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Apprentice plumber

๐Ÿ“ Houston ๐Ÿ’ต $60K-85K/yr ๐Ÿ•“ Full-time
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Apprentice plumber in Houston

What this job actually is

You work under a licensed plumber and every hour is logged toward your own license. The state sets the ratio, so you are never sent out alone before you have the hours behind you. The early months are carrying, digging, cutting, threading, and holding the other end while you learn what everything is called and why it goes in that order. Gradually the work is handed over, starting with what cannot be expensive to get wrong. Most shops pair the hours with classroom time, at a local program or through the shop, and many pay for it. The wage ladder moves with hours logged, not with how long you have been around. It is a multi-year path, and what you hold at the end travels with you.

What it pays in Houston

Starting out in Houston that is $38K-52K, and journeyman runs $60K-85K. These are Houston market ranges, not a guarantee: where you land depends on your experience and the shop.

How you move up in Plumbing

Plumbing is licence-gated and the licence is the point. Log hours as an apprentice, sit the journeyman exam, then qualify later for a master licence that lets you pull permits. Each step changes what you may legally do unsupervised, which is why the pay steps are so sharp.

Licensing in TX

TSBPE. Register as an apprentice day one. Shops sponsor your hours.

The plumbing market in Houston

Houston plumbing has an industrial edge most metros do not. The petrochemical corridor east of the city runs its own demand for pipework and keeps a share of the skilled labour pool permanently occupied, which pulls people out of residential and leaves service shops hiring. Water is the other defining fact: this is a flat, humid, flood-prone city, and major storms leave behind years of remediation, re-piping and slab work. Texas is one of the few states that licenses individual plumbers rather than only contractors, through the TSBPE, and you register as an apprentice on day one with your hours sponsored by the shop. That is a genuine advantage over a contractor-only state, because your hours are documented from your first week and they belong to you. UA Local 68 covers the area for the union route. Houston, Pasadena, Sugar Land, Katy and Baytown each support their own shops, and the metro is large enough that commute range is a real hiring filter.

Where the work is around Houston

Most of what we see is in Houston and Pasadena, with plumbing shops in Sugar Land and Katy and Baytown hiring too. Tell us where you are starting from and how far you will drive, and we only put you in front of shops inside that range.

Shops here staff Service / Repair, New Construction, Repipe / Remodel. Relocating to Houston? Many of our shops hire people moving in and help with the move.

How this works

Tell us what you are looking for. We put your profile in front of Houston shops that are hiring and set up the introduction, so you skip the resume black hole. You never pay a fee, and most people hear back within a day or two.

Houston plumbing shops are hiring for this role now. Apply once and we introduce you directly to the ones that fit.

We connect you directly with local shops that are hiring. Free to apply, no fee ever.

Apply now → See the full Plumbing pay & licensing guide for Houston →