How Much Does an Electrician Make

Most electricians employed by electrical contractor firms, electric companies, etc…, enjoy more than a nice electrician salary. Most of these major types of employers also provide benefits such as life and health insurance as well as retirement plans. Additionally, some of the companies will pay for or provide continuing education and sometimes supply a vehicle which the individual takes home after work for since they are the electricians that are “on call”.

So, it’s important to add all these types of job perks into the equation when you are talking about an electrician salary. Things like health insurance are expensive so if the employer is providing it, the amount the individual would have to pay to get the same coverage can essentially be added to a person’s salary for personal calculations as to how much an individual is actually making as an electrician.

Although a company may not call it “hazardous duty pay”, the danger of some jobs in the electrical field is certainly factored into the electrician salary. Some of the highest paid electricians are employees like outside linemen of electric power companies that bring electricity into homes and businesses. Many of their employees work directly with high voltages, in hazardous situations, supplying generated electricity and repairing power lines and equipment during power outages.

The hazards facing these electricians are things like working with live, high voltage wires. They often have to work at heights, either posed in a bucket truck or after climbing a power pole and strapping themselves in with a harness. Other obstacles and circumstances can make this a hazardous job as well—things like flood waters, fallen trees and debris, etc… Traffic, weather, structural damages are also things that can make their job hazardous.

A good paying electrician salary is just one of the perks of becoming an electrician. Many electricians also enjoy the benefits of joining and becoming a part of a union. The largest union for electricians is The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. However, there are other unions that electricians can join as well.

One of the major benefits of being part of a union is that worker’s rights are fought for. There is strength in numbers in terms of a group of tradespeople banding together, but unions speak as one voice. The unions help co-ordinate higher base pays, job safety measures, health insurance, retirement plans, etc… So, when considering an electrician salary, don’t forget to add in all those beneficial factors of becoming a union member.

I'm not sure how we reverse this trend but I'm sure we need to start in the schools when the kids are younger. I think it's apparent at the age of 15, if a child is bound for a career as a doctor or an attorney so why not give the other kids some direction and show the potential in a career learning a skilled labor.

A study published by the National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturing Institute, titled “Keeping America Competitive”[1], states that “today’s manufacturing jobs are technology jobs, and employees at all levels must have the wider range of skills required to respond to the demands of an increasingly complex environment.”

The study goes on to say that among companies involved in skilled production (whose employees are machinists, craft workers, and technicians), 51 percent report shortages and see increased shortages ahead. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that shortages of skilled workers are most serious for machinists, craft workers, technicians, electricians and engineers....Get more here;

This may be a bold statement but I think for too long we have given kids the impression that skilled labor jobs are not as good as being a doctor or attorney. My Dad always said, someone has to pick up the garbage. These jobs are good paying and well respected careers.