What the role really costs to employ, what the market is paying, and which licences actually gate it. Written for the employer doing the hiring.
This page is about taking an electrician onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. An electrician on the award floor of $32.19 an hour costs about $73,535.03 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $63,607.44. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.
Award floor
$32.19
Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award (MA000025), effective 1 July 2026
Market band
$95,000 to $115,000
National advertised range, SEEK, refreshed 1 July 2026
Real annual cost
$73,535.03
At the award floor, full time, South Australian on-costs
The wage is the smallest honest answer. Worked at the award floor, full time, 38 hours a week:
| Line | How it is worked out | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Wages | $32.19 x 38 hours x 52 weeks | $63,607.44 |
| Annual leave loading | 17.5% of four weeks' wages | $856.25 |
| Superannuation | 12% of wages plus loading | $7,735.64 |
| Workers compensation | 1.85% of wages, loading and super | $1,335.69 |
| Real annual cost | Against a $63,607.44 wage | $73,535.03 |
Award floor from the Fair Work P.A.C.T summary for the Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award (MA000025), effective 1 July 2026. Superannuation 12 per cent for 2026-27, ATO. Leave loading 17.5 per cent of four weeks, Fair Work Ombudsman. Workers compensation 1.85 per cent, ReturnToWorkSA scheme average, which varies by state and industry so use your own insurer's rate. Payroll tax is excluded because most employers sit below the threshold. Checked 5 August 2026. Full method on what an employee really costs.
That is the floor, not the offer. The market band above is what the role is actually advertised at, and an offer pitched near the legal minimum is the one experienced people scroll past. The full rate detail for this role has the classification ladder.
A state or territory electrical licence, issued by the electrical regulator in each jurisdiction, and it is a hard gate: unlicensed electrical work is an offence everywhere in Australia. Licences are issued in classes, and a restricted licence is a genuinely different thing from an unrestricted one. A construction induction card, the white card, is separate again and issued through registered training organisations. Licence fees are set by each state regulator and change, so check the fee with the issuer rather than trusting a figure you found online.
This award is unusual in publishing the same grade at two or three different rates depending on which allowances apply. Grade 5 appears at $31.13 with the industry and tool allowances, and at $32.19 once the electrician licence allowance is added. The licence allowance is worth about a dollar an hour and it is the rung most licensed electricians actually sit on.
| Classification | Hourly floor | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical worker grade 1 | $27.53 | industry allowance only |
| Electrical worker grade 2 | $27.75 | industry allowance only |
| Electrical worker grade 3 | $29.23 | industry and tool allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 4 | $30.11 | industry and tool allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 5 | $32.19 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 6 | $33.11 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 7 | $34.87 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 8 | $36.50 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 9 | $37.20 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
| Electrical worker grade 10 | $39.97 | industry, tool and licence allowances |
Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award (MA000025), adult full-time minimums effective 1 July 2026, from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides. Casual loading of 25 per cent sits on top. Which classification applies is decided by the work actually performed, not by the job title.
Widening or narrowing the brief by one role often does more for a stalled vacancy than raising the rate. The nearest neighbours:
An electrician cannot be produced quickly. The apprenticeship runs four years, the licence comes after it, and neither step can be compressed by paying more. That is why an electrician shortage behaves differently from an office vacancy: money moves people between employers, but it does not create new electricians inside a hiring cycle.
On the Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 Occupation Shortage List this role appears as 341111 Electrician (General), in shortage nationally and in every state and territory. That is the national picture, not a claim about your town, and it is the reason an advertisement alone often does not produce a shortlist.
The most common mistake we see is an advertisement that does not say which licence class the job actually needs. A restricted licence holder and an A grade electrician will both read the ad, both apply, and one of them has wasted their afternoon. The second is treating the award rate as the offer. Grade 5 all-purpose is the legal floor for a licensed electrician, and the market sits well above it, so an offer pitched near the floor is the one licensed electricians with other options scroll straight past. The third is asking for a licence class the work does not need, which shrinks the pool for nothing.
Four checks before a name reaches you: licences verified, screened against your brief, history checked, rate locked. If one step fails, the name never reaches you. The whole process is written out here, including where reference checks actually sit.
You pay nothing until your hire starts, and if they leave inside the first 90 days we replace them free.
At the award floor of $32.19 an hour, about $73,535.03 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are added, against a wage of $63,607.44. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top of the wage. Payroll tax is excluded because most employers sit below the threshold.
The national advertised band is $95,000 to $115,000. The award floor of $32.19 is the legal minimum, not the market. An offer pitched near the floor is the most common reason a vacancy in this trade stays open.
No. Modern award minimums are national, so the legal floor for an electrician is the same in every state. What moves by state is the market rate and the licensing paperwork, because electrical licences are issued by each state regulator.
Almost never. The award is the legal minimum. The market band we hold sits well above it, which is why we publish both numbers side by side rather than one.
Grade 6 is about ninety cents an hour above grade 5 on the all-purpose rate and reflects broader responsibility and higher level work. The full ladder runs to grade 10.