Build and repair the high voltage lines that carry electricity to everyone else. Outdoors, dangerous, and paid like it.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyman lineworker
$95,320
Apprentice
$51,470
Top tenth
$128,690
The national median is $95,320 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $51,470. That median is higher than most four-year degrees earn, and you do not need a degree to get here.
About $22 to $32 an hour
First-year apprentice on a registered apprenticeship
Apprentice pay is set as a percentage of the journeyman rate, usually starting near 60% and stepping up every six months or every thousand hours you log.
$128,690 and up
The top tenth of line workers
After a hurricane or an ice storm, crews travel across state lines and work 16-hour days at overtime and double time, with hotels and meals paid. Some workers earn a quarter of their year in a few weeks.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
A registered apprenticeship with a utility or a union is paid work, so the low end is boots, climbing gear and rain gear bought while you earn a wage. The high end is paying for a lineworker school first, plus a commercial driver's license course that many employers would have covered for you. Getting taken on directly is the cheaper door, but it is competitive and often takes a few tries. Most line workers finish training with savings rather than student debt.
Most line workers finish training with savings instead of student debt. If you do go to a lineworker school first, file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to see what grants and federal loans you qualify for.
Real pensions
Public power utilities and IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) locals still run defined-benefit pension plans, which almost nobody else offers now.
Overtime and double time
Outage and storm callouts are paid at premium rates, all night if that is what it takes.
Per diem on travel work
A daily allowance for food and lodging when you are sent out of town.
Health coverage from early on
Utility and union plans usually start within months of being hired, not years.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship, not a degree. The hard part is getting the apprenticeship, not finishing it.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Algebra is the one that matters. Get strong, get comfortable with heights, and keep your driving record clean.
Commercial driver's license
A few weeks
Most crews need you to drive the bucket truck and the digger derrick, so a Class A CDL (commercial driver's license) is either required up front or required early.
Optional lineworker school
3 to 15 months
A 15-week to 15-month certificate at a school like Northwest Lineman College, which has campuses in Idaho, California, Texas and Florida, or at a community college. It is not required, but it puts you ahead in the applicant pile.
Get into a registered apprenticeship
Weeks to a year of waiting
Through a utility, a line construction contractor, or a joint union and employer program. Expect an aptitude test, an interview, a physical and a drug screen.
Work the apprenticeship
About 3 and a half to 4 years
Most outside line programs run about 7,000 hours on the job plus classroom work. You climb, you dig, you frame poles, you learn to work near energized conductors.
Journeyman lineworker
After your hours
You top out at the full rate, take your own truck and start training the apprentices behind you.
Algebra and geometry
Sag calculations, pole loading and conductor tension are all arithmetic you do on site.
Physics
Voltage, current and magnetic fields are the whole job.
Shop or electronics
Shows you can handle tools and read a drawing.
Physical education
The entrance physical is real. You will be climbing poles carrying 40 pounds of gear.
Unlike an inside electrician, a line worker usually does not hold a state license. What governs the job is your employer's qualification program and federal workplace safety law. OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has a specific standard for electric power generation, transmission and distribution work covering minimum approach distances, protective grounding and rubber gloving. You also need a commercial driver's license in almost every crew, which is a real license with medical checks and drug testing behind it.
Three doors into the same trade.
Utility apprenticeships
City-owned and investor-owned utilities hire apprentices directly. Steady work, pension, less travel.
Union and contractor programs
Joint programs run by IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) locals and line construction contractors. Higher pay, more travel.
Private lineworker colleges
Northwest Lineman College and similar schools run short pre-apprenticeship certificates with pole yards and climbing towers.
Community colleges
Many technical and community colleges run electrical lineworker certificates that cost far less than a private school.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Transmission work
The big steel towers and the highest voltages. Harder, more travel, better money than distribution.
Troubleman
The experienced lineworker who rolls alone to find and fix faults. Usually a premium rate.
Substation and relay technician
A related path inside the fence, less climbing, more testing equipment.
Foreman or general foreman
Running a crew. Adds pay and paperwork.
Storm travel crews
Volunteering for mutual aid work after hurricanes and ice storms is the fastest way to a big year.
A clean driving record
A bad record can end the application before anything else is looked at.
CPR and first aid
Pole-top rescue is part of the job. Crews want you certified.
Real fitness
Climb, carry, and work with your arms above your head all day.
Aptitude test practice
Most apprenticeship entrance tests are algebra and reading comprehension. They are passable with a few weeks of practice.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Report to the yard around 6am or 7am, get the job briefing, check the truck and the rubber gloves. Drive out and set up traffic control. Then the work: changing a cross arm, replacing a transformer, pulling new conductor, or restoring a line after a car hit a pole. You spend the day in a bucket or on hooks, in whatever weather the day brings. Some days end at 3pm. Some end at 3am because the phone rang.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Federal occupation data counts roughly 127,400 electrical power-line installers and repairers in the United States, with employment projected to grow 7% or more over the decade. It is a small trade holding up a very large country.
In the federal occupation survey, more than 80% of line workers report daily exposure to hazardous conditions and to working in high places, and 83% say they wear specialized protective equipment every single day.
After a big storm, utilities call in mutual aid. Convoys of bucket trucks from three or four states away drive through the night to restore power somewhere they have never worked. People line the roads to wave them in.
Line workers routinely work on energized conductors using insulated fiberglass hot sticks, rubber gloves rated for the voltage, and insulated bucket trucks. Shutting the power off to fix it is not always an option.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.