Electrical Contractor (Business Owner) Salary
Government anchors: BLS OEWS May 2025 and US Census Bureau SUSB 2022, both cited in full below. The crew-size net-pay ranges on this page are our own modelling, not survey results.
No government survey measures owner take-home: BLS OEWS covers wage and salary employees and excludes the self-employed. What the data does say is that the employed ceiling for the same skill is a $114,990 construction-manager median, and that 50.1 percent of electrical contracting firms turn over less than $500,000 a year.
How much do electrical company owners make? What the government data can and cannot tell you
No US government statistic reports what an electrical contracting business owner takes home. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, which is the source for every employee wage on this site, covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and states in its own FAQ that it does not cover "the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers". An owner who pays themselves a W-2 salary through their own S-corp is inside the survey only as whatever job title they report; the profit distribution on top of it is not a wage and is never counted. So a sourced owner salary figure does not exist. Every single number published for it, including the crew-size ranges further down this page, is modelled from business economics rather than measured by a survey.
Three government series do bear on the question, and together they bracket it honestly. The first is the employed ceiling: what the same person earns if they take the top supervisory job instead of the risk.
| BLS occupation | Median | Mean | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians (SOC 47-2111) | $63,190 | $71,490 | $108,510 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers (SOC 47-1011) | $79,920 | $86,450 | $128,260 |
| Construction Managers (SOC 11-9021) | $114,990 | $124,360 | $189,440 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2111. Snapshot taken 6 September 2026. The two supervisory rows are different occupations from the same release (SOC 47-1011 across 812,210 jobs, SOC 11-9021 across 380,360 jobs), national annual wages. Public domain; Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.
Read that table as the opportunity cost of ownership rather than as a cap on it. A licensed electrician who never starts a business but reaches construction manager is looking at a $114,990 median and $189,440 at the 90th percentile, on a salary, with no payroll to fund and no receivables to chase. An owner who nets less than that is being paid less than the employed version of the same skill.
The second series is firm economics. The Census Bureau counts every employer business in the industry, so it can say what an electrical contracting firm actually turns over even though it cannot say what the owner keeps. In 2022 there were 79,611 employer firms in NAICS 238210 (Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors), running 81,842 establishments, 951,773 employees, $247.6 billion of receipts and $68.4 billion of annual payroll. That is $71,880 of payroll per employee and $3,109,670 of receipts per firm.
The receipts-per-firm average is the most misleading number in this whole subject, and the size bands show why. 50.1 percent of electrical contracting firms, 39,917 of them, took under $500,000 in receipts for the year. The 379 firms at $100 million and above took 33.4 percent of all industry receipts between them. The typical electrical contracting business is a two or three person shop turning over a few hundred thousand dollars, and the mean is dragged three times above it by a few hundred national contractors.
| Annual receipts band | Firms | Share of all firms | Receipts per firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100,000 | 13,878 | 17.4% | $53,380 |
| $100,000 to $499,999 | 26,039 | 32.7% | $249,291 |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 12,944 | 16.3% | $722,129 |
| $1.0m to $2.5m | 13,380 | 16.8% | $1,571,062 |
| $100m and above | 379 | 0.5% | $218,130,929 |
Source: US Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, "The Number of Firms and Establishments, Employment, Annual Payroll, and Receipts by Industry and Enterprise Receipts Size: 2022", released 10 April 2025, NAICS 238210. us_6digitnaics_rcptsize_2022.xlsx. Bands are enterprise receipts size and only the five referenced here are shown, so they do not sum to the total. Receipts are turnover, not profit, and SUSB counts employer firms only: an owner-operator with no employees is in a separate Census series and is not in these figures.
Put the two together and the honest answer looks like this. A firm in the largest size band by count, the 26,039 firms taking $100,000 to $499,999, averages $249,291 in receipts. Labour, materials, vehicles, insurance and tax come out of that before the owner is paid anything, and no government source publishes the margin. What is left is typically in the same territory as the $79,920 supervisory median rather than multiples of it, and it arrives with the receivables risk and the payroll liability attached. The larger owner incomes people quote are real, but they belong to the minority of firms that have grown past the point where the owner is on the tools, and the size distribution above shows how small that minority is.
