Act 108 Gives Pennsylvania an Electrician License. The Mandate Starts in 2028.

Governor Josh Shapiro signed Senate Bill 1260 on Oct. 22, enacting it as Act 108 of 2026 and giving Pennsylvania its first statewide licensing system for electricians. The law creates a State Board of Electrical Licensure and ends a regime in which an electrician's credentials in Pennsylvania were whatever the municipality issuing the permit said they were.

The bill cleared the House 116-87 on Oct. 19, the Senate concurred in the House amendments 41-9 on Oct. 21, and the Governor approved it the next day. The board seats 11 voting members alongside the Commissioner of Professional and Occupational Affairs: two public members and eight professional members, divided evenly between electrical contractors and electricians working under collective bargaining agreements and those who are not. A quorum requires at least two members from each of those categories. The act appropriates $1 million from the Professional Licensure Augmentation Account, repayable within three years after licensing begins, and the Governor must nominate the first ten appointees within 180 days.

The timeline is long. Most provisions, including the board itself, take effect 60 days after enactment. The licensure requirement in Section 501, the out-of-state licensure path and the violation penalties take effect two years after enactment, in October 2028, and the board has 18 months to write its regulations. Act 108 creates licenses for electrical contractors, electricians, residential electricians, apprentice electricians and probationary electrical workers, plus a temporary license running 90 to 180 days for out-of-state workers awaiting a permanent one.

The act carves out in-house work. An employee directly employed by the owner or operator of an industrial, commercial, manufacturing, institutional or utility facility may perform electrical work on the employer's own premises without a license, provided the work is part of regular employment and the worker is not employed by an electrical contractor or subcontractor. Plant and campus maintenance electricians sit outside the mandate. Electrical contractors, subcontractors and their employees sit inside it.

Experienced workers get one window. The board must waive the examination for applications filed within one year after the licensure requirement takes effect, and an electrician qualifies with a current municipal electrician license, 10,000 documented hours of prior electrical experience, or a registered electrical apprenticeship. Municipal licenses count only where the issuing ordinance was no less restrictive than the act. Renewals then carry continuing education, 16 hours across the two preceding calendar years for contractors and 8 hours for electricians. Municipalities must accept the state license as proof of competence and may no longer require one of their own, though they keep permits, inspections and local business taxes.

Act 108 leaves two years before the mandate takes hold and one year after that to claim the waiver. Ten thousand hours is roughly five years of full-time commercial work, and the waiver will reward whoever can document those hours rather than merely recall them.