $45.88 an hour. That upper tier is typically occupied by experienced journeymen with ten or more years on the line, crew leads, or workers putting in heavy overtime during storm restoration seasons.

The spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is $35,230 a year — a gap wide enough that your experience level, overtime availability, and employer type matter a great deal.

South Carolina's power grid is a mix of investor-owned utilities, electric cooperatives, and public power entities. Investor-owned utilities and municipal systems in larger metro areas like Columbia, Greenville, and Charleston tend to pay at or above the median. Rural electric cooperatives — and South Carolina has a significant number of them — may start wages lower but often offer stable hours and strong benefit packages that aren't fully captured in base wage data. Don't evaluate an offer based on hourly rate alone.

Overtime is a real earnings multiplier in this trade. Power-line workers respond to outages around the clock, and storm season in South Carolina can be brutal — hurricanes, ice storms, and severe thunderstorms all generate call-out work billed at premium rates. A worker at the median base wage who logs 300 to 400 hours of overtime during a bad storm year can push total compensation well above the 75th percentile figure for that year. The BLS wage data captures straight-time base wages, not overtime or hazard pay, so actual take-home for active linemen often runs higher than the published numbers suggest.

Apprenticeship is the standard entry path. A registered lineman apprenticeship typically runs three to four years and includes both classroom instruction and on-the-job hours working alongside journeymen. Pay steps up incrementally through the apprenticeship — most programs start apprentices somewhere between 50% and 60% of journeyman scale and advance them in stages. By the time you complete the program and test out as a journeyman, you're in position to earn at or above the median on day one of your journeyman card.

South Carolina doesn't have a separate statewide licensing requirement for journeyman linemen in the way some states license electricians, but specific employers and utility commissions may have their own qualification standards. CDL-A is effectively a job requirement at most utilities — you won't climb poles if you can't drive the truck. Keeping certifications current in bucket truck operation, first aid, and CPR keeps you eligible for the assignments that pay the most.

To push your earnings toward the 75th percentile and above, the levers are consistent: accumulate years of journeyman experience, cross-train on substation and transmission work in addition to distribution, take on crew lead responsibilities, and make yourself available for mutual aid storm deployments. Workers who travel out of state for major storm restoration events — often coordinated through utility mutual aid agreements — can earn significant additional income during those deployments.

Some power-line workers in South Carolina are represented by a union, and some are not. If you work under a collective bargaining agreement, your wage scale, overtime rules, and benefit contributions are spelled out in that agreement. Check the specific terms of your local's contract directly — it will tell you more about your actual pay than any statewide average.

All wage figures on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, published May 2025. BLS reports straight-time base wages and does not include overtime pay, bonuses, per diem, or employer-paid benefits. For linemen who regularly work overtime, total annual earnings typically exceed the figures shown here.