Pay Guide
Traveling lineman pay comes down to hourly rate, overtime, per diem, and how many days you stay on the job. Here is what the money looks like before you leave home, sign the book, or take a contractor call.
The Package
Base hourly wage is the starting point, not the answer. A $48 an hour call with steady overtime and $125 per day per diem beats a $60 an hour call that works four tens and pays nothing for lodging.
A traveling journeyman looks at five numbers before taking a call:
Run The Numbers
The fastest way to compare calls is by the week. Annual numbers lie when a call lasts six weeks, then you sit at home waiting on the next one.
Call type |
Hourly |
Schedule |
Per diem |
Est. gross week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Distribution rebuild |
$48 |
5-10s |
$100/day, 5 days |
$3,140 |
Transmission project |
$55 |
6-10s |
$125/day, 7 days |
$4,675 |
Substation / outage support |
$52 |
6-12s |
$150/day, 7 days |
$5,862 |
Storm work |
$60 |
7-16s |
$175/day, 7 days |
$11,545 |
The storm number assumes 40 straight-time hours and 72 overtime hours at time and a half. Some storm agreements pay double time after certain thresholds. Some do not. Read the call language before you roll. BLS notes lineworkers work more than 40 hours in emergencies and may travel to storm-damaged areas for long stretches. See how lineman schedules run.
Road Money
Per diem is daily money meant to cover meals, lodging, and incidentals while you work away from home. In line work it shows up four ways: flat daily pay, lodging paid by the contractor, hotel plus meal money, or nothing at all.
A real road call often pays $75 to $200 per day depending on location, manpower demand, and hotel availability. A rural transmission job with cheap rooms might pay $100. A coastal storm call after a hurricane might pay $150 to $200 because every room from the yard to the beach is packed with crews, adjusters, tree trimmers, and DOT contractors.
GSA federal per diem rates are not written for lineman calls, but many contractors use them as a benchmark. FY 2026 rates apply from October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, with standard rates for most continental U.S. locations and separate rates for roughly 300 higher-cost areas.
Do not treat every per diem dollar as tax-free money. The IRS looks at your tax home, assignment length, and whether the payment fits travel rules. IRS Publication 463 says a temporary assignment is one expected to last a year or less. If it is expected to run longer, it is indefinite, and the assignment location becomes your tax home. An itinerant worker with no regular place of business and no regular home is not considered away from home for travel deduction purposes.
Paperwork matters. Keep your tax home clean. Keep proof of duplicate living costs. Save hotel records, dispatch paperwork, call sheets, and per diem statements. If a contractor pays "per diem" but treats it like extra wages, expect it on the W-2.
Call Types
Pay follows the outside construction agreement tied to that local or district. The package includes wage, health, pension, annuity, and conditions. Per diem depends on the call: some pay subsistence, some pay zone pay, some pay nothing because the rate already accounts for the area. Find the right book through the IBEW local finder.
These vary harder. Some contractors advertise a strong hourly wage but weak benefits. Others pay solid per diem, hotel, and a truck allowance. Ask whether overtime starts after 8, after 10, after 40, or only after a project-specific threshold. Compare line construction contractors before you commit.
You are paid for speed, availability, and long days in bad conditions. Expect 16-hour days, staging delays, wire down calls, backyard easements, broken poles, and feeder patrol. Good storm pay requires clear rules on meal breaks, rest time, lodging, travel days, and when the overtime clock starts.
Road work still adds up below journeyman scale when overtime is steady. A groundman on a road crew might see $24 to $35 an hour with $75 to $125 per day per diem. A hot apprentice might see 60 to 90 percent of journeyman scale depending on step, program, and agreement. If the journeyman rate is $55, an apprentice at 70 percent earns $38.50 before overtime.
Do not chase per diem before you build skills. A groundman who shows up with a Class A CDL, tanker endorsement where needed, OSHA 10 ET&D or OSHA 30, basic rigging sense, and the ability to work around digger derricks without being babysat gets called back. A green hand who burns daylight, misses tailboards, and leaves the truck a mess gets spun fast.
Worked Example
Use weekly gross, not hourly wage. Then subtract road costs.
Call B wins by $1,215 before you count benefits, and it advertises a lower rate. Figure the whole call, not the top-line number.
Bad calls show themselves early. Watch for vague per diem language, "up to" travel pay, no written schedule, unpaid mobilization, and hotel promises that never make it into dispatch notes.
If the recruiter cannot answer, get it in writing from the contractor or hall before you load the hooks.
Answers
Keep Reading
Compare traveling lineman, journeyman, apprentice, and groundman openings, and read the whole call before you hit the road.
Search Open CallsOvertime rules, double time thresholds, and what a two-week event actually grosses.
Storm Pay BreakdownWritten by Matthew Sorensen. Skilled trades recruiting executive and founder of PowerLinemanJobs.com. 15+ years placing electrical and commercial trades professionals, author of four books on hiring, and host of the Hired podcast, ranked in the top 0.5% of career podcasts worldwide.