The Question Everyone Asks First
Before anyone signs a four year training contract, they want to know what it pays. It is a fair question, and the answer is more encouraging than the old jokes about apprentice wages suggest, particularly if you are starting as an adult or heading into industrial work rather than domestic.
The figures below come from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for the Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award, award code MA000025, and apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. These are legal minimums. Plenty of employers pay above them, and industrial and commercial employers frequently do, but no employer covered by this award may pay less.
Standard Apprentice Rates, Year by Year
Australian apprentice wages step up each year as your skills grow. The award also distinguishes between apprentices who completed Year 12 and those who did not, with the Year 12 completers earning more in the first two years before the two streams converge.
If you did not complete Year 12: first year pays $622.72 a week, or $16.39 an hour. Second year rises to $742.79 a week, $19.55 an hour. Third year is $862.87 a week, $22.71 an hour. Fourth year reaches $1,006.97 a week, $26.50 an hour.
If you completed Year 12: first year pays $682.76 a week, $17.97 an hour. Second year is $802.84 a week, $21.13 an hour. Third and fourth years are the same as above, $862.87 and $1,006.97 a week respectively.
The Year 12 premium is worth roughly $60 a week in first year and $60 in second year, about $6,200 across the two years combined. That is worth knowing if you are weighing up whether to finish school before applying.
Adult Apprentice Rates: A Very Different Picture
This is the part that surprises people. If you are 21 or over when you start, you are an adult apprentice and the rates are substantially higher. For adult apprentices who commenced after 1 January 2014, first year pays $982.95 a week, $25.87 an hour. From second year onward, the rate is $1,098.29 a week, $28.90 an hour, and it stays there through to completion.
Compare that with the junior rates and the gap is striking. An adult apprentice in first year earns more than a school leaver apprentice earns in their fourth. An adult first year is on roughly $360 a week more than a junior first year who did not complete Year 12, which is close to $19,000 a year. If you have been putting off a trade because you assumed you could not afford to live on apprentice wages, these are the numbers to look at.
What Sits on Top of the Base Rate
The weekly figures above are base rates. Your actual pay packet will usually be higher once other entitlements are counted.
Overtime attracts penalty rates, and in industrial settings where plants run extended hours there is often genuine overtime available. Weekend and public holiday work carries its own loadings. Allowances may apply depending on the work, covering tools, travel, first aid, height work and various industry specific circumstances. Superannuation is paid on top of your wage at the current guarantee rate. You also accrue annual leave, personal leave and, in most cases, paid time to attend your off the job training.
Once you finish, the step up is significant. A qualified electrician moves onto the tradesperson classifications, and the award’s senior electrical worker grades reach around $1,519 a week once industry, tool and electrician’s licence allowances are included. Those are still minimums. Industrial and maintenance electricians with automation skills typically command more again in the open market, because the pool of people who can fault find a PLC controlled production line is much smaller than the pool of people who hold an electrical licence.
Government Payments You May Be Entitled To
Wages are only one part of apprentice income. Several Commonwealth support payments sit alongside them, and the system changed on 1 January 2026, so older advice you find online may be out of date.
The Key Apprenticeship Program pays eligible apprentices $2,000 at each of five milestones: 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months and on completion. That is up to $10,000 for a full time apprentice, with part time apprentices receiving $1,000 per milestone up to $5,000. Electrician (General) appeared on the eligible occupation list published for this program, though lists are reviewed periodically, so confirm your own eligibility rather than assuming it.
The Living Away From Home Allowance pays $120 a week in the first year, $90 a week in the second and $45 a week in the third, for apprentices who must move away from their parents’ home to take up or keep an apprenticeship. For regional Queenslanders moving to Brisbane for work, this is worth checking.
Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans offer interest free borrowing, up to $25,983 for the 2025/26 period, to help with living costs during training. Repayments only begin once you are earning above $67,000, and there is a 20 per cent discount on the loan balance if you complete your apprenticeship.
Taken together, these can add a meaningful amount to what an apprenticeship actually delivers over four years, well beyond the weekly wage.
Why Industrial Work Changes the Maths
Not all electrical apprenticeships lead to the same place. An apprentice who spends four years on domestic installations finishes with a licence and a solid grounding. An apprentice who spends those years in manufacturing plants finishes with a licence plus exposure to PLC controlled machinery, variable speed drives, instrumentation, machine safety systems and the discipline of working on equipment where a mistake stops a production line.
That second set of skills is scarce, and scarcity is what moves wages. Industrial electricians who can work confidently on Allen Bradley and Siemens control platforms are consistently among the hardest roles for Australian manufacturers to fill. Where you serve your time matters as much as the fact that you served it.
Checking Your Own Rate
Rates change every year following the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review, with new figures normally taking effect from the first full pay period in July. The figures in this article are current as at July 2026. Before you rely on them for a decision, check your own circumstances using the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool, which will account for your award, your year of apprenticeship, your age and your state. If you believe you are being underpaid, the Fair Work Ombudsman is the body to contact.
Also confirm which award covers you. This article deals with MA000025, which covers electrical contracting. An apprentice employed directly by a manufacturer may instead fall under the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award, where the rate structure differs.
Looking for Industrial Electrical Work in Brisbane
BevTech is a family owned engineering business with more than 25 years in manufacturing, working across FMCG and beverage production in Brisbane and Queensland. Its electricians and automation technicians work on Allen Bradley and Siemens control systems, machine safety and production equipment for some of the largest manufacturers in the country, and the business runs its own machining and fabrication workshop alongside the electrical side.
If industrial electrical work is the direction you want, current openings are listed at bevtech.com.au/hiring, and the team is happy to hear from people serious about the trade.
