Louisiana · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Louisiana licenses electrical work through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. It licenses the contracting business in the Electrical classification, not the individual electrician, and the individual appears as the designated qualifying party who sits the trade examination. Any electrical project valued at ten thousand dollars or more needs that licence, well below the general commercial threshold.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Louisiana licenses electrical work at state level, and it does it through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, at 600 North Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802, telephone 225-765-2301. There is no separate Louisiana electrical board. The electrician does not go to a plumbing style trade board the way a Louisiana plumber goes to the State Plumbing Board of Louisiana. Electrical is one classification inside a general contractor licensing scheme. The law is Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 37, Chapter 24, beginning at R.S. 37:2150, published by the board as its rules and regulations book together with the Louisiana Administrative Code provisions. The board publishes a current version of that combined book with an effective date of August 1, 2026, and separately publishes Act 422 of the 2025 regular session. That distinction matters when you are checking a number: a fee or a threshold quoted from an older edition may have moved. The board runs the licence applications, the classification list, the examinations, the complaint process and the public licence search. It also holds the enforcement powers, both the civil penalty power under R.S. 37:2164 and the referral route into the criminal penalties at R.S. 37:2163. What the board does not do is issue a journeyman or master electrician licence to an individual. That absence is the single most important structural fact about electrical licensing in Louisiana, and the next section deals with it.
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Louisiana licenses the contracting entity. The statutory scheme in R.S. 37:2150.1 defines contractors and electrical contractors by reference to the work and the project value, and issues a licence in a classification to the person or company that contracts. There is no standalone state journeyman electrician licence and no standalone state master electrician licence in this chapter. The individual enters the system as the qualifying party. R.S. 37:2156.1(E) requires a qualifying party to be designated for each classification, and requires that party to satisfy all application requirements and any examination and credential requirement. Any principal or full time employee, as the chapter defines those terms, may be the qualifying party. The board may exempt a qualifying party from the required examinations in circumstances the chapter sets out. The link between the person and the licence is enforceable. When the qualifying party is no longer associated with the licence, the board must be notified within thirty days of the disassociation, and another qualifying party must qualify within sixty days. So a Louisiana electrical contractor is a company with an active Electrical classification and a named human being standing behind that classification. If that person resigns, the clock starts. The second individual facing tier is the Home Improvement Registration, which is a registration rather than a full licence and sits below the licence thresholds. Individual trade certification of electricians in Louisiana, where it exists at all, is a city matter, and New Orleans is the clearest example.
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The board's classification list sets out what Electrical covers. Classification 5, Electrical, is defined as the installation, construction, alteration, improvement, movement, maintenance, repair or demolition of wiring, cabling, fixtures, appliances, equipment and hardware for the supply of electricity to any structure, building or project, provided the value exceeds ten thousand dollars. That ten thousand dollar figure is the line that matters, and it is far lower than the general commercial threshold. R.S. 37:2150.1(8) carries the same figure into the statutory definition of electrical contractor: ten thousand dollars or more. Mechanical and plumbing sit at the same ten thousand dollar level, while general commercial construction sits at fifty thousand dollars. The classification also reaches low voltage work. The board states that low voltage installations such as Cat 5, Cat 6, coaxial or fibre optic cabling fall under the Electrical classification where the work involves penetrating or running cable through walls, ceilings, floors or closed spaces. Equipment that is not attached and only needs plugging into an existing outlet is outside the classification. Alongside Electrical there are three related classifications on the board's exam and classification list. Electrical Transmission Lines, classification 3.2, covers construction, installation, maintenance or repair of electrical transmission and distribution lines, poles and towers, and requires a trade examination. Electrical Controls and Instrumentation and Calibration, classification 5.1, requires a trade examination. Telecommunications, Low Voltage, classification 5.2, does not require a trade examination. Pick the classification that matches the work you actually bid, because the permit gate in R.S. 37:2160 is classification specific.
