Electrician or electrical contractor: what each Michigan license allows

One word, two kinds of license

People say “electrician” for the person in the van and the company on the invoice, but Michigan’s Skilled Trades Regulation Act treats them separately. Individuals hold apprentice registrations, journeyman licenses or master licenses, and a business holds an electrical contractor license. The difference decides who may sell the job, who stands behind the code compliance and whose name goes on the permit.

Article 7 of the act, starting at MCL 339.5701, defines an electrical contractor as a person engaged in the business of erecting, installing, altering, repairing, servicing or maintaining electrical wiring. The statute also says no person may be in the business of electrical contracting without a contractor license from the board or a municipality.

Apprentice

An apprentice learns about and assists with installing or altering wiring under the direct personal supervision of a journeyman or master. Registration with the board is due within 30 days after employment, in a board-approved apprenticeship program. The ratio is no more than three registered apprentices per journeyman or master, counted on a jobsite basis.

A crew can include an apprentice, but the statute puts that person under a journeyman or master’s direct personal supervision, so if someone who says they are an apprentice arrives alone, ask the company who is supervising. It also helps to ask the crew lead for first names and write them next to the date on your copy of the quote.

Journeyman

A journeyman must be at least 20 and have at least 8,000 hours over at least four years under the direct supervision of a licensee, or equivalent military service with an affidavit. The statute describes the journeyman’s principal occupation as the practical installation or alteration of electrical wiring.

The act does not limit a journeyman to commercial work, and a house is not carved out of it. That is our reading of the sections we read, so it is fair to ask which license the person on your panel holds, and to look it up.

Master

A master electrician must be at least 22, with at least 12,000 hours of experience over six or more years under a master, and must have held a journeyman license for at least two years. Renewal requires a board-approved course on any update to the state construction code within 12 months after the change. Journeymen face the same renewal course.

The master license is the one that carries responsibility. A contractor must employ a full-time master who lives in Michigan and is actively in charge of Michigan electrical code compliance. A master who runs their own business can hold the contractor license directly.

Electrical contractor

The contractor license is issued to a master electrician, or to a person who has at least one full-time master electrician employee who resides in Michigan and is in charge of code compliance. One master license cannot qualify more than one contractor license, so a master cannot stand behind a second company at the same time.

LARA’s permit page names this license when it says who may apply. An applicant must be an electrical contractor or specialty contractor licensed by a municipality or the State Electrical Administrative Board, or an owner-occupant homeowner doing the work in a single family home. So when you ask who pulls the permit, the answer on a company job should be the contractor, and its license number should be on your paperwork. Do you need a permit explains the process.

What to ask on the first call

Three questions sort most of this out. Ask for the company’s electrical contractor license number, and look it up. Ask for the name and license level of the person who will do the work, and whether anyone else will be on site. Ask who will pull the permit and whether the fee is in the price. A company that holds the contractor license will answer all three in a sentence, and one that hedges on the first is telling you something. Write the answers on the quote, with the license number beside the company name.

Specialty licenses and other trades on your property

The state also issues fire alarm contractor, fire alarm specialty technician and apprentice licenses, and sign specialty contractor and specialist licenses. The statute excludes a single station smoke detector from “fire alarm system”, so a plain smoke alarm swap is not fire alarm work. A holder of an electrical contractor, master or journeyman license, or an apprentice registration, needs no separate specialty license for specialty installations.

A few other tradespeople may do narrow electrical tasks without an electrical license. HVAC and plumbing contractors may do control wiring in existing mechanical systems on the load side of the unit disconnect, and a registered pump installer may wire a well pump to the first point of attachment in the house. A security alarm installer is also listed. None of these cover a panel, a circuit or a service.

When a city has its own system

MCL 339.5733 says the state article does not apply in a municipality whose ordinance sets licensing standards at least as stringent, with enforcement, penalties and inspections. State and qualifying municipal licenses must be recognized by all municipalities, and a municipality that inspects may require registration. That is why the LARA Statewide Jurisdiction List matters: it shows whether the state, the county or the city enforces electrical work at your address. Detroit’s own program is a local example.

A city may ask a state-licensed electrician to register, and that is allowed. It is no sign of a problem. Ask the electrician whether registration applies where you live, and ask the city’s electrical office if you are unsure. Write down the name of the person you spoke with and the date, in case the answer matters later.

How to confirm what you were told

The LARA lookup lists Electrician under Skilled Trades, and how to find a licensed electrician walks through the steps. Search by the number you were given and compare the license type with the person and the work: a journeyman license is not a contractor license, and a master’s personal license is not a company’s.

Titles matter less than answers: who will be on site and at what level, who pulls the permit, whether the quote includes its fee, and which parts of the job need the utility. Print or screenshot the lookup result and keep it with the contract, and if the name on it differs from the name on the van or the invoice, ask which business the license belongs to before work begins. For an older panel, the panel upgrade page lists what to put in writing, and the rewiring page does the same for larger jobs. ElectricianMatch holds no license and does not vouch for any company; how it works says what we pass along.