Union HVAC apprentices earn a percentage of their local's journeyman wage, usually starting at 40 to 50 percent and stepping up on a published schedule as they bank hours. In dollars, that puts most first-year union apprentices between $18 and $23 an hour, with the exact number set by what journeymen in that local earn. The scale is public, the raises are contractual, and nobody has to negotiate them.
Every UA or SMART local publishes a journeyman rate, and apprentice pay is pegged to it. A typical schedule starts at 40 percent and adds a step roughly every six months or 1,000 logged hours until you reach 90 percent or more in your final stretch. UA Local 290 in Oregon runs exactly this way: apprentices start at 40 percent of journeyman rate, around $18.38 an hour, take their first raise about six months in, and finish the program above $41 an hour. UA Local 364 in Southern California starts new apprentices around $21 to $22.50. The starting percentage looks low until you see what it is a percentage of.
Union apprentices typically get health coverage and pension contributions within the first year, at no cost out of pocket. That value never shows up on the pay stub, which is why comparing bare hourly rates understates the union package. Non-union shops range from full benefits to nothing. The structure, intake windows, and tradeoffs of each path are in our union vs non-union apprenticeship comparison.
Journeyman rates differ by market, so the same 45 percent step pays differently in Boston than in Birmingham. State entry markers run from $17.33 an hour in Oklahoma to $24.43 in Massachusetts, and our HVAC apprentice pay by state breakdown lists the entry and mid-apprenticeship figures for all 50 states. For the scale itself, ask the local directly. Wage schedules are published documents, and many locals only open applications once or twice a year, so the intake calendar matters as much as the rate. Pipefitters Local 537 in Dorchester, MA takes applications only in January.
The ramp ends at journeyman scale, which in union markets can mean $50 an hour plus the benefits package, against a national median of $61,010 for all HVAC techs as of May 2025 BLS data. Start with how HVAC apprenticeships work, then browse open HVAC apprentice jobs hiring now.