The board sorts licences by the kind of work and its value rather than only by trade. A Commercial licence covers commercial construction and commercial subcontract or specialty trade work at fifty thousand dollars or more, and, importantly for this trade, electrical, mechanical and plumbing projects over ten thousand dollars. Asbestos, hazardous waste, lead abatement and underground storage tank work sit at one dollar or more, meaning any amount. A Residential licence covers new residential construction and residential work above the residential threshold, and residential swimming pool projects, labour and materials, above seven thousand five hundred dollars. A Home Improvement Registration, which the board is careful to describe as a registration and not a licence, covers home improvement on an existing residence between seven thousand five hundred dollars and the residential licence threshold, excluding swimming pools. A Mold Remediation licence is required at seven thousand five hundred dollars or more and carries twenty four hours of approved mold remediation and assessment training. For an electrical business the practical result is that the same company can need more than one credential. A shop that rewires commercial buildings and also does residential service changes and panel upgrades may hold the commercial Electrical classification for the first stream and a residential credential or home improvement registration for the second. Each classification carries its own qualifying party and its own examination requirement, which is why the board's application asks you to nominate classifications rather than simply asking what trade you are in.
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Two of the board's own publications give different residential numbers, and this page reports both rather than choosing. The board's Types of Licenses web page states that a Residential licence applies to residential construction exceeding seventy five thousand dollars, to home improvements on existing residences over seventy five thousand dollars, and that a Home Improvement Registration covers projects on existing residences valued between seven thousand five hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, excluding swimming pools. The board's rules and regulations book, the one carrying the August 1, 2026 effective date, defines a residential contractor at R.S. 37:2150.1 by reference to a project value of fifty thousand dollars or more, and defines home improvement by reference to a project value of seven thousand five hundred dollars or more. The board's separate Licensing Requirements for Contractors in Louisiana document lines up with the statute book, giving fifty thousand dollars or more for the Residential licence and describing the Home Improvement Registration as covering projects exceeding seven thousand five hundred dollars but not exceeding fifty thousand dollars. Both sets of figures are published by the board, and the statute resolves them. Act 422 of the 2025 regular session, which the board publishes on its rules and regulations page, carries residential construction at fifty thousand dollars or greater and home improvement at seven thousand five hundred dollars or more but less than fifty thousand dollars. That makes fifty thousand dollars the governing figure and the seventy five thousand dollar web page the one that has not been updated. For an electrical contractor the exposure sits in the gap between the two numbers on residential work, so confirm the classification with the board before you sign a contract that lands there.
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The board's exam and classification list marks the Electrical classification, classification 5, as requiring a trade examination. Electrical Transmission Lines and Electrical Controls and Instrumentation and Calibration also require trade examinations. Telecommunications, Low Voltage does not. The examination is taken by the qualifying party rather than by the company, under R.S. 37:2156.1(E), which requires the designated qualifying party to satisfy any examination and credential requirement for the classification. The board directs candidates to PSI for testing and publishes a testing notice on its site. Applicants and qualifying parties must also pass a background investigation under R.S. 37:2156.1(E). There is a second examination element separate from the trade test. The board's Licensing Requirements document lists completion of the Business and Law course for the residential, commercial and mold licences. R.S. 37:2153(F)(5) confirms that the trade portion is the part the board can waive for an out of state applicant, and states that the business law requirement shall not be waived. So a qualifying party coming in from another state should expect to sit the Louisiana business and law component even where the trade test is accepted from elsewhere. R.S. 37:2156(C) caps the board's own examination fee at fifty dollars, which is the board's charge and not necessarily the total paid at the test centre. There is one statutory exemption worth knowing: R.S. 37:2156.1(J) provides an exemption for plumbing contractors holding a Master Plumber licence, which shows the board is willing to recognise a separate trade credential where the legislature has said so.