Everything below this section is our own modelling of that arithmetic, built on the two government series above. It is labelled as such and it is not a survey result. Treat any site that quotes a single confident "electrical contractor owner salary" without saying where it came from as having made it up.
What electrical contractor means
An electrical contractor is a business legally licensed to perform electrical work, pull permits, and bid on electrical contracts in a given jurisdiction. The contractor business is distinct from the individual workers it employs (journeymen, apprentices) and distinct from the master electrician credential that qualifies the business to hold the license. In legal and practical terms, electrical contractor refers to the business entity: a sole proprietorship, LLC, S-corp, or C-corp registered with the state to do electrical contracting work.
The licensing structure varies by state but generally follows a common pattern: a contractor business must have a state-issued Electrical Contractor license (or equivalent local credential in states without state-level licensing); the contractor must be qualified by a master electrician on staff (the master might be the owner or a hired employee); the contractor must carry general liability insurance (typically $1M to $2M minimum), workers compensation insurance for any employees, and often a surety bond ($5,000 to $50,000 typical, varies by state).
Beyond the license, the contractor business is responsible for everything that goes with running a business: customer acquisition (advertising, referrals, website, sales calls), estimating and bidding, contract management, permit and inspection coordination, scheduling, payroll, accounts receivable, vehicle and tool maintenance, supplier relationships, tax compliance, and increasingly digital infrastructure (project management software, scheduling apps, customer payment systems). The transition from journeyman to contractor is partly technical (the master license) and substantially business-skill (everything else).
For the prerequisite master license context, see master electrician salary. For the broader self-employed income context, see self-employed electrician income. For the career arc leading up to contractor ownership, see 5-year journeyman pay.
Net pay by crew size
| Crew Size | Typical Annual Revenue | Owner Net Pay (Typical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo (owner only) | $150k - $280k | approx $80k - $150k | Owner on tools 4-5 days/week, minimal employees |
| 3-person crew (owner + 2) | $400k - $700k | approx $130k - $250k | Owner part-time on tools, part-time admin / sales |
| 8-person crew | $1.0M - $1.8M | approx $200k - $400k | Owner mostly off tools, full-time business management |
| 20-person commercial shop | $2.5M - $5.0M | approx $300k - $750k+ | Owner is full-time CEO / business owner with PM and estimator on staff |
Every figure in this table is our own modelling, not a survey result. No government series measures owner take-home, for the reason set out above. Ranges are typical for residential and light-commercial work in major US markets. Owner net pay assumes the owner takes a reasonable salary or owner draw plus the residual business profit; tax treatment varies by entity structure. Revenue figures are for established businesses (years 3+); year-one businesses typically generate substantially less revenue while building customer base. For scale, Census SUSB 2022 puts 50.1 percent of all electrical contracting firms below $500,000 in annual receipts, so the lower rows describe most of the industry and the upper rows a small minority.
Where the money leaks
The single largest cost in any electrical contracting business is labour, typically running 40 to 55 percent of revenue. Direct hourly wages are only part of that figure; payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers compensation insurance, health insurance contributions (if the contractor provides), and retirement contributions add another 15 to 25 percent on top of base wages. The fully loaded cost of an employee earning $40 per hour in base wages is typically $58 to $66 per hour to the contractor. Tracking the difference between billed-out rate and fully-loaded cost is the most important operating metric in the business.
Materials and equipment cost is the second largest category, typically 25 to 35 percent of revenue. The materials side includes wire, conduit, fittings, devices, panels, transformers, lighting fixtures, controls, and consumables. The equipment side includes power tools (drills, bandsaws, conduit benders, megohmmeter, multimeters), specialty equipment (scissor lift rentals, boom lifts, trenchers), and capital equipment (work trucks, gang boxes). The working capital requirements for materials and equipment are substantial and are the most common cause of cash-flow stress in growing electrical contracting businesses.
