Wisconsin Residential Master Electrician License: Requirements, Experience, and How to Apply

Wisconsin Residential Master Electrician License: Requirements and How to Apply

The Residential Master Electrician license is the top residential electrician license the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) issues. Here is what it takes to get one by examination.

Experience

DSPS asks for 1,000 hours a year of residential electrical work for five years.

School can count toward that, up to 3,000 hours.

That is two more years of residential work than the three the Residential Journeyman license asks for.

Applying and testing

1. Apply through LicensE, DSPS's online licensing system, with your documented residential experience.
2. Pay the exam fees: $95 to Pearson VUE and $30 to DSPS.
3. Sit the exam at a DSPS paper-exam site or a Pearson VUE computer-based testing center in Wisconsin: 50 questions in 4 hours, open book, 70% to pass. What is on the exam has the details.

The exam is on the 2023 NEC. Wisconsin adopted it in SPS 316.007 effective September 1, 2026, replacing the 2017 NEC, and DSPS says trades exam questions reflect the change from October 1, 2026. Older prep sites that name PSI as the vendor or teach the 2014 or 2017 NEC are out of date.

This article covers the Residential Master license. For the general Master Electrician license, see Wisconsin Master Electrician requirements.

Keeping the license

Licenses run on four-year terms and expire on June 30. A residential master needs 18 hours of continuing education each term to renew.

Getting ready

Fifty questions means each one is worth 2% of your score, so there is less room to give any away. Try our free 10-question practice test on the 2023 NEC, or see the full Wisconsin Residential Master Electrician exam prep. Every Wisconsin license we cover is on the Wisconsin electrician hub.