Salary

• Outside linemen fall under the class of electrician called "electric power generation, transmission and distribution" by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the highest paid class of electricians, making $28.15 per hour as of May 2008, according to the BLS. The website GovernmentJobs.com advertises a job with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, a government entity, at between $38.31 and $43.53 hourly, while the Dakota County Technical college website states that the average wage is $34 per hour with top earners making $403.06.
  
  

The Union Factor

• According to the BLS, more than one-third of all electricians belong to a union. The Service Employees International Union states that the wages of union workers are 28 percent higher than its unorganized counterparts. This makes joining a union an attractive prospect from a financial point of view. At the average pay stated by the BLS, this is nearly eight dollar an hour more for unionized labor.
  
  

Apprenticeships

• Many overhead linemen learn their trade as apprentices. Apprentices start earning a fraction of what journeyman line workers earn, making between 30 and 50 percent of what a journeyman earns per hour. Apprentices can expect regular increases toward the full journeyman rate as they progress in terms of training, education and experience in work hours.
  
  

Variation

• The BLS reports no small degree of variation in the electrical field. The bottom 10 percent of electrician wage earners made a mere $13.54 per hour in May 2008. The top 10 percent made over $38.18 per hour. The 50 percent in the middle made between $17.00 and $29.88 per hour. While electrical linemen are among the highest paid electricians, expect there to be wide fluctuations between linemen at different jobs.