Is Becoming an Electrician Worth It? (Honest Answer from a Journeyman)

Short answer: yes. But that answer is useless without context. “Worth it” depends entirely on who you are and what you can handle for the first two years. I’ve been a journeyman with IBEW Local 134 in Chicago for over a decade. I’ve watched guys come in and build careers that set their families up for life. I’ve also watched guys quit by Christmas of Year 1. The trade didn’t change — they just didn’t know what they were walking into.

Here’s the honest version.

The Math on the Money

Let’s start here because it’s usually the first question. The Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs median electrician pay around $61,000/year nationally. In major markets like Chicago, that number is misleading — it blends apprentices with journeymen. A journeyman in Local 134 clears $55+/hour on straight time. Throw in overtime, which is common on commercial work, and you’re looking at $90,000–$120,000 a year without breaking a sweat on the math.

But that’s not what you make on Day 1. Here’s the actual apprentice pay structure:

• Year 1 (1st period): ~40% of journeyman scale — roughly $20–22/hour in most locals
• Year 2 (3rd period): ~55% of scale — closer to $27–30/hour
• Year 3 (5th period): ~70% of scale — you’re starting to feel it
• Year 4–5: 80–90% of scale — nearly there
• Journeyman card: 100% of scale + full benefits

What makes the total comp picture different from most jobs: health insurance from day one, a pension that actually functions, an annuity fund, and paid training. When you add those up against a $60,000/year job with a $300/month insurance premium and no pension, the comparison shifts considerably. Most four-year college graduates don’t hit journeyman-equivalent total compensation until their early 30s — and they started with $40,000–$80,000 in debt.

What Nobody Tells You About Year 1 and 2

This is where I lose people who want the cheerleading version. The first two years are genuinely hard. Not impossible — plenty of people do it every year — but hard in ways that catch people off guard.

The Physical Reality

You will spend time on your knees on concrete. You will pull wire in summer heat and rough in conduit on January mornings in Chicago where it’s 15 degrees and the building isn’t enclosed yet. You will carry material, climb ladders, work overhead until your shoulders burn. If you’re coming from a sedentary job or school, your body will need 3–6 months to adapt.

The Learning Curve

The IBEW apprenticeship runs five years for a reason. You’re in class one night a week on top of working full-time days. Code, theory, motor controls, prints. It’s manageable, but it’s a commitment. The guys who struggle are the ones who treat the classroom as optional.

Being the Low Man on the Crew

As a first-year apprentice, you are going to do the work nobody else wants to do. Clean-up, material runs, digging, pulling wire. That’s not hazing — that’s how the trade works. You earn your way up. The guys who take that personally and think they deserve more responsibility on Day 30 don’t last.

The people who quit in Year 1 and 2 aren’t weak. Most of them are smart, capable people who just didn’t have an accurate picture of what they were walking into. That’s on whoever was selling them the dream without the context.

Why It IS Worth It — For the Right Person

Here’s what you get on the other side of those first two years:

• Job security that doesn’t offshore. You cannot send an electrician to India to wire a Chicago high-rise. The work is local, physical, and permanent.
• Recession resilience. Not immune — commercial construction slows — but maintenance, service work, and residential never fully stop. IBEW dispatch smooths the gaps.
• Skills that compound. By Year 3, you start to "see" systems differently. Every job teaches you something. A 20-year journeyman is a walking knowledge base that no software can replicate.
• Zero student debt. You get paid to learn from Day 1. That difference — paying $40,000 for school vs. earning while you train — is enormous when you run the 10-year numbers.
• Union benefits. IBEW pension funds are among the most stable in the building trades. Full family health coverage with low or no premiums. An annuity. These aren’t perks — they’re deferred compensation that adds 30–40% to your hourly value.
• Brotherhood. This sounds corny until you’re on a crew with 40 guys who all know the trade, respect the work, and have your back. It’s real.

When It’s NOT Worth It

I’d rather tell you this now than have you figure it out in Year 1.

• You hate physical work. Not “you prefer desk work” — I mean you genuinely cannot handle being on your feet for 8–10 hours in varied conditions. This career will grind you down.
• You want to sit at a desk. There are adjacent careers — electrical engineering, project management, estimating — that leverage trade knowledge from a desk. The field is not that.
• You can’t commit 5 years. The apprenticeship is a contract. Dropping out mid-way doesn’t mean you keep the pay — it means you lose your place in the program and start over if you come back. Be sure before you start.
• You’re in it purely for the money. The paycheck is real, but the money comes after years of work that doesn’t pay great. If you’re not at least somewhat interested in the trade itself — how systems work, problem-solving on a job, seeing something you built — the money alone won’t carry you through Year 1.

The Honest Timeline

Here’s what the career actually looks like, year by year:

1. Year 1–2: Hardest stretch. Lowest pay. Doing the grunt work. Learning everything from scratch. A lot of guys wash out here — not because they failed, but because they didn’t know what they were signing up for.
2. Year 3: The click. This is when the trade starts to make sense — when you can read a print, rough in a panel, and troubleshoot without a senior guy standing over you. Pay jumps to 70%+ of scale.
3. Year 4–5: You’re close to journeyman level in skill. Pay is 80–90% of scale. You’re getting trusted with more. The end is in sight.
4. Journeyman card: Full scale, full benefits, career security. From here, the path is yours — foreman, general foreman, service work, teaching, or going out on your own as a contractor.

Bottom Line

If you’re mechanically inclined, you can handle sustained physical work, and you want a career that cannot be automated, offshored, or made obsolete by software — yes, it’s worth it. The math works. The career security is real. The benefits are legitimate. And if you can get through the first two years, most electricians I know wouldn’t trade it for anything.

If you’re in it purely for the paycheck, I’d encourage you to be honest with yourself before you start. The check eventually gets very good. But it comes after years of work that’ll grind you out if you don’t actually like the trade. The guys who build real careers here are the ones who find satisfaction in the craft itself — not just the Friday deposit.

If you’re serious about the path, start with the aptitude test. That’s the gate. Pass it and you’re in the conversation.