An electrical contractor’s payroll answers to a license ladder before it answers to a timesheet: the rate rides the classification, the card expires on a state clock, and the union report stack rebuilds itself monthly. WageTime pays every rung at its rate.
Electrical payroll is hard for reasons the generic tools never model: pay is gated by a licensing ladder, the jobsite is governed by supervision ratios, and a union shop closes every month by rebuilding a wall of fund reports by hand.
An apprentice, a journeyman, and a master are three different pay rates, and the license that sets each one renews on a state clock nobody in the office is watching. Let a journeyman’s card lapse and you have a worker you can no longer bill at journeyman scale, discovered on the morning of an inspection, not before.
States cap how many non-certified workers one licensed electrician may supervise and require the licensee physically present. So the crew’s classifications aren’t just a pay input, they decide who is legally allowed on which truck, and the schedule has to respect a ratio the payroll system can’t even see.
The service side runs flat-rate tickets, spiffs on sold work, on-call rotations, and callback pay. The construction side runs hourly electricians job-costed by project, often at prevailing wage. One company, one EIN, two entirely different pay models, and a week that mixes both breaks the overtime math.
A union shop doesn’t remit to one plan. NEBF takes a slice of gross labor payroll, NEAP takes an annuity contribution, and each local layers its own health, pension, and apprenticeship funds plus dues checkoff, every one with its own rate and its own monthly report to rebuild off the payroll.
Service hours live in a dispatch platform, project hours live in a field-time app, and every Thursday someone exports both and re-types them into payroll. The hours arrive with no job number and no classification attached, so job cost and the union report both start from a guess.
WageTime pays each electrician at the rate their license classification sets, and the license itself sits on the employee record with expiration alerts, so a renewal surfaces weeks before an inspection would find it.
| Worker | Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ramon D. · Master electricianLicense expires Mar 2028 | $58.00/hr | Current |
| Kevin O. · JourneymanLicense expires Aug 2026 | $42.00/hr | Renew in 27d |
| Tanya B. · JourneymanLicense expires Nov 2027 | $42.00/hr | Current |
| Marcus P. · Apprentice, period 4License expires Jun 2027 | $27.30/hr | Current |
| Dell R. · Apprentice, period 2License expires Jun 2027 | $21.00/hr | Current |
Replaces the wall of license cards nobody checks, and the rate spreadsheet that pays a lapsed journeyman at journeyman scale.
One WageTime payroll runs both sides of the shop, each on its own pay model: flat-rate tickets, spiffs, and callbacks for the service vans, hourly job-costed work for the construction crews, settled on one check date.
Replaces the second payroll the service manager keeps in a spreadsheet, and the overtime fight when a tech works both sides in one week.
Union electrical payroll is a WageTime add-on, scoped and priced on the demo: the fund remittances a union shop rebuilds by hand come off the run that paid the crew, and the month-end close becomes a review, not a rebuild.
Replaces the month-end wall of fund spreadsheets, and the hand-keyed remittance report that never quite ties to the payroll.
Service-call labor and project labor split at the source: a tech’s hours ride the ticket, a crew’s hours ride the job and its cost code, and the Friday lump never happens.
| Job | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| 5108 · Commercial panel upgradeConstruction · in geofence | 64.0 | $2,688.00 |
| 5122 · Retail tenant fit-outConstruction · in geofence | 88.5 | $3,717.00 |
| SVC · Residential service ticketsService · in geofence | 41.0 | $1,722.00 |
| 5090 · Warehouse lighting retrofitConstruction · 1 off-geofence | 22.0 | $924.00 |
Replaces the Thursday re-key from the dispatch app, and the commercial bid priced off a guess about the last job.
WageTime charges $50 per month per company plus $10 per person paid that month, with unlimited runs, and files every federal, state, and local tax the trucks touch automatically, deposits included.
| Jurisdiction | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| FederalForm 941 + deposits · Q2 | $41,308.00 | Filed |
| StateWithholding · Q2 | $7,240.50 | Filed |
| County transit districtLocal withholding · Q2 | $1,860.20 | Filed |
| City ALocal service tax · Q2 | $742.00 | Filed |
| City BLocal withholding · Q2 | $913.40 | Filed |
Replaces the per-run line items on the payroll invoice, and the folder of city logins that grows every time a service truck works a new town.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoYes. Each license sits on the employee record and sets the rate for that classification, so apprentices, journeymen, and masters run at their own rates automatically. Expiration alerts fire on a recurring 30, 60, and 90-day schedule, and a worker who crosses rates in a week gets overtime on the weighted-average regular rate.
Yes, each on its own pay model. Service techs run on flat-rate, commission, spiff, on-call, and callback codes with shift differentials; construction electricians run hourly and job-costed. A week that mixes both settles on one check date, with weighted-average overtime computed across everything worked so the blended rate is correct.
Union payroll is an add-on, scoped and priced on the demo. It carries multiple IBEW locals and classifications with dues checkoff and fund-contribution handling in the run: NEBF on gross labor payroll, NEAP annuity, and each local’s health, pension, and JATC funds, each figured from the hours already paid and reported per fund.
We import clock hours so there’s no double entry. Tell us your dispatch or field-time app on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow for your setup, including how hours land on their job and classification. No app? Crews can punch on WageTime’s own GPS-stamped mobile clock instead.
Yes, as a construction add-on scoped and priced on the demo. WH-347 reports generate off the payroll run with job-costing segments, and prevailing-wage rules apply per classification, with apprentice periods paid at their scheduled percentage on the certified report.
$50 per company per month plus $10 per person paid that month, with unlimited runs, so weekly pay costs the same as biweekly and off-cycle checks and spiffs are at no extra cost. Union payroll and certified payroll are add-ons, scoped and priced on the demo. Switching is full-service and paid.
One week of timesheets from both sides of the shop, your license roster, your job codes, and if you’re union, your local’s rate sheet and fund list. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll see classification pay, a mixed service-and-construction week, the fund remittances, and the invoice math.
Book a 20-minute demo