Minnesota · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Minnesota licenses electrical work at state level through the Department of Labor and Industry, with the Board of Electricity adopting the code and the licensing rules. It licenses the individual by grade and licenses the contracting business separately, and the contractor license needs a responsible master electrician, a $25,000 bond and liability insurance of $100,000 per occurrence.
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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.
Minnesota licenses electrical work at state level, and two bodies share the job. The Department of Labor and Industry issues the licenses, registrations and permits, through its Construction Codes and Licensing Division. The Board of Electricity adopts the electrical code and any amendments to it, adopts the rules that regulate licensure and registration of the electrical industry, and issues final interpretations of the code. DLI describes the board that way on its own board page. The board has 12 members, 11 appointed by the governor and one appointed by the DLI commissioner, and it meets quarterly at the Department of Labor and Industry, 443 Lafayette Road North, St. Paul, Minnesota 55155. This is a different arrangement from the plumbing side of the same department, so do not assume the two trades share a board. The governing law is Minnesota Statutes sections 326B.31 to 326B.399 for licensing and inspection, sections 326B.091 to 326B.099 for general licensing provisions, and sections 326B.081 to 326B.085 for enforcement. DLI lists those three ranges on its electrical laws and rules page. The rules are Minnesota Rules chapter 3800, the Board of Electricity licensing rules, and Minnesota Rules chapter 1315, the Minnesota Electrical Code. Licensing questions go to the license unit at 651-284-5034, code questions to the electrical unit at 651-284-5026. Applications, renewals and permits all run through iMS, the department's online system.
Both, and you need both. On the individual side Minnesota Statutes section 326B.33 licenses Class A master electrician, Class A journeyworker electrician, maintenance electrician, lineman, Class B installer, power limited technician, satellite system installer, elevator constructor and master elevator constructor. Three classes are closed to new applicants but still renewable: Class B master electrician and Class B journeyworker electrician took no new licences after August 1, 1985, and Class A installer took none after December 1, 2007. Each of the three closed classes keeps its original scope. A Class B master or journeyworker is limited to single phase systems not over 200 amperes on farmsteads or single family dwellings in towns or municipalities under 2,500 people. Below the licensed grades sits the registered unlicensed individual, a registration rather than a licence. On the business side, section 326B.33, subdivision 14, requires a contractor's licence of anyone other than an employee, partner or officer of a licensed contractor who performs or offers to perform electrical work with or without compensation. The same subdivision adds the sentence that catches people out: a contractor's licence does not of itself qualify its holder to perform or supervise the electrical work authorised by any class of personal licence. Section 326B.092, subdivision 7, groups the business licences as Class A electrical contractor, Class B electrical contractor, satellite system contractor and technology systems contractor. DLI adds that general contractors and construction management firms that subcontract electrical work to licensed subcontractors do not need their own electrical contractor licence.
DLI publishes the contractor checklist in five steps, and every one of them is in statute. First, name a responsible licensed individual. Section 326B.33, subdivision 17, requires each contractor to designate a responsible master electrician, satellite system installer or power limited technician who is responsible for all electrical work, and limits the classes of work the contractor may perform to the classes that person is licensed to perform. That individual must be an owner, officer or member of the business, or a W-2 managing employee who is actively engaged in the company's electrical work, and cannot be employed as an electrician by any other contractor. One individual may be the responsible licensed individual for only one contractor or employer. Second, insurance. Section 326B.33, subdivision 16, requires general liability insurance including premises and operations and products and completed operations, with limits of at least $100,000 per occurrence and a $300,000 aggregate for bodily injury, plus property damage insurance of at least $50,000, or a single limit policy of $300,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate. DLI must be listed as certificate holder and the certificate must be produced and signed by a licensed insurance agent. Workers compensation compliance must also be filed on a DLI form. Third, a surety bond. Subdivision 15 requires a bond to the state in the penal sum of $25,000, on a DLI approved form, from a corporate surety licensed in Minnesota. Fourth, a disclosure of owners, partners, officers and members. Fifth, the application and fee. Minnesota Rules 3800.3530 adds the supporting detail the application asks for and requires licensees to notify DLI within 30 days of any change.
