Colorado Master Electrician of Licence

[Ctrlfreak_CO]

As this is my first post on this forum I feel it is appropriate to introduce myself a little first.

I am 45 years old. I began working in the electrical industry at age 10 for my father. At the time he was mainly a lineman sub contractor but by the time I left home for the Army he was sub contracting all kinds of industrial power and telecom work for the paper companies in Michigan. After 4 years in the Army I went to college for electrical engineering and worked in the field until 2011 when I completed my education with a Masters in Networking. I now run a small IT company in Mesa county Colorado. We have expanded into structured cabling, low voltage, and a lot of automation over the last 2 years. As things have started to really get rolling we have had opportunities to bid all of the electrical work for a number of projects.

So I am trying to get an electrical contractors licence. I have a master electrician that is willing to join my team and sign on as the master. My problem is structuring, I do not have enough experience to be confident in putting together a legal, fair, and equitable arrangement.

Does the Master have to be an officer of my LLC?
Do I need a contract with the Master beyond the state required documentation?
What kind of compensation would be considered the "standard" for this kind of arrangement?
Is there a limit to how much work one Master can be held responsible for? (IE: Is there a Master to JW ratio.)
What should my expectations be for the Masters role within the company?
What are the questions I am not asking?

 

[active1]

Some of those questions would be better to refer to the Electrical Board:
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/Electrical

When you make your agreements keep in mind CO Electrical rule 6.6 Loss of a responsible master.
You have 20 days to register a new master or your electrical license will become inactive.

So if you have only 1 master and for what ever reason he walks, that leaves you 20 days to hire and register a replacement.
I believe in CO a master can only be registered with 1 business. So even if the master left on good terms, he would need to pull his license to go to the next job.

Your options would be to financially make it so the master does not want to quit.
Perhaps an attorney could draw a contract that would require a notice of XX time before leaving, or liable for damages of $$.
CO is a employment at will state, meaning no notice is needed for resignation without a contract.
Then again why would they want to agree to that unless the entire agreement was a great deal.

How you would make it appealing to the Master?
Profit percentage, bonuses, minor ownership, new truck for him to take home, full benefits,..

Another possibility is if you had a backup master qualifier. Such as a person that holds the license, but lives out of state.

Or you could try to hire 2 masters if you had the work and funds.

Some CO areas look like there doing well for electricians.
Lots of job listings, ok wages advertised, some benefits.
From an electrician outside the state it's not easy to qualify to take the CO master test as far as required documentation, some can't do the background check, some can't pass the exam.
So it's an employees market IMO for a CO master.