Year 10–15
Reality Check.
At year 10–15, most union tradespeople hit an inflection point. Stay at journeyman scale, move toward management, go out on your own, or get out. Each path exists. None of them are discussed before you make the decision by not making one.
The Inflection Point
Year 10 to 15 is when the career decision you made at 18 starts showing its shape. Your body is starting to tell you things. Your income has a ceiling unless you do something specific. Your pension math is becoming real. And you've accumulated enough trade knowledge and professional relationships that your options are actually wider than they've ever been — but that window doesn't stay open forever.
The workers who thrive at year 25 made specific decisions at year 10-15. The workers who are broken and underpaid at year 25 made no decision at all — which is itself a decision, just not a deliberate one.
The four paths below are not exhaustive and they're not mutually exclusive. But they cover the realistic options for someone with 10+ years of trade experience who is asking “what now?”
The Four Paths
The majority of journeymen stay journeymen for their entire careers. The income is solid — $60-130K+ gross depending on market — the work is clear, and the pension accumulates. The downsides are real: the work is physically demanding and gets harder every year, the income has a ceiling, and the pension math requires working a full 30 years. For workers who have found a trade they're genuinely good at in a market with strong union presence, this is a perfectly viable 30-year plan.
Requires: 6-month emergency fund (non-negotiable for dispatch workers), Roth IRA contributions of $7K/year from year 1, disability insurance if the local doesn't provide it. A journeyman who doesn't build financial reserves is one market slowdown from crisis.
The foreman premium in most IBEW contracts is 10-15% above journeyman scale. It's real money but not transformative on its own. The value is in building toward general foreman ($75-90/hr in major markets) and superintendent (often salaried at $100-150K). The management path dramatically reduces physical exposure and extends career length — a superintendent who started at tools at 22 can be working comfortably at 60 in a way a journeyman electrician often cannot.
Foreman pay: 10-15% above scale. GF: 20-30% above. Superintendent: salaried, varies widely by contractor and project size. Each step compounds — taking foreman work early in your career accelerates the timeline to superintendent.
The path is not formal — there is no management training program you apply to. Foremen come from journeymen who routinely handle coordination tasks, are the last to stand around when work needs directing, and who build relationships with GFs and project managers. Volunteer for coordination work. Learn CPM scheduling. Get your OSHA 30. Learn how to read a project schedule. Be the person the GF calls.
A self-employed electrical contractor running a two-truck service business can net $80-150K after expenses. A contractor who scales to 10 employees is running a business that generates real wealth. But the failure rate is steep: estimates from experienced contractors put successful new electrical companies at roughly 1 in 10-25 of those who try. The failure mode is almost always the same: excellent electrician, terrible businessperson.
Year 1 capital requirement: $60,000-200,000 (vehicles, tools, insurance, licensing, working capital). The #1 killer: underpricing. A contractor who charges their labor cost + a small margin will work themselves into bankruptcy. The correct formula: charge 3x what you want to pay yourself per hour to cover overhead, insurance, vehicle depreciation, taxes, and profit.
Get your master license in years 10-12 (not year 20 when you're tired). Build a specific client niche — service work, tenant improvement, one trade specialty. Service businesses sell at higher multiples than project businesses because of recurring revenue. Build the book of business while still employed before you go out.
Electrical estimators with field experience earn $70-130K+ at major NECA contractors. Project managers earn $80-140K. Both positions leverage trade knowledge without the physical demands of fieldwork. Electrical inspectors (city, county, AHJ) earn $70-110K with pension and benefits, normal hours, and zero physical labor. These are not widely discussed career paths in the apprenticeship system — which is exactly why they're less competitive.
Estimating roles typically require: 5-10 years of field experience, familiarity with takeoff software (Trimble, ACAD), and often a networking path through a NECA contractor relationship. Project management requires demonstrated organizational skill and often some exposure to scheduling software (Procore, Primavera). Neither requires an additional license beyond journeyman in most markets.
What You Should Have Done in Years 1–5
If you're reading this at year 10-15, some of this is past tense. But the financial damage from years 1-5 is largely recoverable in years 10-20 if you act deliberately. Here is what the workers who are in good financial shape at year 15 did in their first five years — and what can still be done.
$7,000/year maximum (2025). Roth contributions are made after tax and grow tax-free — critical for union workers whose primary retirement account is the pension (pre-tax). A journeyman who started Roth contributions at age 22 and contributes $7K/year for 30 years at 7% average return has roughly $750K in tax-free retirement assets. A worker who starts at 32 has roughly $340K. Start now if you haven't.
Dispatch workers cannot treat their career income as guaranteed. 6 months of expenses in a savings account is not a luxury — it is the minimum buffer that separates a market slowdown from a financial emergency. Workers without this reserve accept any work at any terms during slow markets. Workers with it can hold out for better calls and maintain their book position.
Most state master license applications require documented journeyman hours — often 4,000-8,000 verified OJT hours in specific work categories. If you didn't keep records, your JATC training records and W-2s from signatory contractors are documentation. Start organizing this now if you haven't.
OSHA 30 is required by many general contractors for foremen and GFs. If you don't have it, get it. It is a prerequisite for the management path and takes about 30 hours to complete online.
Controls work. Data center commissioning. Solar inverter systems. Industrial PLC work. Any specialty that a commercial general electrician can't do gets you named-hired first and laid off last. Year 10-15 is the right time to pursue this if you haven't.
What People Actually Regret at Year 20
The most consistent regret from long-career electricians. The master license exam is difficult but passable with preparation. Getting it at year 10 opens options that getting it at year 22 doesn't — because at year 22 you're already doing what you're doing.
Knee pads. Hearing protection. Physical therapy before the first surgery, not after. The workers who are still in the field at year 25 say this consistently. The ones who left early usually had one injury they'd been ignoring.
This one is straightforward. The sunk cost of years at an employer who doesn't develop your skills or give you advancement opportunities is real. Journeymen who moved every few years to better situations typically have better skills, better networks, and better options than those who stayed put.
Going out on your own without business skills, without capital, without an existing book of customers, and without a realistic pricing model is the most documented failure pattern in the trades. The ones who succeeded spent years preparing before they left. The ones who failed went out on faith.
The pension is real. But it's not enough alone, and it requires hitting the full 30 years. Workers who hit the physical wall at year 22 with no savings, a partial pension, and no equity in anything are in a genuinely difficult position. The Roth IRA that a 24-year-old journeyman considers optional becomes essential at 52.
- Skillit, "From Apprentice to Superintendent: Pathways for Union Electricians," 2024.
- ElectricianTalk.com — contractor startup advice threads; management path discussions.
- EC&M 2023 Electrical Salary Survey — journeyman and management pay comparisons.
- IRS Publication 590-A — Roth IRA contribution limits and rules.
- Boston College Center for Retirement Research — construction retirement timing data.
- Carl Murawski, "20-Year Career as an Electrician — Would I Do It Again?" carlmurawski.com.