How to Become a Licensed Electrician in Colorado: 2026 Guide

Key Takeaways

• The Colorado State Electrical Board licenses electricians at three levels (residential wireman, journeyman and master) and registers apprentices and electrical contractors.
• A journeyman license takes 8,000 hours over at least 4 years, with 2,000 of those hours in commercial or industrial work, plus 288 hours of classroom training.
• Your employer has to register you as an apprentice within 30 days of hiring you, and one licensed electrician can directly supervise no more than 3 apprentices on a job site.
• Every license exam is a 90-question, open-book PSI test with 240 minutes, a 70% passing score and a $78 fee, and questions follow the 2026 National Electrical Code (NEC).
• Licenses renew every 3 years on September 30 with 24 hours of continuing education, at least 4 of them on NEC changes.
• Electricians in Colorado earned a median of $29.92 an hour, or $62,230 a year, in May 2025, according to BLS wage data.

To become a licensed electrician in Colorado, you register as an apprentice, log 8,000 hours over at least four years under a licensed electrician, finish 288 hours of classroom training and pass the PSI journeyman exam. The Colorado State Electrical Board, part of the Division of Professions and Occupations (DPO), handles every step, from your apprentice card to the master license a contractor needs. The board adopted the 2026 National Electrical Code effective August 1, 2026, so new installations and every license exam now follow the 2026 edition.

Colorado Electrician License Types

Colorado licenses individual electricians at three levels, and each level has its own exam.

• Residential wireman. You can wire one-, two-, three- and four-family homes without direct supervision. You need 4,000 hours of residential experience over at least two years, or two years of accredited training. On commercial jobs or apartment buildings with more than four units, a residential wireman stays registered as an apprentice and works under a journeyman or master, according to the board's apprentice page.
• Journeyman electrician. You can do residential, commercial and industrial work. You need 8,000 hours over at least four years, with 2,000 hours over at least two years in commercial, industrial or similar work, plus 288 hours of classroom training finished within the last eight years of your experience. Some older guides list 4,000 commercial hours, but C.R.S. 12-115-110 has asked for 2,000 since Senate Bill 25-165 took effect in August 2025.
• Master electrician. You can plan, lay out and supervise electrical work and act as the responsible master for an electrical contractor. You qualify with an electrical engineering degree and 2,000 hours of construction experience, a trade school or community college degree and 8,000 hours over four years, or the journeyman requirements plus 2,000 more hours that include planning, layout and supervising apprentices as a licensed journeyman. Board Rule 1.7 counts that last route as 10,000 hours over at least five years.

Electrical contracting is a company registration, not a fourth license. A company registers with the board and names a licensed master electrician as its responsible individual, and the board's requirements allow that master to be responsible for only one company. The company shows it complies with Colorado's workers' compensation and unemployment insurance laws, and both the owner and the master sign an Acknowledgment of Responsibility form.

Colorado Electrical License Ladder

Each license counts its own total hours, and experience you used for a residential wireman or journeyman license can count toward the next one. Here's how the levels line up.

PSI charges $78 per exam and $73 per retest, and the fee is good for one year. The board charges its own application fee, which you pay by credit card in DPO Online Services when you apply.

How to Get Your Colorado Electrician License

Most electricians follow the same path from their first day on a crew to a journeyman card.

1. Get hired and registered. Create an apprentice record in DPO Online Services and finish the apprentice application, then your employer attaches you to its contractor registration within 30 days of your start date. The board issues a card with a registration number that stays the same through job changes, and you carry it on the job. Joining one of the best electrician apprenticeship programs in Colorado builds your classroom hours as you work.
2. Work under direct supervision. Every apprentice works under the direct supervision of a licensed Colorado electrician, and C.R.S. 12-115-115 caps it at three apprentices per licensed electrician on a job site.
3. Log your hours by type. Contractors keep records of your residential and commercial hours, and Board Rule 1.6 gives them 30 days to hand you an experience verification when you leave. You can't verify your own hours, so get your Colorado electrician hours signed off on the board's Affidavit of Experience by each contractor you worked for.
4. Finish 288 classroom hours. Board rules call for training in grounding and bonding, NEC changes, wiring methods and theory and calculations, plus 10 to 40 hours of OSHA-based safety training, documented with a transcript.
5. Pass the PSI exam. Each exam has 90 scored questions in 240 minutes, and you need 63 correct (70%) to pass. PSI provides the 2026 NEC and a formula page at the test center, and you can't write in or tab them, so practice code lookups before you pass the Colorado journeyman electrician exam.
6. Apply for your license. Upload your passing results, affidavits and transcript in DPO Online Services and pay the application fee. The board's licensing guide says every application expires one year after you submit it, so file once your documents are ready.

Colorado doesn't let apprentices stay unlicensed forever. Under C.R.S. 12-115-115, an apprentice who has been registered for at least six years and has 8,000 hours has to take the journeyman exam at least once every three years until passing.

Renewal, Grace Period and Continuing Education

All Colorado electrician licenses and contractor registrations expire on September 30 every three years. The last period ended September 30, 2026, and the board's homepage says those licenses can be renewed through November 30, 2026.

• Continuing education. You need 24 hours of CE during each three-year license period, with at least 4 hours on NEC changes and no more than 4 hours of safety. Courses have to come from a provider on the board's attesting providers list, and you keep your certificates for seven years.
• First renewal. If you earned your license by exam, the CE requirement doesn't apply to your first renewal.
• Grace period. Board Rule 1.13 gives you 60 days after expiration to renew with a delinquency fee. After that, the license is expired and you can't work on it.
• Reinstatement. A license expired for less than two years comes back with proof of 24 CE hours. After two years, you retake the exam or show an active license from a reciprocal state.
• Inactive status. An inactive license skips CE, but you can't do electrical work on it.

Moving to Colorado with an Out-of-State License

Colorado offers electrician license reciprocity for journeyman licenses only, through the National Electrical Reciprocal Alliance. The board lists Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, and you need to have held the license for at least one year after passing a state exam. A master license can't transfer by reciprocity. Electricians from other states can apply by endorsement instead, with an active state-issued license earned by testing on the current NEC.

How Much Electricians Make in Colorado

Electricians in Colorado earned a median of $29.92 an hour, or $62,230 a year, in May 2025, according to BLS wage data. The middle half earned between $23.50 and $37.73 an hour, and about 17,010 electricians worked in the state. BLS counts apprentices and journeymen in one occupation, so the median mixes first-year and veteran pay. Contractors in Denver and other metros set electrician pay in Colorado by license level, and each step up the ladder opens work that pays more.

Where Buildforce Fits In

We are Buildforce, a labor marketplace that connects electricians with electrical contractors in Colorado metros like Denver, among other markets. Electricians on Buildforce work as W-2 employees, so you're paid wages and Buildforce handles payroll taxes and workers' comp. Build a profile in the free Buildforce app, show contractors your skills and the license you hold, and keep logging the hours that move you toward a journeyman or master license.