Apprentice, journeyman, and master are licence classes, not seniority labels — each one changes what you may legally do.
Apprentices work under supervision.
Journeymen can perform installations that apprentices cannot, though some states still require them to work under a master.
Masters carry additional exams and are typically what lets a business hold a contractor licence — which is what actually pulls permits.
Why these are legal categories, not job titles
In most trades, "apprentice" and "master" describe how much experience someone has.
In the electrical trade they describe what the law permits them to do.
That distinction is the reason this page exists.
An employer can call anyone a senior electrician.
Only a licensing authority can make someone a journeyman, and only that licence changes what work they may carry out and under whose supervision.
When a job posting asks for a journeyman, it is usually not describing a skill level — it is describing a legal requirement the employer has to satisfy.
Licensing is state and local — always verify
What an apprentice electrician can do
An apprentice is licensed or registered to perform electrical work under supervision while accumulating the documented on-the-job hours and classroom instruction required to test for the next tier.
The apprenticeship is paid — you earn while you log hours, which is the trade's main advantage over a tuition-funded path.
Texas is a clear illustration of how the supervision requirement is written.
The state's licensing department specifies that an electrical apprentice performs work under the general supervision of a master electrician, journeyman electrician, or residential wireman — note that the supervisor does not have to be a master.
What an apprentice may not do is work unsupervised or take responsibility for the installation.
Supervision ratios — how many apprentices one licensed electrician may oversee — are also set locally, and are a common source of employer confusion.
What a journeyman electrician can do
A journeyman has completed the required hours and passed an examination.
This is the tier most job postings ask for, and the point at which an electrician is generally trusted to carry out installations on their own.
Here is where the widely repeated summary breaks down.
It is commonly stated that a journeyman "works independently."
That is not universally true.
In Texas, the licensing department states plainly that a journeyman electrician is licensed to perform electrical work "under the general supervision of a Master Electrician."
The journeyman is not an unsupervised category there — the supervision is just general rather than direct.
The hour requirements are substantial.
To sit the Texas journeyman exam an applicant needs 7,000 hours of supervised on-the-job training, with 8,000 hours total for full licensure, and those hours must be earned under a master electrician holding a valid Texas licence.
Other states set their own totals — never assume a figure carries across a border.
"Independent" is the wrong mental model
What a master electrician can do
A master electrician has held a journeyman licence for a required period and passed a further examination, typically covering code, calculations, and often business law.
In Texas, eligibility to sit the master exam requires holding a journeyman licence for two years, under Texas Occupations Code §1305.153.
The master licence is what makes the ladder matter commercially.
In most jurisdictions it is the credential that allows a business to operate as an electrical contractor — the master is the individual whose licence the company's authority rests on.
That is why master electricians are hired well beyond field work, and why losing one can stop a company from operating.
Whether the second licence is worth pursuing depends heavily on the path you want.
The scope difference alone rarely justifies it for someone who intends to stay on the tools.
So who can actually pull a permit?
This is the question the tier ladder is usually invoked to answer, and the common answer — "only a master can pull permits" — is imprecise enough to mislead.
Permits are issued by the local authority having jurisdiction: a city or county building department, not the state licensing board.
And what they generally issue against is not an individual's tier but a contractor licence held by a business.
Two examples show the shape.
Seattle requires that a professional applying for an electrical permit hold a Washington State electrical contractor licence plus a city business licence.
Austin issues trade permits to a State-of-Texas-licensed professional contractor — or to a qualified homeowner working on a property they own and occupy, which is the common exception.
The master licence still matters enormously, but indirectly: it is typically what qualifies the business to hold the contractor licence in the first place.
The chain runs master → contractor licence → permit, not master → permit.
What signing a permit makes you responsible for covers the other half of the question.
For employers
The titles are not universal — California proves it
Everything above describes the most common structure.
It is not the only one, and assuming it applies everywhere is the fastest way to be confidently wrong.
California does not use the journeyman and master titles at all.
Individual electricians are certified through the state's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, under five classifications: General Electrician, Residential Electrician, Fire/Life Safety Technician, Voice Data Video Technician, and Non-residential Lighting Technician.
The contractor licence — the C-10 electrical classification — is issued by an entirely separate agency, the Contractors State License Board.
So in California the individual credential and the business licence are two different systems run by two different agencies, and "master electrician" is not a licence you can hold.
Someone moving there with a master licence from another state is not carrying a title that maps cleanly onto anything.
This is also why licence portability is its own subject rather than a footnote — the tiers do not always line up across a border.
Whether a licence transfers between states covers how reciprocity actually works.
What this means when you are job hunting
Read the licence requirement on a posting as a hard filter rather than a preference — if an employer asks for a journeyman, it is usually because the work legally requires one.
If you are moving states, confirm what your licence is worth at the destination before you accept anything.
It may transfer, it may require an exam, or the destination may not use your licence class at all.
And if you are early in the trade, the apprenticeship is the route.
It is paid, it produces the documented hours the next tier requires, and those hours are what the exam eligibility is actually built on.
This article is general information about how electrician licensing is structured, not legal or code advice. Licensing rules are set by state and local authorities and change; verify your own situation with your state or local electrical licensing authority before relying on any of it.