Hiring Your First Plumber

Decide what the first plumber will do

Pick the role before you write the ad. In plumbing, the role decides more than pay: it decides whose license the work goes under and whether the new person can ever work without you.

If calls go unanswered while you're under someone else's sink, hire a licensed plumber: that's the hire who can take a second truck out alone. If you keep turning down two-person work, such as a water heater that has to come up the basement stairs or a sewer line you can't dig alone, an apprentice fixes that sooner and grows into the licensed plumber you'll need later. But an apprentice adds hands, not trucks. Until your board tells you otherwise, assume an apprentice can't work without a licensed plumber supervising.

If your winters bring freeze calls, hire in summer or early fall, not in the middle of a cold snap when there's no time to ride along. The plumbing seasonal playbook lays out the year.

Ask your board the hiring questions

The license ladder, usually apprentice to journeyman to master, is covered in how to start a plumbing business. Hiring raises different questions, and the answers differ by state, so ask your licensing board (or your city or county, where licensing is local) before you post the job:

• Does an apprentice have to register or carry a card before working on a job, and who files it? Does a helper who only digs, hauls and cleans up count as an apprentice?
• What counts as supervision: a licensed plumber on the same job, within sight, or reachable by phone?
• Is there a limit on how many apprentices one licensed plumber may supervise? Does it count per plumber, per job or per company?
• Can a journeyman run service calls alone for my business, or must a master be responsible for the work?
• Do hours an apprentice works for me count toward the journeyman exam, and what records prove them?

Get the answers in writing if you can, from the board rather than another contractor; rules change.

To see how specific the answers can be, take Massachusetts. Its board defines an apprentice plumber as someone at least 16 years old, licensed by the board, who works under the direct supervision of a master or journeyman plumber while employed by a master plumber, and it defines direct supervision as supervision that is on site and present during the work ¹. That's one state's rule; yours may differ.

Supervision limits set the order of your hires

If your state limits how many apprentices each licensed plumber may supervise, that limit, not your budget, can decide the order of your hires.

Example: Suppose your board allows one apprentice per licensed plumber (a made-up rule; get the real one from your board). As the only licensed plumber, you can take one apprentice, who works where you work. A second apprentice fits only after you hire a second licensed plumber, the same hire that puts a second truck on the road. Hire two apprentices first and one has no one to work under.

Build the rule into dispatch: never send an apprentice out alone because the schedule got tight, unless your board allows it. Keep a weekly log of the apprentice's hours and work, signed by the supervising plumber, so the record is ready when they apply for the exam.

Verify the license yourself

A card in a wallet tells you less than the board's record. Before you make an offer, look the license up on the board's website, or call the board, using the number and the name exactly as printed. Confirm:

• Type: plumbing, gas or both, plus any endorsement the work you'll assign requires.
• Level: apprentice, journeyman or master, and whether that level may do the work you have in mind.
• Status: active, not suspended, and any disciplinary history the board shows.
• Where it's valid: issued where you work, not only in the state they left.
• Renewal: the expiration date and any continuing education due before it.

Save the lookup with a copy of the license in the employee file, and check again after each renewal.

If the candidate tests backflow preventers, check that credential separately with whoever accepts test reports where you work, since it may not come with the plumbing license. The backflow preventer entry explains what's being tested.

Registered apprenticeship: grow your own plumbers

If you'd rather train plumbers than compete for licensed ones, a registered apprenticeship gives the training a formal structure. It's a program validated by the U.S. Department of Labor or a State Apprenticeship Agency, in which apprentices do paid work with a mentor, get progressive wage increases and classroom instruction, and earn a portable, nationally recognized credential ². BLS says most plumbers learn the trade through a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship, typically with 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training plus some technical instruction each year ³.

Don't confuse it with the apprentice registration your licensing board may require. They're separate systems, and your state may require one, both or neither. Ask the board whether a registered program takes care of its own registration, and whether program hours count toward the journeyman exam.

You don't have to write a program from scratch. Ask your state apprenticeship office, or search apprenticeship.gov, for a registered plumbing program that takes new employers; technical colleges, trade association chapters and the union local may run one.

Then put the terms in the offer letter: who pays tuition and books, whether class time is paid, how the wage steps up as hours and classes add up, and which kinds of work the apprentice will rotate through (service, drains, water heaters, rough-in, and gas if your license covers it), so they log the hours their license will require. Ask an employment lawyer before adding any training-repayment clause.

What to pay a first plumber

BLS reports May 2025 median pay of $63,800 a year ($30.67 an hour) for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $44,150 and the highest 10 percent more than $108,420 ³. It counted 510,600 jobs in the occupation in 2025 and projects employment to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035 ³, so you'll be hiring against other shops, builders and commercial contractors.

Those are national figures for a group that includes pipefitters and steamfitters, so start from local numbers: the BLS state estimates for where you hire ⁴, what nearby shops are posting, and what your supply house counter hears plumbers are being offered. A licensed plumber who can run calls alone will expect the middle of your local range or more; an apprentice starts near the bottom and steps up with hours and classes.

Settle the plumbing-specific extras in writing before the offer:

• On-call pay: who covers nights, weekends and holidays when pipes freeze, how the rotation works and what a call-out pays.
• Commissions or spiffs: if plumbers earn a bonus on water heaters, repipes or sewer jobs they sell, define what counts, and ask your payroll provider how it affects overtime pay.
• License costs: who pays for renewals, continuing education and exam fees.