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R.S. 37:2156(C) sets the board's fee maximums in dollars and they are modest. The examination fee is capped at fifty dollars. The licence fee is capped at one hundred dollars. The renewal fee is capped at one hundred dollars. The delinquent fee is capped at fifty dollars. The Home Improvement fee is capped at fifty dollars. R.S. 37:2156(D) then adds a surcharge aimed at contractors based outside the state, of not more than four hundred dollars. These are statutory ceilings on what the board may charge, not a published price list, so the amount actually collected on a given application can be lower and can vary with the number of classifications requested. Read these numbers alongside the rest of the cost of entry, because the licence fee is the small part. The financial statement, the net worth requirement, the insurance and the examinations are where the real money goes. Note also that the fee structure does not scale with the size of the contractor or the number of employees. A two person electrical shop and a large electrical contractor pay the same statutory licence fee and face the same net worth test. The board also charges separately in the enforcement direction: R.S. 37:2164 allows it to add administrative costs and attorney fees to a civil penalty. Permit fees are not board fees at all, and are charged by the parish or municipal permit office where the work is done.
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Louisiana screens contractors financially, which is unusual among state trade licensing schemes and catches new electrical businesses off guard. R.S. 37:2156.1(B)(2) requires a net worth of fifty thousand dollars or more for a residential or commercial licence, and twenty five thousand dollars or more for a home improvement registration or a mold remediation licence. The financial statement must be current to within twelve months and prepared by an accountant, a bookkeeper or a certified public accountant. Where the applicant falls short, the chapter allows the gap to be covered by an irrevocable letter of credit equal to the shortfall plus any negative net worth. That is the escape hatch for a young company with real work but thin retained earnings. Plan the timing, because a letter of credit takes a bank relationship and a statement more than twelve months old will be rejected. On insurance, two board sources give different minimums and this page reports both. The board rules and regulations book quotes R.S. 37:2156.1(F)(1) as requiring residential construction and its subclassifications, mold remediation and home improvement applicants to submit certificates evidencing workers compensation coverage in compliance with Title 23 and liability insurance in a minimum amount of five hundred thousand dollars. The board Licensing Requirements for Contractors in Louisiana document states general liability of one hundred thousand dollars for residential and commercial licences and fifty thousand dollars for mold. Carry the higher figure if you want to be safe on either reading. The administrative detail is consistent. R.S. 37:2156.1(F)(3) requires the coverage to run for a minimum of six months and to include all scopes of work for which the contractor is licensed, so a policy excluding electrical work will not satisfy an Electrical classification. R.S. 37:2156.1(F)(4) requires the policy to list the board as a certificate holder, so the board is notified directly when cover changes. Note that the statutory sentence names residential, mold and home improvement rather than commercial, and a purely commercial electrical contractor should confirm the point with the board.
R.S. 37:2156(H)(1) sets renewal on the anniversary of the date the licence was originally issued, rather than on a common expiry date for everybody. On renewal, the licensee elects a one year, two year or three year renewal term, which is useful for a contractor who wants to stop thinking about the licence for a while. After a licence has expired, the person to whom it was issued has fifteen days following the expiration date to file a renewal application without paying a penalty. After that the delinquent fee applies, capped at fifty dollars by R.S. 37:2156(C)(4). Continuing education is the point where electrical contractors most often assume a burden that does not exist. The board states that only residential building contractors are required to complete continuing education. Commercial, mold and home improvement licence holders have no continuing education requirement. Where it applies, the requirement is a minimum of six hours annually from board approved providers, and it is waived where the residential contractor also holds a valid commercial licence in Building Construction, Highway Street and Bridge Construction, Heavy Construction, or Municipal and Public Works Construction. Contractors must keep a copy of the certificate of completion for five years and make it available to the board on request. So a Louisiana electrical contractor holding only the commercial Electrical classification has no state continuing education hours to complete, and no state mandated code update class tied to the National Electrical Code cycle. That does not mean the code stands still. The code changes under the construction code council, and the section below covers it.
