In WA, Contractors are licensed, electricians are certified. To be an electrical contractor, you must have an assigned administrator. The admin is responsible for knowing the code, making sure installations are done correctly, pulling permits, etc. The admin does not have to be an electrician, and if not, can't touch the tools. Often small shops have an admin who is also an certified electrician. The admin test is a harder electrician test.
If you are a certified electrician and an admin, then you can combine them and be a master electrician (need to take a test) I am a Master Electrician
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Washington state is the king of specialty certifications.
01 Journey Level 8,000 hours experience (to test)
Specialty
02 Residential 4,000 hours
03 Pump and Irrigation 4,000 hours
03A Domestic Pump 720
04 Signs 4000 hours
06 Limited Energy 4,000 hours
06A HVAC/Refrigeration 4000 hours
06B HVAC/Refrigeration Limited 720 hours
07 Non residential maintenance 4,000 hours
07A Non Residential Lighting maint and retrofit 720 hours
07B residential maint 720 hours
07C restricted non residential maint 1000 hours
07D appliance repair 720 hours
07E equipment repair 1000 hours
09 Telecom, only applies to contractors, workers not required to be certfied
10 gates, doors and similar 720 hours
The reason there are so many specialties is our state laws require any one doing electrical work to be certified.
Effective July 23, 2023 any person who wants to a journeylevel will have to have completed an electrical apprenticeship program.