Minnesota counts qualifying experience in months, and Minnesota Rules 3800.3520 breaks each licence down by type of work with a minimum and a maximum credit for each. DLI republishes the whole table. Class A master electrician needs a minimum total of 60 months, including at least 12 months of wiring for and installing electrical wiring, apparatus and equipment, with planning, laying out and supervising each carrying a two month minimum and a 12 month credit cap. Class A journeyworker electrician needs a minimum total of 48 months, including at least 24 months of wiring for and installing, and a maximum of one year of experience credit is allowed for completing a two year post high school electrical course approved by the board. Maintenance electrician needs 48 months with at least 24 months maintaining and repairing. Lineman needs 48 months with at least 24 months of line work. Class B installer needs 12 months. Power limited technician needs a minimum total of 36 months, including at least 12 months wiring for and installing technology circuit or system work, with up to 12 months or 2,000 hours of credit for an approved two year post high school electrical course or other technical training. Statute sets the same floors from the other direction. Section 326B.33, subdivision 1, lets a Class A master applicant qualify on a four year electrical degree from an accredited college or university, one year as a licensed journeyworker, or five years planning, laying out, supervising and installing. DLI states the minimum age for electrical work in Minnesota is 17.
DLI writes and administers the examinations itself rather than contracting them out, under section 326B.33, subdivision 18, which also allows an oral examination for an applicant with a documented reading disability. The department's electrical licence examination guide gives the numbers. The Class A master electrician, Class A journeyworker electrician and power limited technician examinations are 80 questions each. The maintenance electrician examination is 70 questions. The lineman examination is 50 questions. The Class B installer and satellite system installer examinations are 25 questions. The passing score for all of them is 70 percent, and the time allowed for all of them is five and a half hours. A soft cover code book is provided at the test centre without tabs or other aids, and the guide states that the edition used is the edition adopted as part of the state building code at the time the examination is administered. As of the 2026 revision of that guide, the examinations use the 2026 National Electrical Code, which became effective August 17, 2026, except the lineman examination, which is based on the 2023 National Electrical Safety Code. Results are emailed generally within two weeks and are not given by telephone. There is no examination review or appeal, though written comment on specific questions can be sent to the licensing unit. An applicant who fails may apply to retake 30 days after being notified of the failure, with a new application and examination fee. Section 326B.092, subdivision 1, sets that application and examination fee at $50, separate from the licence fee, which is due after the applicant passes.
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Section 326B.092, subdivision 7, builds each fee from a base licence fee plus a board fee plus a continuing education fee. The base fee depends on classification and duration: entry level $10 for one year or $20 for two, journeyworker $20 or $40, master $40 or $80, and business $180. The board fee for licences issued under sections 326B.31 to 326B.59 is $4 for a one year duration and $8 for two years. The continuing education fee is $5 for all classifications where the licence has a continuing education requirement. DLI publishes the totals that come out of that arithmetic. A registered unlicensed electrician pays $14 to register and $19 to renew, with a $5 late fee. A journeyworker electrician pays $53 to renew, with a $20 late fee. A master electrician pays $93 to renew, with a $40 late fee. The electrical contractor licence application and renewal fee is $188. The application and examination fee is $50, including for an applicant seeking a licence by reciprocity. Section 326B.33, subdivision 19, paragraph (c), sets a $100 fee for each filing of a certificate of responsible person by an employer. Section 326B.092, subdivision 3, sets the late fee at one half of the licence renewal fee, and subdivision 4 says a renewal application received within two years of expiration must carry all renewal fees covering the lapsed period plus the late fee plus the current period fee. Subdivision 6 makes application, examination, licence, renewal and late fees nonrefundable apart from overpayments and a couple of listed exceptions.