Louisiana rewrote its approach to reciprocity in October 2024 and the change is in the board's favour if you are coming from out of state. The board's notice states that where an applicant has passed a test in another state for a classification that requires examination, the board will accept that passing exam for reciprocity, provided there were no waivers, exemptions or grandfathering in effect. The board describes the new approach as less restrictive and beneficial to all licensees, and states that the change in procedure renders any previous agreements null and void. That last sentence is the one to note. Louisiana no longer runs a list of named reciprocal states, so a contractor quoting a bilateral agreement from before October 2024 is quoting something the board has cancelled. The statutory hook is R.S. 37:2153(F)(5), which allows the board to waive the trade portion of the examination requirement for an applicant holding a licence in a comparable classification in another state as determined by the board, on written certification from the licensing state that the applicant passed the examination. The same provision says that the business law requirement shall not be waived, so the trade test travels and the Louisiana business and law component does not. The board publishes a Reciprocity Request Form, which the applicant sends to the reciprocal board in the state where they are licensed so that board can certify the examination back to Louisiana. Everything else in the application, including the financial statement, the insurance and the qualifying party designation, still applies.
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R.S. 37:2163(A) makes it unlawful for any person to engage or continue in the business of contracting in Louisiana, or to act as a contractor as the chapter defines it, without holding an active licence. The criminal penalties at R.S. 37:2163(C) run in two tiers. The first tier is a misdemeanour, with a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars per day of violation, or three months in prison, or both. Read per day of violation carefully, because a long running unlicensed job multiplies the exposure. The second tier applies where damages exceed three hundred dollars, and raises the penalty to a fine of not less than five hundred and not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not less than six months and not more than five years, or both. The civil route is usually the one a contractor meets. R.S. 37:2164 lets the board impose a fine of up to ten percent of the total contract or of the value of the work bid or being performed for which there is a violation, and where the value cannot be determined, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, plus administrative costs and attorney fees. Ten percent of contract value is a number that scales, and on an electrical subcontract it can dwarf the cost of the licence many times over. R.S. 37:2158 lists the grounds for suspension or revocation, including unlicensed contracting, misleading claims, dishonest or fraudulent acts, misrepresentation in obtaining a licence, failure to maintain qualifying parties, failure to provide written contracts, and abandoning projects.
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Louisiana does not impose a general statutory duty to print your licence number on a van or a website the way some states do. What it regulates instead is the name you trade under, the claims you publish and the bid you submit. R.S. 37:2156(F)(2) requires a licensee to bid, contract, conduct all business transactions and perform work in the name as it appears on the current licence. That is stricter than it sounds. A company licensed under one legal name that bids under a trading name is outside that provision, and the fix is to bring the trade name onto the licence rather than to keep using it. R.S. 37:2163(A) makes it unlawful to publish, transmit, distribute or otherwise publicly circulate a misleading or false claim related to a person's licence or classification. That is the advertising rule. It reaches a website that claims a classification the company does not hold, a listing that implies a licence that has lapsed, and a claim to cover work outside the classifications on the licence. R.S. 37:2158 backs it up by making misleading claims a ground for suspension or revocation. On bids, R.S. 37:2165(A)(1) requires the contractor to certify that it holds an active licence by displaying its licence number on the bid envelope, or by using an authentic digital signature on an electronic bid proposal accompanied by the licence number. Put the number on the envelope. A bid that omits it is the easiest thing in the world for a competitor to challenge.
