California to Florida: master electrician license reciprocity

Florida has no license called 'master electrician'. The highest person-held electrical credential is the certificate of competency as a Certified Electrical Contractor (license prefix EC), issued by the Electrical Contractors' Licensing Board within DBPR to an individual who meets the experience requirements of s. 489.511(1)(b), F.S. (for example 4 years as a foreman, supervisor or contractor, with at least 40% of the work on 3-phase services) and passes the Pearson VUE technical/safety and business examinations; the certificate holder then qualifies a business, but the certificate itself belongs to the person and is valid statewide. Alongside the state certificate, counties and municipalities issue their own master electrician or electrical contractor certificates of competency (Miami-Dade's Construction Trades Qualifying Board and Broward's Central Examining Boards, for example); their holders register with DBPR as Registered Electrical Contractors (ER) and may work only in the jurisdictions that issued the local card, which is why this level is marked Hybrid. Florida has no reciprocity agreement with any state. Out-of-state contractors are handled by endorsement under s. 489.511(5): the Board waives the Florida exam(s) only for exams it has found substantially equivalent (currently full recognition for California C-10, Georgia Class II with Low Voltage Unlimited, and North Carolina Unlimited; partial recognition for several others), or waives everything for a contractor licensed in another state for at least 10 years. Everyone else must pass the Florida exams. Certified licenses cost $296 to issue and renew, expire August 31 of even years, and require 11 hours of continuing education per biennium.

California does not issue a master electrician license or any personal electrician credential above the DIR General Electrician certification. The state-level credential above that is a C-10 Electrical Contractor license from the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), which is issued to a business (sole owner, partnership, corporation or LLC) and qualified by a named individual rather than held by the electrician personally, so an out-of-state master electrician has nothing to transfer to unless they intend to contract. A master electrician who only wants to work for an employer needs the DIR electrician certification described at the journeyman level. To contract independently the qualifying individual must document at least four years of journeyman-level or higher experience within the past 10 years, pay the $450 application fee, pass both the CSLB Law and Business exam and the C-10 trade exam through PSI within 18 months, be fingerprinted, post a $25,000 contractor's bond (plus a $25,000 bond of qualifying individual where applicable), carry workers' compensation or file an exemption, and pay the initial license fee of $200 (sole owner) or $350 (non-sole owner) for a two-year license. CSLB's reciprocity program covers contractors licensed for the previous five years in good standing in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada or North Carolina, but only classifications on the Reciprocal Classifications List: for electrical work the only mapped classifications are Arizona C-11, K-11 and L-11 Electrical, which map to California C-10; Nevada's C-2 Electrical is not mapped (only Nevada C-2d Low Voltage maps to C-7), and the Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina entries cover only general building. Where reciprocity is granted CSLB may waive the C-10 trade exam but retains the right to require it, staff determine comparability case by case, and the Law and Business exam, bond, fingerprinting and all other licensure requirements still apply. A DIR electrician certification is not required for a licensed contractor's own work, only for electricians employed by C-10 contractors.