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Section 326B.33, subdivision 19, sets the expiry dates. Master licences expire March 1 of each odd numbered year after issuance or renewal. Electrical contractor licences expire March 1 of each even numbered year. Technology system contractor and satellite system contractor licences expire August 1 of each even numbered year. All other personal licences expire two years from original issuance and every two years after. Registrations of unlicensed individuals expire one year from original issuance and every year after. DLI's own pages describe the same cycles slightly differently: the licensing basics page says master electrician licences expire on the last day of February of each odd numbered year, and the contractor basics page says electrical contractor licences expire on the last day of February in even numbered years. Both sources are the state's own, they describe the same boundary from opposite sides, and a contractor should work to whichever is earlier rather than assume a free day. Renewal is not just a payment. DLI states that licences are not renewed unless continuing education credit is completed within the licence term immediately preceding expiration, that failure to renew means you are unlicensed, and that renewing without completing the continuing education may result in licence suspension and a fine of $1,000. Section 326B.092, subdivision 4, gives two years after expiration to renew rather than reapply. A Minnesota licence holder who lets a licence run more than two years past expiration also loses access to the reciprocity route and must retake the examination.
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Minnesota ties the classroom hours directly to the National Electrical Code. Minnesota Rules 3800.3602, subpart 2, requires 16 hours of instruction per term for the Class A and Class B master electrician, Class A and Class B journeyworker electrician, maintenance electrician, Class A and Class B installer, and power limited technician. Subpart 3 splits them. For every one of those licences except the power limited technician, at least 12 of the 16 hours must be on the NEC, with the remainder on the statutes and rules governing electrical installations, chapters 3800 and 3801, sections 326B.31 to 326B.399, or technical topics related to electrical installations and equipment. For the power limited technician the split reverses: at least four hours must be on the NEC and the remaining 12 on the other subjects. DLI's continuing education table publishes the same split as a code and non code column. Subpart 4 requires a registered unlicensed individual to earn two hours of instruction on the NEC to renew the annual registration. Subpart 5 requires a satellite system installer to earn four hours on the NEC. Section 326B.33, subdivision 7, paragraph (c), carries the power limited technician's 16 hours in statute as well. Lineman carries no continuing education requirement on the DLI table. Credits may be applied to more than one licence held by the same person, and only the highest requirement has to be met, but hours above the minimum cannot be carried into the next term. DLI publishes a directory of approved courses and a process to submit a course for approval, and tells licensees to keep their completion certificates.
Minnesota does have reciprocity, and DLI publishes the list. A Minnesota journeyworker electrician licence can be obtained without examination by an applicant who obtained a journeyworker electrician licence by examination in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota or Wyoming. An applicant holding the equivalent of a Minnesota master electrician licence in one of those states may also take the Minnesota journeyworker licence under the agreements. A Minnesota master electrician licence can be obtained without examination by an applicant who obtained a master licence by examination in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota or Nebraska. DLI lists seven conditions. The applicant must not have failed the same or greater class of examination in Minnesota. The licence in the first state must have been obtained by examination at state level, not through a reciprocal agreement with a city or other political subdivision. It must have been held for at least one year. It must be current and in good standing. The applicant must not be under any order to deny, suspend or revoke a Minnesota electrical licence. A $50 application and examination fee goes with the application, and the licence fee is due on approval. After that, the licensee meets the same continuing education and renewal requirements as anyone else. Section 326B.33, subdivision 20, is the authority: the commissioner may enter into reciprocity agreements for personal licences with another state if approved by the board, and the qualifying state must run a statewide programme with comparable examination and experience requirements.
