TradeSalary

Lineman salary in Columbia, MO

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Linemen in the Columbia, MO area earn a median of $97,390 a year, or $46.82 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $102,660 a year. Across all of Missouri, the median is $96,360, so Columbia pays 1% more than the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$97,390
Bottom 10% under$58,730Top 10% over$102,660
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$28.24/hr
Jobs in this area
80
After cost of living
$108,890
Median hourly pay
$46.82/hr
vs U.S. median
+2%
vs Missouri median
+1%
Mean (average) pay
$88,280 a year · $42.44 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 17860, Columbia, MO). Excludes self-employed linemen. Cost of living: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. *Starting pay is estimated from the 10th percentile; BLS does not report pay by license level.

Pay by percentile

What linemen in Columbia, MO earn at each point of the pay range, May 2025: 10% earn less than the 10th percentile, half earn less than the median, and 10% earn more than the 90th.

PercentileHourlyYearly
10th percentile$28.24$58,730
25th percentile$33.99$70,690
Median (50th)$46.82$97,390
75th percentile$48.62$101,140
90th percentile$49.35$102,660

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.

How Columbia, MO compares

  • Columbia ranks 7th of 8 Missouri metro areas for lineman pay.
  • Linemen are less concentrated in the Columbia area than nationally: 0.7 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.89 times the U.S. share.

Other Missouri metro areas

Other trades in Columbia, MO

Questions

Do linemen make more in Columbia or St. Louis?
St. Louis pays more: the median is $97,390 in Columbia and $103,960 in St. Louis, a 6% difference.

About this data

Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 49-9051 (Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers), area code 17860 (Columbia, MO). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed linemen and business owners aren't included. The cost-of-living figure divides the median by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity for 2024 (89.4, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures