TradeSalary

Lineman salary in Raleigh, NC

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Linemen in the Raleigh–Cary, NC area earn a median of $78,930 a year, or $37.95 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $105,610 a year. That's 2% more than the North Carolina median of $77,270.

Median yearly pay$78,930
Bottom 10% under$43,930Top 10% over$105,610
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$21.12/hr
Jobs in this area
550
After cost of living
$80,410
Median hourly pay
$37.95/hr
vs U.S. median
−17%
vs North Carolina median
+2%
Mean (average) pay
$78,700 a year · $37.84 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 39580, Raleigh-Cary, NC). 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 Raleigh, NC 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$21.12$43,930
25th percentile$29.47$61,290
Median (50th)$37.95$78,930
75th percentile$49.45$102,860
90th percentile$50.78$105,610

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

How Raleigh, NC compares

  • Raleigh ranks 6th of 13 North Carolina metro areas for lineman pay.
  • Linemen are less concentrated in the Raleigh area than nationally: 0.7 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.88 times the U.S. share.

Other North Carolina metro areas

Other trades in Raleigh, NC

Questions

Do linemen make more in Raleigh or Charlotte?
Charlotte pays more: the median is $78,930 in Raleigh and $81,740 in Charlotte, a 3% 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 39580 (Raleigh-Cary, NC). 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 (98.2, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures