The Apprentice Pay Ladder

Why this matters

An apprentice's raises are not supposed to depend on how the boss feels that month. In a registered apprenticeship they are written into a schedule before you start, tied to hours worked, classes passed and skills signed off. Apprentices who know how the ladder works move up on time; the ones who do not often sit a step behind for months because a class grade never reached the program office, a logbook went unsigned, or the shop calls them an apprentice without ever registering them. This card explains the ladder from the bottom rung, so you can check where you should be and what is holding you there.

Registered or just called an apprentice

A registered apprenticeship is a program approved by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or by a State Apprenticeship Agency, under the National Apprenticeship Act and its regulations at 29 CFR Part 29. Which agency registers your program depends on your state: some states run their own agency, others leave it to the federal office. Registration is what gives you a written wage schedule, a set amount of classroom instruction, a defined end point and, at completion, a nationally recognized certificate. Programs are run by a sponsor, which may be a single employer, a group of employers through a trade association, or a joint union-management committee (often called a JATC).

"Apprentice" as a job title carries none of that. A shop can call a new hire an apprentice, pay a trainee wage and promise raises "as you learn" without any registered program behind it. That is legal, and some of those shops train people well. But there is no required ladder, no required classes and no outside agency to call when a promised raise does not come. If your shop says you are an apprentice, ask for the registration number and the program standards. If there are none, get the raise schedule in writing.

What the federal standards require of a registered program

The standards of apprenticeship at 29 CFR 29.5 set what every registered program must spell out. The pieces that touch your pay:

• A progressively increasing schedule of wages, consistent with the skill acquired. The entry wage cannot be below the minimum wage the FLSA requires, or a higher wage required by state law or a collective bargaining agreement.
• A term, stated one of three ways: time-based (a minimum of 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning), competency-based (you advance by demonstrating skills, with on-the-job hours still recorded), or a hybrid of the two.
• Related technical instruction, the classroom or online part. The standards recommend a minimum of 144 hours for each year of the apprenticeship.
• An outline of work processes, the list of skills and the approximate hours you are supposed to get in each.
• Periodic review and evaluation of your progress, both on the job and in instruction.
• A probationary period, limited in length relative to the term, with the probation time credited toward completion.
• Credit for previous experience, so prior work or schooling can be counted toward the term.

The actual percentages, step lengths and class requirements are in your program's own standards, which you are entitled to see.

How the ladder is usually built

Most trade programs express apprentice pay as a percentage of the journeyworker rate (journeyworker meaning a fully qualified worker in the trade, at the rate the program defines). Steps typically come every 1,000 hours or every six months, starting somewhere around 40 to 60 percent and finishing around 85 to 95 percent before completion moves you to the full rate. Licensed trades such as electrical and plumbing commonly run four to five years and around 8,000 on-the-job hours; HVAC and other trades are often shorter. The table below is an illustration of the shape, not a standard.

Read the middle column carefully, because that is where people get stuck. In this design, reaching 3,000 hours does not move you to step 4 by itself; you also need year 2 of classes completed. Two gates, joined by AND. Your program's standards say which gates each step has.

What actually moves you up

Hours, verified. The sponsor counts hours from your employer's records, often through a logbook or work-process record the supervisor signs. Hours that never get recorded, or get recorded against the wrong work process, do not count. Keep your own tally and compare it each quarter. See related: Tracking Your Own Hours and Pay.

Classes, passed and reported. Instruction is usually graded, and a failed course has to be retaken, often in the next term. A grade the school has but the program office does not is as good as no grade until someone sends it.

Evaluations. Competency-based and hybrid programs, and many time-based ones, require a supervisor or instructor to sign off specific skills before you advance. Ask what the sign-offs are at the start of each step, not at the end.

A license, where the state requires one. Licensing is a separate track run by a state or local board. Some states require an apprentice to hold an apprentice registration or license to work in the trade at all, and completing the apprenticeship usually qualifies you to sit for the journeyworker exam rather than licensing you directly. Program completion and a license are two different credentials, and many shops pay for the license, not the certificate.

Overtime still counts. Apprentices are not exempt from the FLSA. Hours past 40 in a workweek are paid at one and a half times your regular rate at your current step, and in most programs those overtime hours count toward your on-the-job total.

Worked example: a step held for one term

An apprentice in the program above earns at step 3, 55 percent of the journeyworker rate J. The log shows 2,940 hours, so at 40 hours a week the apprentice will pass 3,000 hours in about a week and a half. But the year 2 electrical-theory course ended with a failing final, and the retake is next term, 16 weeks away.

The hold. Because step 4 requires year 2 classes, the apprentice stays at 55 percent after crossing 3,000 hours until the retake is passed and the grade reaches the program office. Over the 16 weeks at 40 hours a week, that is 640 hours.

The cost. The step-4 rate is 60 percent, so each held hour pays 5 points of J less. Five percent of J times 640 hours is 32 hours of journeyworker pay, or 0.8 of a full journeyworker week (32 divided by 40), lost on one course. Any overtime in those weeks loses the same 5 points at one and a half times.

Where it gets worse. If the grade from the retake sits at the school for another month before the program office sees it, add about 4 weeks: 160 more hours at 5 points of J, or 8 more hours of journeyworker pay. Total: 40 J-hours, a full journeyworker week. This is the part the apprentice controls. Ask the school to send the grade and confirm receipt with the program coordinator the same week.

What a credit for prior experience is worth. Suppose instead this apprentice had come in with a year of documented work at another shop and the sponsor credited 1,000 hours at entry. Without the credit, the apprentice earns all eight steps across 8,000 working hours, an average of 64.4 percent of J (the eight percentages, 515 in total, divided by 8). With the credit, the apprentice starts at step 2, finishes the term 1,000 hours sooner, and spends those last 1,000 working hours at the full journeyworker rate instead of the 45 percent of step 1. Over the same 8,000 working hours, the difference is 1,000 hours times 55 points (100 minus 45), or 550 hours of journeyworker pay, which is more than 13 journeyworker weeks. That is the single most valuable thing an apprentice with prior experience can ask for at signup.

What changes the answer. On a competency-based program, the hold would come from an unsigned skill rather than a class, and the clock time would not matter at all until the sign-off happened. On a non-registered "apprenticeship," there may be no step 4 to be held back from: the raise comes when the owner decides, and only a written promise binds anything. And on federally funded construction covered by the Davis-Bacon Act, an apprentice may be paid the apprentice rate only while individually registered in an approved program and within the program's allowed ratio of apprentices to journeyworkers on the job (29 CFR 5.5(a)(4)); otherwise the full journeyworker prevailing wage for the work is owed.

Questions to ask at signup and at every step

• What is the registration number, and which agency registered the program?
• Can I have a copy of the program standards, including the wage schedule and the gates for each step?
• What credit will I get for previous experience or schooling, and is it in writing?
• Who records my hours, and how do I see the count?
• What happens to my hours if I change employers? Registered programs have a transfer process; hours credited by the program generally follow you within it, but hours at a non-participating shop may not count.

References

• National Apprenticeship Act of 1937; 29 CFR Part 29, including 29.5 (standards of apprenticeship)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship, and your state's apprenticeship agency where one exists
• 29 CFR 5.5(a)(4) (apprentices on Davis-Bacon covered work)
• See related: Tracking Your Own Hours and Pay; Evaluating a Job Offer Beyond the Hourly Rate; Overtime Rights a Tech Should Know