About the Michigan Master Electrician license
Michigan electrician licenses are issued by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Construction Codes, under rules set by the Electrical Administrative Board. The Master Electrician is the senior credential. MCL 339.5713 requires an applicant to be at least 22 years old, to have at least 12,000 hours of experience over 6 years or more under the supervision of a master electrician in electrical construction, building maintenance, or electrical wiring or equipment, and to have held an electrical journeyman's license for at least 2 years. LARA's examination page states those conditions and also states 4,000 hours as an electrical journey. A Michigan journey license means you do not re-prove hours from before that license. The 4,000 hours and the 12,000 hours are not alternate paths. You still pass the master exam. A holder at this level can typically pull permits, supervise journeymen and apprentices, design installations, and serve as the qualifying individual for a licensed contracting business.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based. Michigan adopts the NEC as its electrical code and currently enforces the 2023 NEC, effective March 12, 2024 (Verified against the Michigan LARA Bureau of Construction Codes on 2026-07-15); confirm the adopted edition on the current bulletin before you test. It is open book, but Michigan's rule is stricter than most states: PSI permits only a bound NEC code book with factory markings, highlights, and tabs — handwritten notes, your own highlighting or underlining, and homemade tabs or indexing are prohibited and will be reported to the BCC if found during the exam (Verified against the PSI Michigan Candidate Information Bulletin for LARA/BCC on 2026-07-25). Buy or borrow a pre-tabbed factory edition of the adopted NEC rather than tabbing your own copy, and confirm the current rule with the vendor before test day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.
How Michigan licensing works
- Experience: MCL 339.5713 requires at least 12,000 hours over at least six years under a master electrician, and an electrical journeyman's license held for at least two years. LARA's examination page also states 4,000 hours as an electrical journey, and it states that a State of Michigan journey license means you do not re-prove hours from before that license. Those are joint conditions, not alternate paths.
- Education: approved instruction hours or completion of an approved apprenticeship program count toward the journeyman experience that underlies the master credential.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
- Exam vendor: PSI. The Michigan Master Electrician exam is 76 questions in 180 minutes, open book, with a 75% passing score (Verified against the official PSI Michigan Candidate Information Bulletin for LARA/BCC on 2026-07-25) — always confirm the current cut score, question count, and time limit on the candidate information bulletin.
- Renewal: LARA's renewal page says a master electrician license is renewed every year by December 31. The printed renewal is $50, and a $50 late fee applies if that date is missed. MCL 339.5713(4) requires a board-approved course on an update or change in the state construction code within 12 months after that update, and only in a year when the code changes. That section does not print an annual hour quota.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition on the board and PSI bulletin. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