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The Board of Electricity has adopted the 2026 National Electrical Code with an effective date of August 17, 2026. DLI states it on both its electrical contractors landing page and its electrical codes and standards page, and sets out the cutover precisely: electrical permits filed before August 17, 2026 must comply with the 2023 NEC, permits filed on or after that date must comply with the 2026 NEC, and electrical licensing examinations transitioned to the 2026 NEC beginning September 8, 2026. DLI publishes a 2026 NEC frequently asked questions document, revised August 24, 2026, walking through the changed sections, and a 2026 residential inspection checklist. Two primary sources disagree on the current edition and the difference should be flagged rather than smoothed over. The codified rule, Minnesota Rules 1315.0200, subpart 1a, on the Office of the Revisor of Statutes site still reads that all new electrical wiring must comply with the 2023 edition of the National Electrical Code, ANSI/NFPA 70-2023, and that page carries a published electronically date of July 20, 2023. DLI, the agency that enforces the code and the agency whose board adopts it, states the 2026 edition and dates it. The practical answer for anyone pulling a permit today is the DLI position, and Saint Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections independently states that the 2026 National Electrical Code is enforced on all permits obtained on or after August 17, 2026. Chapter 1315 is the chapter that adopts the NEC as the Minnesota Electrical Code, under section 326B.35.
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This is where an electrical contractor gets caught out on a jobsite. Section 326B.33, subdivision 12, provides that an unlicensed individual must first register with DLI, and then may only work under the direct supervision of an individual actually licensed to do that work, employed by the same employer. Unlicensed individuals cannot supervise electrical work or assign it to other unlicensed individuals. Outside technology circuits work, a licensed individual may supervise no more than two unlicensed individuals. For technology circuits or systems work the limit is three. DLI repeats the two person limit on both its licensing basics page and its contractor basics page, and adds that a licensed employee of one company cannot supervise the unlicensed employees of another company. Paragraph (b) of the same subdivision reserves planning and laying out of electrical wiring, apparatus or equipment for light, heat or power to a master electrician or power limited technician. Paragraph (c) requires contractors employing unlicensed individuals to keep records identifying every unlicensed individual performing electrical work and to let DLI examine and copy them. Paragraph (d) makes the supervising licensed individual responsible for ensuring the work complies with the Minnesota Electrical Act and its rules. DLI lists the contractor's other standing duties in the same place: make sure employees are actively licensed or registered, obtain electrical permits at or before the start of work, call for inspections when work is ready, respond to DLI and inspector requests, keep experience records for unlicensed employees, and notify DLI in writing within 15 days of the loss of the responsible licensed individual.
The enforcement tools sit in section 326B.082, and subdivision 1 makes clear they reach unlicensed people, not only licensees: the commissioner may use any enforcement provision in the section, including monetary penalties, against a person required to have a licence, registration, certificate or permit, based on conduct that would give grounds for action against a licensee. Subdivision 12, paragraph (b), allows an order to include an assessment of monetary penalties and a cease and desist requirement, with the penalty up to $10,000 for each violation or act. Subdivision 11 lists the grounds, including committing violations of the applicable law, submitting false or misleading information to a state agency, allowing another person to use your own licence, and failing to cooperate with an investigation. Subdivision 16 makes a violation of an applicable law a misdemeanor except as otherwise provided by law. Subdivision 16a adds a $1,000 penalty for delaying, obstructing or failing to cooperate with the commissioner's investigation, with each day a separate violation. Subdivision 17 lets the commissioner revoke, suspend or deny any licence, permit, certificate or registration held by a person who fails to pay a penalty. On the inspection side, section 326B.36, subdivision 2, paragraph (d), lets an electrical inspector who sees work that was not done to accepted standards order the contractor, employer or owner who performed it to file a permit, pay an inspection fee and make the repairs needed to comply, and require that the work be inspected. DLI publishes its electrical enforcement actions publicly, which means a penalty order is not a private matter.
