Statewide pay Government data
Telecom equipment installers in California earn a statewide median of $76,630 a year, 23% above the typical U.S. metro, ranking #9 of 50 states and DC. About 14,040 people work in the trade statewide.
Statewide pay range
States ranked near California
See all states on the telecom equipment installer overview.
Pay by city Government data
BLS publishes telecom equipment installer pay for 24 California metros: Bakersfield, Chico, El Centro, Fresno, Hanford, Los Angeles, Merced, Modesto, Oxnard, Redding, Riverside, Sacramento, Salinas, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Vallejo, Visalia and Yuba City.
Pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (metro-level). Real pay: BEA price parities, 2024. How we calculate
Pay outside the cities Government data
BLS also reports pay for California's rural (nonmetropolitan) regions.
BLS OEWS nonmetropolitan areas, May 2025.
The job (national)
Install, set up, rearrange, or remove switching, distribution, routing, and dialing equipment used in central offices or headends. Service or repair telephone, cable television, Internet, and other communications equipment on customers' property. May install communications equipment or communications wiring in buildings.
Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 3.3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 11,300 openings a year. Typical training: moderate-term on-the-job training.
Nationally, telecom equipment installers have 168 injuries or illnesses serious enough to miss work per 10,000 full-time workers, 1.9× the rate for all jobs (87). The most common cause is overexertion and repetitive strain.
What the work is like Government data
How often telecom equipment installers deal with each condition, from surveys of workers in the job.
Getting started usually takes medium preparation (vocational training or an apprenticeship, often 1–2+ years).
O*NET 31.0 Work Context and Job Zones (U.S. Department of Labor), national.
Registered apprenticeships Government data
Of telecom equipment installer apprentices in California who finished or left a registered program in fiscal years 2020–2024, 66% completed (U.S.: 44%), about 214 graduates a year. The typical program runs 4,800 hours, about 2 years of full-time work. Union programs had a 69% completion rate, compared with 60% for non-union programs.
U.S. Department of Labor, RAPIDS apprentice records (Completion Rate Analysis), FY2020–2024 exits.
Licensing in California Official source
The main state licensing office in California is the Contractors State License Board. Licenses all trades by classification (e.g. C-10 electrical; C-36 plumbing). It can point you to the right license for telecom equipment installers.
Official California licensing site ↗
Requirements for telecom equipment installers vary by state and sometimes by city; always confirm with the official agency.
Union membership
In 2025, 14.9% of wage and salary workers in California were union members, above the U.S. rate of about 10% (#8 of 51 states and D.C.), and 16.7% were covered by a union contract. These figures cover all jobs in the state, not only telecom equipment installers.
BLS Union Members, 2025 (Current Population Survey), table 5.
Cities in California
All trades in California.