Lineman salary in Columbia, SC
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Linemen in the Columbia, SC area earn a median of $74,190 a year, or $35.67 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $95,430 a year. That's 3% less than the South Carolina median of $76,870.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $21.50/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 360
- After cost of living
- $79,210
- Median hourly pay
- $35.67/hr
- vs U.S. median
- −22%
- vs South Carolina median
- −3%
- Mean (average) pay
- $71,400 a year · $34.33 an hour
Pay by percentile
What linemen in Columbia, SC 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.
| Percentile | Hourly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $21.50 | $44,710 |
| 25th percentile | $28.07 | $58,380 |
| Median (50th) | $35.67 | $74,190 |
| 75th percentile | $45.01 | $93,620 |
| 90th percentile | $45.88 | $95,430 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Columbia, SC compares
- Columbia has the lowest lineman median of the 8 South Carolina metro areas with published pay.
- Linemen hold about the same share of jobs in the Columbia area as nationally: 0.9 of every 1,000 jobs.
Other South Carolina metro areas
Other trades in Columbia, SC
Questions
- Do linemen make more in Columbia or Charlotte?
- Charlotte pays more: the median is $74,190 in Columbia and $81,740 in Charlotte, a 9% 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 17900 (Columbia, SC). 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 (93.7, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures