Chart Basics

Each chart can be filtered by highest to lowest dollar figure, or alphabetically by clicking the header in each column. You can also use the search function to look up specific locals, cities, or states.

Local #: Each national union (IBEW, UA, SMART, etc.) has union offices that cover a specific city or region. They are each designated a “Local #”, and generally have their own collective bargaining agreement and therefor their own pay scales. Sometimes a group of locals that are a part of the same regional district will all negotiate together, so you may see multiple locals with the exact same pay.

City / State: The location of where the local is based out of. Often the counties they cover expand outside the city limits. For example, IBEW 569 is based out of San Diego but also covers all of Imperial County, stretching all the way to Arizona.

Yearly Salary: The yearly salary of the journeyman worker assuming 40 hour work weeks (no overtime) and a two week vacation.

Hourly Wage: The hourly wage of the journeyman worker that will show up on the check. The dues percentage will be deducted from this amount. If stated, so will the vacation fund.

Total Package: The total package column adds up the base wage, vacation pay (if not deducted), health and welfare, pension, and 401k amounts. This total package amount is NOT the true total package of the local. It does not account for training funds, labor management funds, and other smaller dollar amounts that goes towards the smooth functioning of the union and contractor association.

Cost of Living: All cost of living numbers are taken from www.bestplaces.net and are based on a percentage of the national average cost of living, with the average being (100%). If a city has twice the national average cost of living, you will see a (200%). If it’s half, it will show as (50%).

Adjusted Base Wage for COL: This is the base wage divided by the cost of living number. Adjusting the base wage per cost of living levels the playing field when talking about wage differences. For example if an electrician in city “A” earns $50 per hour, but that city has twice the national average COL (200%), this number will show as $25. This is useful when comparing it to the electrician who works in city “B”, who only earns $30/hour, but has a cost living lower than the national average, at (85%). This would make their effective COL pay be $35.29. While city A seems to pay a lot more, you would have more spending power in city B.

Vacation: Many locals have vacation / saving funds. While they all work slightly differently, typically this is a fund that you or your employer deposits money into per hour worked. This amount will either get paid out to you periodically (generally once or twice a year), or you can request to withdraw from this fund as needed. Unless otherwise noted, this amount is in addition to your base pay. Sometimes however locals will deduct it from your paycheck. So if the base pay states $50/hour but says $2/hour DEDUCT, you would be taking home $48/hour on the check.

Health and Welfare (H&W): A health and welfare fund is run by every union local. Your employer contributes a set dollar amount per hour worked for each employee into this fund. The union local then uses this collective pool to provide health insurance to it’s members and it’s members participants. Every plan is different, but generally covers medical, prescription drugs, therapy, dental, vision, and others.

Defined Benefit Pension: A defined benefit pension is a pension that upon retirement gives you a set monthly benefit amount for the rest of your life. The higher the contribution amount, the higher this amount will be.

Contribution Pension: A contribution pension works similar to a 401k. Money gets contributed to this account by your employer, and upon retirement you will have a set amount of money in that fund to withdraw from.

401K: An investment account in which you or your employer can contribute to. If you see a dollar amount in the chart, this is the dollar amount per hour worked the contractor puts in on your behalf. It will be invested according to the management fund and you will be able to withdraw from it in retirement.

Dues: All locals collect union dues. This is generally a set % of your gross income or a dollar amount per hour worked. This pays for the union to function on all aspects, and is essentially always cheaper than paying non-union dues. Not sure what I mean? Check our Why Union? page.