How much does an electrician charge per hour?

An electrician is a highly-skilled tradesman specializing in electrical systems and networks in domestic, industrial, and commercial aspects. You need an electrician regularly as the electrical network at your home or office needs to be repaired and maintained regularly.

However, finding a reliable electrician can often be a daunting task, which is why here are some tips that will make this process easy for you.

Factors affecting the pay scale of an electrician

Several factors affect the hourly charges of electricians; these include:

Charges by areas

Typically the fees of electricians vary accordingly with the regions; the costs are cheaper in rural areas whereas comparatively higher in urban areas. The prices are almost halved in rural areas; the costing goes around $50 in rural areas and $100 in urban areas.

Charges during on holidays/weekends

The costs are inherently bound to go up when electricians are called on weekends or holidays. They will almost always charge double during such a phase of the month. Hence, electricians earn more than usual during the holidays as holiday bonuses and weekends come along.

Charges of Commercial electricians and Domestic electricians

Costs of commercial and domestic electricians vary slightly. Although both of them possess the same skills and license, commercial electricians charge almost 20% more than local electricians. As commercial work is comparatively more skillful and requires innate precision.

Hourly charges according to the work distribution

Here are the average hourly fees for electricians in the following work:

1. Installation of ceiling fans: This requires about 1-3 hours of work, costing around $75-$150 hourly.
2. Data cabling: The working hours here are based on the type of cable used and the number of installation sites. It costs around $60-$90.
3. Installation of lights: It is the most common requirement; it takes about 1 hour per room and costs around $40-$60 per view.
4. Switchboards: Installing new switchboards are a costly affair and can cost around $1000-2000$, requiring 6 hours of dedication.
5. Repairing of appliances: Repairing cost depends upon the quality of the device to be repaired. It costs around $60-90$ per hour.
6. Installing new light switches: It is common and cheap, requires about 20 mins, and costs around $20-40$.

Charges according to the general categorization of electricians

Requirements for various levels of electricians tend to vary, but the major three classifications include:

Apprentice Licensed Electrician: Apprentices are amateurs who have just put their foot into the world of electric tradespeople. Typically, it takes about four years for apprentices to get themselves licensed.

An apprentice is paid the least in all three categories because they’re confined only to minor works like repairing appliances and installing lights.

Journeyman License Electrician: They’re next level electricians who have worked through their four years of apprenticeship and passed the exam to earn the license of a journeyman, they are eligible for significant works and supervise the apprentices.

They’re paid more than apprentices as they work on substantial projects.

Master licensed Electrician: The highest level of an electrician is the master electrician that is attained by clearing the master license examination is the master electrician. A master electrician is eligible for both domestic as well as industrial and commercial works.

A master electrician can supervise the apprentices and journeyman electricians. They’re paid the highest among all categorizations as they have all the skills required for major electric works.