Electrical contracting licences in Texas

Who has to hold an electrical contractor licence

Texas licenses the business, not just the person holding the tools. Anyone who performs or offers to perform non-exempt electrical work in Texas must be licensed and must perform that work through a licensed electrical contractor. That covers the obvious panel and wiring work, and it also covers turnkey solar: if you offer to install the panels and the components, you need the contractor licence too.

Non-exempt electrical work in Texas must be performed through a licensed electrical contractor. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

227,117Texas had 227,117 electrician licence holders in fiscal year 2025. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

The master electrician of record is the licence

An electrical contractor licence is attached to a master electrician. You either hold the master licence yourself or you employ someone who does, and that person is named on the application. The tie is exclusive: a master electrician can only be assigned to one electrical contractor at a time, unless they own more than half of the contracting business. If your master leaves, the licence problem is immediate.

An applicant for an electrical contractor licence must be a licensed master electrician or employ one. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

50 percentA master electrician may be assigned to only one electrical contractor unless they own more than 50 percent of it. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

An Electrical Contractor can ONLY have a master electrician assigned to the electrical contractor.

What TDLR charges for each licence

The business licence and the individual licence are separate line items, and you will usually be paying both. The contractor business licence is the larger of the two. The individual master licence that qualifies you for it costs considerably less, which surprises people who assume the hard licence is the expensive one.

$110The electrical contractor business licence fee in Texas is $110. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

$45A Texas master electrician licence costs $45 and a journeyman electrician licence costs $30. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

The general liability insurance TDLR requires

Proof of insurance is attached to the application, not promised afterwards. TDLR sets three separate floors and your certificate has to clear all of them. The carrier matters as well as the number: it must be admitted in Texas or an eligible surplus lines carrier, and rated B+ or better by A.M. Best. The certificate needs a 30-day cancellation notice.

$300,000Texas electrical contractors must carry at least $300,000 per occurrence in general liability cover. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

$600,000The policy must also show at least $600,000 aggregate and $300,000 for products and completed operations. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

B+The insurer must be rated B+ or higher by A.M. Best Company. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

Three ways to satisfy the workers compensation rule

Texas does not force a private employer to buy workers' compensation, but it does force you to declare which route you took. The application gives three boxes: you carry it, you self-insure, or you file a notice of no coverage with the Department of Insurance through its non-subscriber e-file tool. Self-insurance is not a real option for a small shop, and TDLR says so plainly on the form.

3 optionsThe contractor application requires you to state whether you carry workers' compensation, self-insure, or file a notice of no coverage. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

$500,000Self-insurance requires a manual premium of at least $500,000 in Texas or $10,000,000 nationally. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

Generally, companies with less than 200 employees will not meet the above criteria.

Renewing, and the deadlines that end a licence

Renewal costs the same as the original application, so budget it as a recurring cost rather than a one-off. Let it lapse and the price climbs in steps. Let it lapse long enough and renewal stops being available at all: past 36 months you are not renewing, you are applying again from the beginning, with the exam and the hours behind you counting for what they count for.

$110Renewing a Texas electrical contractor licence costs $110. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

$165A licence expired 90 days or less costs $165 to renew, and one expired 91 days to 18 months costs $220. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

36 monthsA licence expired more than 36 months cannot be renewed and requires a new application. — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-14

Guides

• How to get a Texas electrical contractor licence — The order to do it in — master electrician first, then insurance, then the workers' compensation declaration, then Form ELC-LIC-003 and the fee.

Articles

• What a Texas electrical contractor licence costs — Year-one fees, the recurring renewal, and what a lapse adds — the licence line items for a Texas electrical contracting business, with TDLR figures.

Questions