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R.S. 37:2160 does two things that matter to an electrical contractor working across parish lines. First, it closes the permit gate: a local building department shall not issue a building permit to any person who does not hold an active licence in the appropriate classification for the scope of work for which the permit is issued. So the state licence is not optional paperwork, it is the condition of getting a permit anywhere in Louisiana, and the classification has to match the work. Second, it limits what local government may add: the provisions of the chapter preempt any municipal or other local regulatory examination authority over all licensees. That preemption is about examination authority. It does not stop a parish or city from running a permit office, charging permit fees, inspecting the work or requiring an occupational licence or business tax registration. In practice the largest Louisiana cities still operate local systems that an electrical contractor has to satisfy alongside the state licence. Baton Rouge runs permits and inspections through the City Parish Department of Development at 300 North Tenth Street, with permit applications filed online, and lists electrical construction among the areas it inspects and enforces. New Orleans goes further and issues its own electrical licence, covered in the next section. When you move a crew into a new parish, the sequence is: confirm the state classification covers the scope, then find the local permit office, then check whether that jurisdiction issues its own trade credential.
New Orleans is the exception that a Louisiana electrical contractor has to plan for. The city states that an electrical permit can only be obtained by an electrical contractor with a Class A Electrical License from the City of New Orleans. The Department of Safety and Permits, at 1340 Poydras Street Suite 800, runs an Electrical and Mechanical Trade License function and an Electrical Division for permits and inspections. The Class A Master Electrical Contractor licence costs one hundred and twenty five dollars annually, and only one Class A licence holder is permitted per company. To apply, the city accepts either a passing ICC Official Results Report F49 for Electrical Contractor, or a Louisiana State Licence with qualifying party documentation, which is the route most state licensed contractors take. The application also requires a passport style colour photograph taken within three to six months, a driver licence or state identification, and the applicant to be at least eighteen. Insurance is general liability of at least five hundred thousand dollars plus workers compensation, with the City of New Orleans listed as the certificate holder at the Poydras Street address. The licence expires on the licence holder's birthday, renewal opens ninety days before, and a delinquent licence attracts ten dollars a month. A licence delinquent for more than one year requires retesting with ICC. An inactive status is available at thirty dollars annually. City electrical permit fees are forty dollars for the application plus three dollars per new circuit plus thirty cents per service amperage, with a construction loop at forty dollars, elevator and similar installations at sixty dollars, and sign installation at forty dollars. A permit lapses after six months of inactivity.
Louisiana adopts construction codes statewide through the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code Council, which sits within the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. The council is made up of nineteen members appointed by the Governor plus one from the Louisiana Department of Health, and its stated job is to review, amend and adopt the state uniform construction code, provide training for code officials and process code amendment requests. The council states that Louisiana has adopted the 2021 International Codes with Louisiana amendments and the 2020 National Electrical Code, NFPA 70, with Louisiana amendments, and that these became effective for all projects submitted on or after January 1, 2023. Two details in that sentence do work for a contractor pricing a job. The first is with Louisiana amendments, which means the printed NFPA book is not the whole answer and the state amendments have to be read with it. The second is the trigger date, which runs on the date the project was submitted rather than the date work starts, so a long running project submitted before January 1, 2023 can still be sitting on the previous edition. Because the code is adopted statewide by a single council, the edition does not change when you cross a parish line, which is a genuine advantage over states that leave the National Electrical Code to local adoption. Local amendments and local interpretation still vary, and New Orleans describes itself as enforcing the International Construction Code as adopted by the city alongside state and parish regulations.
The board runs a public licence search and it is unusually thorough. Searches are available by name, by licence number, by city or town, by parish, by licence type, by qualifying party and through an advanced search. Search by qualifying party is the one most people never use and the one that tells you the most. It lets a customer confirm that the human being standing in front of them is the person actually attached to the licence, which is the point the whole Louisiana scheme turns on. The checklist for a Louisiana homeowner or project owner is short. Confirm the company holds an active licence. Confirm the classification matches the work, which for most electrical work means the Electrical classification, classification 5, and remember that any electrical project over ten thousand dollars needs it. Confirm the name on the contract matches the name on the licence, because R.S. 37:2156(F)(2) requires the licensee to contract in the name as it appears on the current licence, and a mismatch is a real signal. Check the qualifying party is still attached, given the thirty day notification and sixty day replacement rule in R.S. 37:2156.1(E). If something is wrong, the board takes complaints online from homeowners, contractors, subcontractors and employees. For a contractor, the same search is how you check a sub before you put them on your job, and how you confirm a competitor is licensed for the classification they are bidding.