Vehicle and tool costs run 5 to 10 percent of revenue. A new work truck (Ford Transit, Ram ProMaster, Mercedes Sprinter, or pickup with utility body) costs $50,000 to $90,000 fully outfitted. The depreciation, fuel, maintenance, and insurance on a typical fleet of 3 to 5 work trucks runs $40,000 to $70,000 annually. Tools are an ongoing replacement cost; even with employees responsible for their hand tools, the business typically provides power tools, ladders, scaffold, lifts, and specialty equipment.
Marketing and sales costs run 3 to 8 percent for an established shop building a customer base; new shops invest more heavily early. The mix typically includes website and SEO, Google Local Service Ads or Google Ads, vehicle and uniform branding, networking and referral incentives, and occasional Yellow Pages or local-print spend. Online review platforms (Yelp, Google reviews, Angi, HomeAdvisor, NextDoor) are increasingly important and require ongoing attention.
Office and administrative overhead runs 4 to 8 percent of revenue. The mix typically includes general liability insurance ($3,000 to $12,000 annually for small to mid-size shops), accounting and bookkeeping ($4,000 to $20,000 annually depending on whether handled internally or externally), software (project management, scheduling, payment processing, payroll), office rent (if not home-based), phone and internet, and incidental administrative cost. The total business overhead before owner pay typically runs 15 to 25 percent of revenue.
After all these costs, the typical net margin for an established electrical contractor is 8 to 15 percent of revenue. For a $1M-revenue shop, that translates to $80,000 to $150,000 in net business profit, which flows to the owner in some combination of salary and distribution depending on entity structure.
NECA contractor benchmarks vs IEC benchmarks
The two largest electrical contractor industry associations publish benchmark surveys that are valuable references for understanding the operating economics of the trade. The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) publishes annual surveys covering financial performance, labour productivity, project mix, and regional comparisons for its signatory-contractor member base. NECA contractors are unionized (signed to IBEW labour agreements), tend to be larger on average than the industry as a whole, and tend to do more commercial and industrial work than residential.
The Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) publishes parallel surveys for its non-union member base. IEC contractors tend to be smaller on average and to skew more heavily toward residential and small commercial work. The IEC and NECA benchmark data taken together provide a reasonable picture of industry norms across union and non-union segments. Both sources are members-only or paid subscription, but summaries are sometimes available through state-level chapter publications and trade press.
Typical NECA contractor financial metrics (industry-aggregate): gross profit margin 28 to 38 percent, operating expenses 18 to 25 percent of revenue, net profit margin 8 to 14 percent. Labour utilisation rate (productive hours as percentage of paid hours) 70 to 78 percent for well-run shops. Average revenue per employee $190,000 to $250,000 for commercial contractors.
Typical IEC contractor financial metrics (industry-aggregate): gross profit margin 32 to 42 percent (typically higher than NECA due to lower labour cost), operating expenses 15 to 22 percent of revenue, net profit margin 9 to 16 percent. Average revenue per employee $140,000 to $200,000 for residential and light-commercial contractors. The IEC contractor universe is more variable than NECA because of the wider range of business sizes and work types.
Neither association publishes its benchmark tables openly, so treat the two paragraphs above as trade rules of thumb rather than as cited figures. The one openly published cross-check on industry economics is the Census SUSB table higher up this page, which puts industry-wide payroll at $71,880 per employee against $3,109,670 of receipts per firm in 2022. That is consistent with the picture the associations describe: a moderately profitable trade with wide variation by size and region, in which the best-run shops earn materially more than the typical operator.
The 5-year arc from journeyman to contractor
The typical arc looks like this. Year 1 of the journey to ownership: the worker obtains the master electrician license (which itself typically requires 2 to 4 years as a licensed journeyman). The worker takes on side jobs on weekends and evenings while still employed full-time at the current contractor, often through referrals from friends and family. The side income is typically $8,000 to $30,000 for the year, but the more important benefit is the practice in dealing with customers, scheduling, pricing, and the full end-to-end of running a job.