Minnesota is unusually specific here, and this is the rule that quietly catches electrical contractors. Minnesota Rules 3800.3570 provides that any vehicle used by a contractor while performing electrical work for which a contractor's licence is required shall have the contractor's name and licence number, as they appear on the contractor's licence, in contrasting colour, with characters at least three inches high and one half inch in width, affixed to each side of the vehicle. Name and number, both sides, three inch characters, contrasting colour. DLI lists the same duty in plain words among a licensed electrical contractor's responsibilities: make sure your company's licence number appears on company vehicles. The advertising rule is Minnesota Rules 3800.3560: the contractor's name as it appears on the contractor's licence shall be provided in any advertisement or printed matter that offers or implies the performance of electrical work for which a licence is required. Read those two together and the practical rule for a Minnesota electrical contractor is that the licence name has to match everywhere. The name on the truck, the name in the advertisement and the name on the licence are the same string, and Minnesota Rules 3800.3530 requires the name on the licence to match the certificate of assumed name or certificate of good standing from the Secretary of State. DLI's contractor page makes the same point about insurance certificates, telling applicants that the business name must appear on the certificate exactly as it appears on the Secretary of State business filing. A trading name that has drifted from the filed name is a compliance problem and a lookup problem at the same time.
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Section 326B.36, subdivision 1, is the switch. Every new electrical installation must be inspected by the commissioner, except where a political subdivision has by ordinance provided for electrical inspection similar to that provided by the state. Minnesota's two largest cities landed on opposite sides of it. Minneapolis does not run electrical permitting. Its own permit types page, under related information, states plainly that electrical and elevator permits are obtained from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. So an electrical contractor working in Minneapolis files with DLI, not with Minneapolis Development Review, even though the building, mechanical and plumbing permits for the same project are city permits. Saint Paul does run its own. The Department of Safety and Inspections issues electrical permits and schedules electrical inspections, with separate application types for circuits and service, fire alarm systems, low voltage power circuits, smoke detector installations, solar photovoltaic systems, swimming pools, and air conditioner, furnace and boiler installations, plus commercial permits split between new work and repair or alteration work. Saint Paul publishes its own electrical bulletins, residential inspection checklists and an interactive electrical inspector area map, and takes applications through its PAULIE permitting platform. Its electrical page states that the 2026 National Electrical Code is enforced on all permits obtained on or after August 17, 2026. DLI resolves the question for every other jurisdiction through its electrical inspector directory: if the authority having jurisdiction column says State, file the permit with DLI, and if it says Local, contact the city or township. Check the directory before filing, not after.
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Where DLI is the authority having jurisdiction, the fees are set in statute rather than by a schedule the department can move. Section 326B.37, subdivision 1, sets the permit fee at $25. Subdivision 2 sets a minimum fee of $55 for each separate on-site inspection, and caps the number of separate inspections included without an additional fee at the whole number produced by dividing the total calculated fee by 55. Remote virtual inspections are cheaper: $10 for the first under a permit and $35 for each one after that. Subdivision 3 charges for each service, change of service, temporary service, generator, other power supply source or feeder to a separate structure at $35 up to and including 400 amperes, $60 from 401 to 800 amperes, and $100 above 800 amperes, using the cumulative rating of the overcurrent devices where multiple disconnects are grouped at one location on a single set of supply conductors. Subdivision 4 charges $12 for each circuit, feeder, feeder tap or set of transformer secondary conductors up to and including 200 amperes and $15 above 200 amperes, dropping to $2 for each existing circuit or feeder reconnected to overcurrent devices installed as part of replacing a disconnect, switchboard, motor control centre or panelboard. Subdivision 5 prices dwellings as a package: a one family dwelling or each unit of a two family dwelling is the service fee plus $165 for up to 30 feeders and circuits, with additional circuits at the subdivision 4 rate. Each unit of a multifamily dwelling of three or more units is $110 for up to 20 feeders and circuits plus $12 for each additional one.