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These are common details other guides publish about Louisiana, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, but it licenses the contracting business rather than the individual electrician. The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors issues a licence in the Electrical classification, classification 5, to the contracting entity. The individual appears as the designated qualifying party under R.S. 37:2156.1(E). There is no state journeyman or master electrician licence in this chapter.
When the project value reaches ten thousand dollars. The board's Electrical classification covers electrical installation, alteration, maintenance and repair provided the value exceeds ten thousand dollars, and R.S. 37:2150.1(8) defines electrical contractor by reference to ten thousand dollars or more. That is far below the fifty thousand dollar general commercial threshold.
It can. The board states that low voltage installations such as Cat 5, Cat 6, coaxial or fibre optic cabling fall under the Electrical classification where the work penetrates or runs cable through walls, ceilings, floors or closed spaces. Equipment that is not attached and only plugs into an existing outlet is outside it. There is also a separate Telecommunications, Low Voltage classification 5.2, which requires no trade exam.
R.S. 37:2156(C) caps the board's fees at fifty dollars for the examination, one hundred dollars for the licence, one hundred dollars for renewal, fifty dollars for a delinquent filing and fifty dollars for the Home Improvement fee. R.S. 37:2156(D) allows a surcharge of not more than four hundred dollars for contractors based outside Louisiana. These are ceilings, not a price list.
Yes. R.S. 37:2156.1(B)(2) requires a net worth of fifty thousand dollars or more for a residential or commercial licence and twenty five thousand dollars or more for a home improvement registration or mold licence. The financial statement must be current to within twelve months. A shortfall can be covered by an irrevocable letter of credit for the shortfall plus any negative net worth.
Two board sources differ. The board's rules and regulations book quotes R.S. 37:2156.1(F)(1) as requiring liability insurance of a minimum five hundred thousand dollars for residential, home improvement and mold applicants. The board's Licensing Requirements document states one hundred thousand dollars for residential and commercial and fifty thousand dollars for mold. The policy must list the board as a certificate holder.
Not for a commercial licence. The board states that only residential building contractors must complete continuing education, at a minimum of six hours annually from approved providers, and that commercial, mold and home improvement licence holders have none. The residential requirement is waived where the contractor also holds a valid commercial licence in one of four listed major classifications.
R.S. 37:2156(H)(1) sets expiry on the anniversary of original issuance, not a common date. At renewal the licensee elects a one, two or three year term. After expiry there are fifteen days to file a renewal without a penalty, after which the delinquent fee applies, capped at fifty dollars.
Since October 2024 it accepts a passing examination from any other state for a classification requiring an exam, provided there were no waivers, exemptions or grandfathering. The board states this rendered previous agreements null and void, so there is no longer a named list of reciprocal states. Under R.S. 37:2153(F)(5) the business law requirement is never waived.
R.S. 37:2163(C) makes it a misdemeanour with a fine of up to five hundred dollars per day of violation or three months in prison or both, rising where damages exceed three hundred dollars to a fine of five hundred to five thousand dollars or six months to five years. R.S. 37:2164 adds a civil fine of up to ten percent of contract value.
There is no general statutory duty to print it on a van or a website. R.S. 37:2163(A) makes it unlawful to publish or circulate a misleading or false claim about a licence or classification, R.S. 37:2156(F)(2) requires you to bid and contract in the name on the licence, and R.S. 37:2165(A)(1) requires the licence number on the bid envelope.
Yes. New Orleans states that an electrical permit can only be obtained by a contractor holding a Class A Electrical License from the city. The Class A Master Electrical Contractor licence is one hundred and twenty five dollars annually, one holder per company, and can be applied for using an ICC F49 result or a Louisiana state licence with qualifying party documentation.
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