Example: Say you hire a licensed plumber at $32 an hour for 2,000 paid hours a year: $64,000 in wages. Add round placeholder figures for the rest: $11,000 for payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits, $13,000 for the van, fuel and insurance, and $2,000 for tools, a phone and license renewals. That's $90,000 a year. If 1,500 of those hours are billable (the rest goes to drive time, supply house runs and restocking), each billable hour must recover $60 of plumber cost before parts, overhead or profit, and a task your flat-rate book allows two hours for carries $120 of it.

An apprentice's cost rides on your hours instead.

Example: Say an apprentice costs you $45,000 a year all in (another placeholder) and works beside you for 1,500 of your billable hours. That adds $30 to each of those hours, so the hire pays off only if the extra hands let you finish more work in a day.

Run your real numbers through how to set your labor rate. How to price plumbing jobs carries that cost per billable hour into service calls and water heater replacements.

Driving, background and drug checks

A plumber works alone inside customers' homes and drives a van with your name on it, so screening matters. Write the policy before the first interview, apply it the same way to everyone you consider for the same job, and have an employment lawyer review it, because the rules differ by state and sometimes by city.

• Driving record: get your commercial auto insurer's driver standards before you interview, then pull the record, with the candidate's permission, the way your insurer or screening company directs. If you tow a trailer jetter or mini excavator, ask your insurer and your state's motor vehicle agency whether the rig needs a different license class or brings commercial vehicle rules into play.
• Background check: if you use a screening company, ask which consent forms and notices federal and state law require before you order a report and before you turn someone down because of it, then follow those steps exactly. Check whether your state or city limits when you may ask about criminal history.
• Drug testing: state laws on workplace testing differ, including how they treat cannabis, so check yours before you write the policy. Write down who is tested and when (after an offer, after an accident, on reasonable suspicion), through which lab, and what follows a positive result. Keep results confidential, and ask your workers' comp carrier whether a drug-free workplace program changes your premium.

Workers' comp and employee status

Workers' comp is set by state law, and when you must carry it, and how it treats you as an owner, differ by state. Get a quote before you post the job and describe the work accurately, including any sewer excavation, gas piping and commercial work, because the carrier prices the policy from what your people actually do. The workers' compensation insurance entry covers the basics.

Plan on hiring an employee. A plumber who drives your van, runs calls you dispatch and prices from your book is working under your direction, and a 1099 doesn't settle the question. The independent contractor entry explains how the IRS looks at classification; your state may apply its own test, so have a CPA or employment lawyer review any contractor arrangement. If you sub out a job to another plumbing company instead, ask your board whether that company needs its own contractor license and whose license the permit goes under.

Run a paid ride-along before you make an offer

A license shows someone passed an exam; a day on real calls shows how they work in a stranger's house. Bring your top candidate on a paid day of calls, confirm with your agent that your coverage extends to a working interview, and tell the candidate what you'll be watching:

A few questions that separate field experience from a good interview:

• Walk me through a no-hot-water call on a gas tank water heater.
• Every drain on the first floor is slow. Where do you start?
• When do you tell a customer to replace a water heater instead of repairing it?
• Tell me about a callback you caused and what you changed afterward.

For an apprentice, skip the skills rows and watch for what you can't teach: showing up on time, following directions and working in a crawl space without complaint.

Tools, the van and day-one safety

Settle tool rules before day one. A workable split: the plumber brings hand tools; the shop owns the drain machines, sewer camera and locator, press and PEX tools, torch kit, gas leak detector and protective gear. Write down who replaces lost or broken tools, and check federal and state wage rules before deducting anything from a paycheck.

For the van, decide whether it goes home at night (useful on call weeks) and put personal-use rules in writing. Make restocking part of the new plumber's job, and set how they buy at the supply house: on your account with a job name on every ticket, or not at all, so every part lands on the right invoice.

Before the first solo call, cover the hazards that come with plumbing work:

• Sewage: gloves and eye protection on drain work, and a way to wash up before eating.
• Torches: a heat shield and a fire extinguisher at every soldering job, and a check of the area before leaving.
• Trenches: if you dig sewer laterals, learn OSHA's excavation rules before anyone works in a trench. OSHA requires a protective system in trenches 5 feet deep or more unless the excavation is entirely in stable rock, and a competent person must inspect the trench and its protective systems daily before work starts ⁵.
• Older homes: EPA requires anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in homes built before 1978 to be certified, with employees trained in lead-safe work practices, and the firm itself must be certified ⁶. Check whether the rule applies before cutting into painted walls, and leave old pipe insulation that may contain asbestos alone until it's been checked.

The first 90 days

Give a licensed hire a plan with checkpoints you both know about:

1. Weeks 1 and 2: ride with you. Your call flow, your price book, how you present options and how you close out photos and paperwork.
2. Weeks 3 to 6: simpler calls alone. Faucets, toilets, clogs and supply lines, checked through photos.
3. Weeks 7 to 12: water heaters, gas work and bigger repairs, with you a phone call away. Review every callback together.

An apprentice's plan runs longer and follows the rotation in their offer letter. Keep the hours log current.

Write down what you know about each house the first time you're there: where the main shutoff and the water heater are, what the supply lines are made of, which cleanout to use, and the model and serial number on anything you installed. Put it with photos somewhere your new plumber can open from the truck, whether that's a shared folder or chat-first field service software such as Redline. The hire who reads that history before knocking walks in already knowing where the shutoff is.