Electricians Building Northern Virginia's Data Centers Say Six-Figure Pay Is Possible Without College Debt

Fox News Digital spent time inside one of Northern Virginia's largest data centers and came away with a pitch for the trades: skip the four-year degree, avoid the debt, and wire the AI boom.

The pitch. Andrew Miller, a tradesman with a 26-year career who raised six children in the work, told Fox that data center expansion is creating "life changing" opportunities for young workers. He said electricians can earn six figures by age 22 or 23 after training, and that "they cannot produce enough electricians fast enough." He said he has never been without work, even through recessions.

The pay. Bill McGraw of the electrical contractor J.E. Richards said apprentices accepted into a program through International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 can start at about $27 to $28 an hour with no experience. He cited journeyman wages of about $62 an hour, which Fox calculates at nearly $129,000 a year for a 40-hour week before overtime. Don Slaiman said Local 26's hiring hall has grown from fewer than 9,000 workers to more than 17,500.

The scale. Fox says that as of March 2026, more than 230 data centers had been built or were under construction in Loudoun County, with another 116 projects in the pipeline. Miller said one construction project can employ as many as 2,000 craft workers, who then spend money at local restaurants and housing providers. He also said the data center industry is "directly linked" to Northern Virginia's wealth and claimed regions that reject data centers, such as California, see wealth leave.

What to keep in mind. The wage figures and the claim about California are statements from the people interviewed, not independent data, and Fox does not say how many apprentices finish the program or how long it takes. Overtime and local cost of living are not covered in the report.