Electrical drafter salary in 2025 is the highest drafter median in the U.S. handbook. Electrical and electronics drafters earned $76,870 at the median in May 2025. The mean was $81,280. The median hourly wage was $36.96, and the mean hourly wage was $39.08. About 18,900 people were in the occupation in the handbook count. The wage release counted about 17,920.
That is roughly $10,000 above the architectural and civil median of $66,150, and about $5,000 above mechanical drafters at $71,550. The all drafter median of $68,090 is a poor summary for this work. It is held down by the much larger building and civil group.
Two kinds of drawing, one wage
The handbook describes both electrical drafters and electronics drafters, then pays them as one group. Electrical drafters prepare wiring diagrams used to install and repair equipment and wiring in power plants, distribution systems, and buildings. Electronics drafters produce wiring diagrams, assembly diagrams for circuit boards, and layout drawings used to manufacture, install, and repair electronic devices.
A building services drafter marking panels and conduit, and a board designer placing components, share this median. The day to day tools differ. One job lives in AutoCAD or Revit. The other lives in ECAD tools. The survey does not care. If the posting is really printed circuit layout, PCB designer salary 2025 stays on this number and then shows the engineer wages that do not belong to layout. If the posting is power and building systems, you are already on the right page.
Technicians and engineers are the neighbors
| Occupation | May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Electrical and electronics drafters, median | $76,870 |
| Electrical and electronics drafters, mean | $81,280 |
| Electrical and electronic engineering technicians, mean | $80,680 |
| Electrical and electronic engineering technicians, median hourly | $37.59 |
| Electrical engineers, median | $120,630 |
| Electronics engineers, except computer, median | $130,220 |
The technician mean of $80,680 is close to the drafter mean of $81,280. The jobs are not the same. Technicians in this group build, test, and troubleshoot equipment. Drafters draw it. A CAD technician title on an electrical team needs the actual task list. Drawing stays here. Benches and test plans move to the technician row, which is a mean and an hourly median, not a published annual median. More on that split is in CAD technician salary 2025.
Engineers are a different floor. Electrical engineers had a median of $120,630. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $76,550, almost exactly the drafter median, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $184,300. Electronics engineers, except computer, had a median of $130,220, with the lowest 10 percent under $81,840 and the highest 10 percent over $206,960.
Industry medians show where an engineering title, not a drafting title, picks up money. Electrical engineers in aerospace product manufacturing had a median of $141,160. In engineering services they were at $105,780, which is still far above the drafter median and closer to earth than aerospace. Electronics engineers in semiconductor manufacturing had a median of $146,700. In telecommunications they were at $109,040. None of those cells is a drafter wage. They matter when a senior layout job quietly turns into circuit design.
A smaller group, and a slight decline
This is a small occupation next to architectural and civil drafters. Fewer than 19,000 jobs in the handbook, against about 104,100 in the building and civil code. A small occupation can still have a stable median. It also means a handful of high paying employers, especially in electronics manufacturing, can change what a job seeker sees locally without changing the national middle.
Employment is projected to fall 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, from about 18,900 to about 18,200. That is milder than the 6 percent decline projected for mechanical drafters and sharper than the 5 percent growth projected for architectural and civil drafters. The bureau's general reason is productivity. Drawings take fewer hours when the model is smarter, and engineers absorb work that used to be drafted.
Openings do not require growth. People leave. The all drafter projection expects about 14,400 openings a year across every specialty, mostly from replacement. This specialty is a thin slice of that flow.
Where an offer should land
The middle of the published occupation is $76,870. The mean of $81,280 is higher because the right tail is long, which fits an occupation that includes both building wiring diagrams and board layout for manufacturing. Quoting the mean as the going rate overstates the typical worker.
The survey does not publish a tenth for this group alone. The all drafter band, under $46,700 at the bottom tenth and over $102,590 at the top tenth, includes architectural drafters who earn less at the middle. An electrical offer near the all drafter median of $68,090 is below the middle of this specialty, even if it looks fine against drafters in general.
If the posting adds a professional engineer requirement or asks for circuit analysis rather than documentation, leave this table. Design engineer salary 2025 starts from the engineer medians on purpose. Staying here when the work is engineering is how people talk themselves into a low number.
Sources
- Occupational Outlook Handbook, Drafters. Electrical and electronics drafter median, duties, and projection.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook, Electrical and Electronics Engineers. May 2025 medians and industry figures.
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Means for drafters and for electrical engineering technicians.