BLS wage data says electricians in Texas earn $31.09/hr. That's 1.6% below the national average. Here's what that means for your bids.
BLS Hourly Wage
$31.09
Customer Rate
$79–$107/hr
Markup Factor
3.0x
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2023. Customer rate = wage × markup.
Texas
National Avg
| Service | Texas Price Range |
|---|---|
| Outlet or switch installation | $98–$246 |
| GFCI outlet install | $128–$276 |
| Ceiling fan installation | $148–$344 |
| Recessed lighting (per light) | $148–$295 |
| Circuit breaker replacement | $148–$344 |
| Dedicated circuit (for appliance) | $197–$492 |
| Panel upgrade (200A) | $1476–$3936 |
| EV charger installation (Level 2) | $492–$1476 |
| Whole-house rewire | $7872–$19680 |
Prices adjusted from national averages using Texas BLS wage data. Your local market may vary.
Pre-loaded with Texas rates. Enter your job's square footage and type to get a starting price.
Estimated per-job price for Texas (—–—/hr effective rate)
Based on BLS wage data for Texas (TX). Rates reflect state-level labor costs.
State averages hide the gap between metros. Here's what electricians actually charge in the largest Texas markets.
Largest electrical market in TX by revenue. North Dallas (Plano, Frisco, Highland Park, Southlake) supports premium residential rates and full-service contracts. Generac and Kohler standby-generator install + ATS surged after Winter Storm Uri (Feb 2021) and remains a sustained sub-market. Production-builder service-warranty work (DR Horton, Lennar, Pulte, Toll Brothers) is steady commercial volume. Oncor is the dominant utility — their service-upgrade coordination flow runs 4–10 weeks for meter-pan and weatherhead work.
Year-round demand with hurricane-driven flood-zone rewire surges (Harvey 2017, Beryl 2024). CenterPoint Energy is the dominant utility; coordination flow is distinct from Oncor's. Master-planned communities (Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Katy, Cinco Ranch) drive high-density route economics. Spanish-language fluency is the working-language norm in many submarkets. Petrochemical and refinery-adjacent industrial maintenance (Channelview, Pasadena, Texas City) is a major commercial category with NFPA 70E arc-flash and Class I Div 2 hazardous-location specialty pricing.
Highest-priced TX electrical market. Tesla manufacturing (Giga Texas, Austin), Samsung fab (Taylor), and Apple/Oracle/Indeed corporate buildouts drove residential PV + Powerwall demand into the fastest-growing in the country. Austin Energy is the city utility (separate net-metering tariff); Pedernales Electric Coop covers most western suburbs. Hill Country foundations on rock substrate run different rough-in than DFW/Houston clay. Tight HOA standards in master-planned communities (Lakeway, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Steiner Ranch) drive permit-aware bid posture.
CPS Energy is the municipal utility — their interconnect coordination is faster than Oncor or CenterPoint but their net-metering tariff is less generous. JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Randolph military-housing turnover (PCS rotations) is a year-round contract category. Stone Oak and northern San Antonio support 15–20% above baseline pricing. Edwards Aquifer-area irrigation control panel and well-pump electrical work crosses over with the plumbing trades.
Lowest electrical rates in Texas. Year-round residential demand, predominantly small-to-mid lot single-family. AEP Texas Central is the dominant utility. Cross-border commerce drives commercial volume in border cities — warehouses, packing facilities, and trucking-fleet maintenance bays are high-margin sub-markets if your crew has commercial-grade load-calc and three-phase capability. Spanish is the working language; bilingual operations win retention.
The factors that actually move electrical bids in Texas — beyond the BLS wage number.
The February 2021 statewide grid failure during Winter Storm Uri caused multi-day power outages, frozen pipe damage to electrical components in attic-routed feeders, and a permanent shift in TX homeowner risk perception. Generac/Kohler/Cummins standby-generator install + Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) work surged 4–6x in 2021–2022 and remains structurally elevated through 2026. Bids should price standby work as a load-calc-first scope ($240–$420 calc + report), with separate line items for sub-panel install, ATS, and fuel-line coordination (propane tank or natural-gas tap). The mid-job change-order pattern is undersized service capacity — confirm the existing main can carry a whole-home standby, or bid an essential-circuits-only sub-panel.
Texas is the fastest-growing residential solar state in the country. Tesla manufacturing in Austin, in-state battery production, and 250+ days of usable irradiance across most of the state drive 6–14 kW residential PV + Powerwall installs at sustained scale. ERCOT is utility-fragmented: Oncor (DFW), CenterPoint (Houston), AEP (RGV/coast), Austin Energy + Pedernales (Austin metro), CPS Energy (San Antonio) each have distinct interconnect applications, net-metering or buyback tariffs, and inspection sign-off flows. Bidding solar without naming the utility, the tariff (e.g., Austin Energy Value-of-Solar, CPS SunCredit, Oncor distributed-generation interconnect), and the timeline is signaling you don't know the system. Customers expect contractors to handle the utility paperwork end-to-end.
Texas requires a state-issued electrical license through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). Three core tiers: Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master Electrician; plus Master Sign Electrician and Residential Wireman endorsements. Every business performing electrical work for hire must hold a Texas Electrical Contractor license, which requires a Master Electrician on file as the credentialed individual. License renewal is annual (vs. biennial in many states) with 4 hours of CE per year. Contractor-license verification (TDLR lookup) is a procurement-compliance check on production-builder warranty contracts and most commercial RFPs — let your license lapse, lose the contract.
Coastal TX (Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Brownsville) faces hurricane-driven flood-zone rewire demand 1–4 times per decade. Major events (Harvey 2017, Beryl 2024) generate 6–18 months of work: flood-damaged service equipment replacement, attic-rewire after roof penetration, ATS replacement, generator runtime maintenance, and code-current re-permitting on grandfathered properties. Out-of-state crews descend post-storm and depress hourly rates short-term; local TDLR-licensed contractors with insurance-adjuster relationships and CenterPoint coordination capability hold pricing. Bid storm-work as separate emergency service ($120–$210/hr labor with documented load calc), not as part of recurring contracts.
Tesla Giga Texas (Austin), Samsung's Taylor fab, Texas Instruments expansions in Sherman and Lehi-equivalent build-outs, and battery-pack manufacturing across Central Texas have pulled TDLR-licensed electrician supply tight. Skilled commercial/industrial wireman wages in DFW and Austin metros run $48–$72/hr W-2 (vs. $32–$48 historical), which flows through to commercial bid pricing. Production-builder warranty work has gotten harder to staff at historical rates. Bids that don't reflect the post-2022 wage shift either underbid into a margin loss or get filled with under-credentialed crews who fail the quarterly RMP/license verification.
The most common electrical jobs in Texas, with what to focus on in the bid and what to watch out for.
What to know about Texas-specific licensing, permitting, and compliance before bidding electrical work.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the Texas licensing board and your local jurisdiction before bidding.
Based on BLS wage data, electricians in Texas typically charge between $79 and $107 per hour. The actual rate depends on the job type, scope, and whether materials are included.
Electrical labor costs in Texas are 1.6% below the national average. The BLS-reported hourly wage in Texas is $31.09, compared to $31.60 nationally.
Start with your labor cost ($31.09/hr in Texas), apply a 3.0x markup to cover overhead, supplies, insurance, and profit. That puts your customer-facing rate around $79–$107/hr. Then adjust for job scope: complex jobs command higher rates.
The biggest factors are metro vs. rural (cities within Texas can vary 30–40%), job complexity, and recurring vs. one-time work. Recurring contracts cost less per visit because there's no re-quoting or onboarding.
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