IBEW Local 46 (Seattle) Wage Scale

IBEW Local 46 represents inside wireman electricians across King, Kitsap, Jefferson, and Clallam Counties in Washington State, covering Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Renton, Tukwila, Bremerton, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, and the surrounding communities of the central and west Puget Sound region. (Snohomish County and Everett fall under Local 191.) Founded in 1903, Local 46 is one of the older West Coast IBEW Locals and one of the higher-paying inside Locals in the country. The jurisdiction is dense in tech-sector commercial construction, healthcare, transit, and increasingly in data centre and clean-energy work.

The Local bargains with NECA Western Washington (NECA WW) on behalf of signatory employers, producing the inside wireman agreement that sets the rate cited on this page. Signatory contractors include Cochran Electric, Veca Electric, Holmes Electric, VECA, Sunset Electric Construction, Total Electrical Construction, Auburn Mechanical Electrical, and the regional offices of national firms such as Rosendin Electric, Helix Electric, and Cupertino Electric. Several have multi-decade signatory relationships with Local 46.

The work mix is distinctive. Seattle has been one of the most sustained office and mixed-use construction markets in the US over the past decade, driven primarily by Amazon's downtown campus and Microsoft, Google, Meta, and other tech employers expanding in Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland. Hospital electrical work (Virginia Mason, Swedish, UW Medicine, Seattle Children's, Providence) sustains a steady second floor. Sound Transit light-rail expansion adds transit-electrical demand. The Eastern Washington Columbia Basin data centre cluster (Quincy, Moses Lake, Wenatchee) is the largest data centre market in Washington and is staffed substantially by Local 46 with travel work, with Local 191 covering Everett separately.

For background on the building-trade electrician role generally, see the journeyman electrician salary page. For Washington state context, see electrician salary in Washington. For broader union pay context, see union versus non-union electrician pay.

The path into Local 46 runs through the Puget Sound Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (PSEJATC) at psejatc.org. The training centre is in Renton, Washington. Applications open in posted windows. Candidates should monitor the PSEJATC site and the Local 46 site (ibew46.com) for the next intake announcement. Basic eligibility is a high school diploma or recognised equivalent, a valid Washington driver license, US work authorisation, and the physical ability to do the work safely. Veterans receive standing preference.

The selection sequence follows the standard IBEW pattern. Candidates take the Electrical Training Alliance aptitude test, sit for a structured interview, complete a physical, and are then ranked. Acceptance depends on rank-list position and cohort size, which fluctuates with the regional construction pipeline. Successful candidates sign an indenture and report to PSEJATC in Renton for Year 1 schooling, beginning paid OJT with a signatory contractor shortly thereafter.

Apprentices receive scaled health and pension contributions from year one. The Code-of-Excellence orientation is delivered early. Progression is competency-gated, not purely time-served. The Puget Sound program is well-resourced and benefits from the regional density of high-end commercial and tech-sector work, which provides apprentices with exposure to a broader range of project types than is available in many other markets.

For experienced non-union electricians, IBEW offers a Direct Entry pathway. After a competency assessment, qualified candidates can be admitted as full journeymen. This is more common during peak demand periods.