Water, gas and drainage in every building. Paid apprenticeship, licensed in about 5 years.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$72,000
1st-year apprentice
$38,000
Senior or union
$98,000
Union plumbers (UA, the plumbers and pipefitters union) and those in Alberta and the territories sit at the top. Self-employed plumbers with a service van can earn more.
$17 to $22 an hour
First-year apprentice
Rises each year to about 90% of the journeyperson rate by year four.
$32 to $47 an hour
About $67,000 to $98,000 a year full time
Emergency and after-hours service calls carry premium rates. Many plumbers with their own business bill $120 to $180 an hour.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so the cost is classroom blocks, tools and the exam, not tuition for a program. The low end is an employer who covers some of the three or four in school blocks and a tool kit you build up slowly over the four years. The high end is paying for every block yourself and buying a full kit at once, plus the certification exam at the end. The Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free and Employment Insurance is available during school blocks, so most plumbers finish with no debt.
Most apprentices finish with no debt.
Union pension and benefits
Strong in commercial and industrial work.
Overtime at premium rates
Company van and phone
Common for service plumbers.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship: mostly on the job, with short college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math and shop classes help. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find an employer to sponsor you
Weeks to months
Plumbing companies, mechanical contractors, or a union hiring hall. A pre-apprenticeship program makes this easier.
Register as an apprentice
Days
With your provincial trades body.
Work and study
4 to 5 years
9,000 hours in Ontario (about 8,280 on the job plus 720 in class over three blocks). Other provinces run 4 periods of roughly 1,500 to 1,800 hours each.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the exam. Red Seal lets you work in any province.
Math
Pipe sizing, slopes and pressure calculations.
Physics
Water and gas behave by rules you will need to know.
Shop or technology classes
Plumbing is a compulsory trade in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and several other provinces: you must be a registered apprentice or a licensed plumber to do the work. BC is the exception. Plumber is not on its compulsory certification list, though gas work is. Plumber is a Red Seal trade in every province and territory. Gas fitting is a separate licence, and many plumbers add it because it means more billable work.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Gasfitter licence (G2 or G1 in Ontario, B or A elsewhere)
Lets you install furnaces, water heaters and gas lines. Very valuable.
Steamfitter or pipefitter
Industrial pipe work, higher wages.
Backflow prevention certification
Required for testing commercial systems.
Master plumber licence
Needed to run your own contracting business in most provinces.
Pre-apprenticeship college program
A semester that gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence
Required by nearly every employer.
Customer service skills
Service plumbers spend the day in people's homes.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On new construction: roughing in drains, vents and water lines before the walls go up, then installing fixtures at the end. On service: driving between calls to fix leaks, clear drains, replace water heaters and diagnose problems. Commercial and industrial work means bigger pipe, more math and more crew.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Public health experts often say clean water and working sewers did more to raise life expectancy than any drug. Plumbing is public health.
Plumber is a Red Seal trade, so a certified plumber can move from Halifax to Calgary without re-qualifying.
A large share of Canada's plumbers are close to retirement age, and industry groups warn that retirements will outpace new apprentices in most provinces.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.