Year 2: The business is registered (LLC most commonly), the EIN issued, general liability insurance and workers compensation placed if any employees are anticipated, the contractor license filed with the state, and a basic website and business card kit produced. The first full-time solo jobs begin: typically small residential service-change work, panel replacements, small commercial fit-outs. The side-job income stream grows toward $40,000 to $70,000 if continuing to hold a primary job, or the worker transitions to full-time self-employment.
Year 3: Working full-time for self. The owner is typically on tools 4 days a week and doing administrative work 1 day a week (Saturday catch-up is common). Revenue runs $80,000 to $200,000 depending on market and customer mix. Net to the owner is $60,000 to $130,000 after business expenses. Many owners are still less than fully comfortable with the business side at this stage; the owner who hires a part-time bookkeeper at this stage typically gets through the learning curve faster.
Year 4: First employee hired. Typically a less-experienced journeyman or a recent apprentice graduate. The owner moves to 60 percent tools and 40 percent admin. Revenue grows to $250,000 to $450,000. Net to owner runs $90,000 to $170,000. The hiring decision is the single biggest psychological hurdle for many solo contractors; it converts the business from a self-employed paycheck into a business with operating risk and reward.
Year 5: 2 to 3 person crew running. Owner moves to 30 percent tools and 70 percent admin. Revenue grows to $400,000 to $700,000. Net to owner runs $130,000 to $250,000. At this stage the owner is typically off tools entirely on commercial work and only on tools occasionally on technical residential calls or service emergencies. The trajectory either flattens here (owner content with 3-person crew and stable income) or extends to 8 to 20+ person crews over the subsequent 5 to 10 years.
Exit and valuation considerations
Many electrical contractors eventually sell the business as part of retirement planning. The exit market for electrical contracting businesses is active because the trade is recession-resistant, the demographic of long-tenured owners reaching retirement age is large, and private-equity rollups have been consolidating mid-market electrical contractors over the past decade. Typical valuation multiples run 2 to 5 times normalised seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) for small shops and 3 to 7 times EBITDA for larger commercial contractors.
A solo $150,000 SDE business might sell for $300,000 to $500,000. A 10-person commercial shop with $1.5 million in revenue and $400,000 in EBITDA might sell for $1.6 million to $2.4 million. A 30-person commercial-industrial contractor with $5 million revenue and $1.2 million EBITDA might sell for $4 million to $8 million. The multiples vary by the strength of the customer-base concentration (more concentrated is lower multiple), the proportion of repeat revenue, the documented systems and processes, and the proportion of revenue tied to the owner personally vs to brand and infrastructure.
Exit planning typically starts 3 to 5 years before the planned sale. The owner uses this period to professionalise the business (document processes, formalise pricing, transition customer relationships to other staff, clean up the financial statements, transition the owner from operational role to advisory role). Buyers pay more for businesses that can be operated without the seller; they pay much less for businesses where the seller is the brand and the customer relationship.
For workers thinking about the long-term arc of the business path, the valuation framework matters even early. Building a business with valuable equity is a fundamentally different exercise than building a business that just provides a comfortable monthly income. The decisions that maximise current income (owner takes everything as salary, minimal reinvestment, owner does everything personally) tend to minimise eventual sale value. The decisions that maximise eventual sale value (build a team, document processes, develop systems, transition customer relationships) tend to require accepting somewhat lower current income for several years before paying off.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official figure for how much electrical company owners make?
How much do electrical contractor owners make in 2026?
What does electrical contractor mean exactly?
Where does the money leak in an electrical contracting business?
What is the typical 5-year arc from journeyman to contractor?
Should I sell my electrical contracting business at some point?
Related pages
Sources. Wage figures: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2111. Snapshot taken 6 September 2026. plus SOC 47-1011 and SOC 11-9021 from the same release. Firm counts, receipts and payroll: US Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, NAICS 238210, released 10 April 2025. The exclusion of the self-employed from OEWS is stated in the BLS OEWS FAQ at bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. The crew-size, cost-structure, career-arc and valuation figures on this page are our own modelling from trade practice and are not survey results; NECA (necanet.org) and IEC (ieci.org) publish member benchmark surveys behind a paywall and are named for context, not quoted as a source.