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DLI runs a public licence and registration lookup, linked from the top of every page on its site as Check a License, and anyone can use it. Search the business name and you can see whether the electrical contractor licence is active and when it expires. Search an individual and you can see the personal licence class. Three checks matter before a contract is signed. First, the contractor licence itself, because section 326B.33, subdivision 14, makes that the credential required to perform or offer to perform electrical work, and subdivision 14 also says holding it does not by itself qualify the holder to do or supervise the work. Second, the responsible licensed individual, because subdivision 17 limits the classes of work a contractor may perform to the classes that person is licensed for, so a contractor standing on a power limited technician cannot lawfully take general electrical work. Third, currency, because DLI states that failure to renew means you are unlicensed. DLI also publishes electrical enforcement actions and takes electrical complaints through its own pages, so a customer can see whether orders have been issued. For a contractor, the lesson is to use all of this before the customer does. Put the licence number on the estimate next to the lookup address, make sure the name on the truck, the advertisement, the licence and the Secretary of State filing are the same string, and the verification a careful customer runs becomes a reason to hire you rather than a reason to hesitate.
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These are common details other guides publish about Minnesota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Department of Labor and Industry issues the licenses and the Board of Electricity adopts the electrical code and the licensing rules. Minnesota licenses the individual by grade under Minnesota Statutes section 326B.33 and licenses the contracting business separately as an electrical contractor under subdivision 14 of the same section.
Yes, to contract. Section 326B.33, subdivision 14, requires a contractor's license of anyone other than an employee, partner or officer of a licensed contractor who performs or offers to perform electrical work. The same subdivision states that a contractor's license does not by itself qualify its holder to perform or supervise electrical work.
A $25,000 surety bond to the state, under section 326B.33, subdivision 15, on a DLI approved form and written by a corporate surety licensed to do business in Minnesota. A Class A or Class B installer gives a separate bond of $1,000 under subdivision 6 of the same section.
Section 326B.33, subdivision 16, requires general liability insurance including premises and operations and products and completed operations, with at least $100,000 per occurrence, a $300,000 aggregate for bodily injury and $50,000 property damage, or a single limit policy of $300,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate. Workers compensation compliance must also be filed.
Minnesota Rules 3800.3520 sets a minimum total of 48 months for a Class A journeyworker electrician, including at least 24 months wiring for and installing electrical wiring, apparatus and equipment. One year of credit is allowed for completing a two year post high school electrical course approved by the board.
DLI's electrical license examination guide states the Class A master, Class A journeyworker and power limited technician examinations are 80 questions, maintenance electrician is 70, lineman is 50, and Class B installer and satellite system installer are 25. The passing score for all of them is 70 percent and the time allowed is five and a half hours.
Section 326B.092 builds the fee from a base fee plus a $4 or $8 board fee plus a $5 continuing education fee. DLI publishes the totals: $188 for the electrical contractor license, $93 to renew a master electrician license, $53 to renew a journeyworker license, and $14 to register plus $19 to renew as a registered unlicensed electrician. The application and examination fee is $50.
Sixteen hours per renewal term for master, journeyworker, maintenance electrician and installer licenses, of which at least 12 hours must be on the National Electrical Code, under Minnesota Rules 3800.3602. A power limited technician also does 16 hours but needs only four on the NEC. Registered unlicensed individuals need two NEC hours a year.
DLI states the Board of Electricity adopted the 2026 NEC effective August 17, 2026, that permits filed on or after that date must comply with it, and that examinations moved to it on September 8, 2026. The codified rule Minnesota Rules 1315.0200, subpart 1a, still reads 2023 NEC on the Revisor site, so the two state sources differ and the DLI position is the one being enforced.
DLI lists Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming for the journeyworker electrician license, and Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska for the master electrician license. The license must have been obtained by examination at state level, held for at least one year, and be current and in good standing.
Yes. Minnesota Rules 3800.3570 requires any vehicle used while performing electrical work needing a contractor license to carry the contractor's name and license number as they appear on the license, in contrasting color, with characters at least three inches high and one half inch wide, on each side of the vehicle. Minnesota Rules 3800.3560 requires the license name in any advertisement offering electrical work.
Minneapolis states on its permit types page that electrical and elevator permits come from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, not the city. Saint Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections issues its own electrical permits and inspections through the PAULIE platform. Section 326B.36 allows a political subdivision to run its own inspection program by ordinance.
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