Mississippi to Wisconsin: journeyman plumber license reciprocity

Wisconsin issues a statewide Journeyman Plumber license through the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS); under Wis. Stat. 145.06 no person may engage in or work at plumbing in the state unless licensed by DSPS, and there is no municipal plumber licensing. Under SPS 305.93 a journeyman works under the general supervision of a Master Plumber, Master Plumber Restricted or Utility Contractor licensee, qualifies by completing a plumbing apprenticeship under Wis. Stat. ch. 106, and must complete 24 hours of approved continuing education to renew. A new applicant applies in the LicensE portal at license.wi.gov with proof of the completed apprenticeship, is made eligible to test, and must pass the DSPS journeyman plumber examination, which is a two-part, open-book exam with a 70% passing score covering Wis. Stat. ch. 145, SPS 305, the SPS 381-387 plumbing code, NFPA 13D/24 and the POWTS component manuals. DSPS's plumber pages name no reciprocity states, and the electrical reciprocity statute (Wis. Stat. 101.874) does not extend to plumbers; the plumbing comity statute (Wis. Stat. 145.09) counts out-of-state apprenticeships and licenses toward eligibility for the exam but does not waive it.

Mississippi does not issue a journeyman plumber license. The Mississippi State Board of Contractors (MSBOC) licenses contracting businesses - commercial contractors and subcontractors on jobs over $50,000 and residential contractors and residential plumbing subcontractors above the residential thresholds - through a Certificate of Responsibility held by the company with a tested qualifying party, and its FAQ states that it does not license individual journeymen; none of its Plumbing, Mechanical or Residential Plumbing classifications, exams or reciprocity agreements apply to a plumber who only wants to work for an employer. Individual plumbers are licensed, where they are licensed at all, by cities under their own ordinances: Southaven's Building Department issues apprentice, journeyman and master trade licenses and accepts a current journeyman license from another jurisdiction or a passed ICC journeyman exam in place of its own testing, while coastal cities such as Gulfport license only the contractor's qualifying party and have no journeyman card. An out-of-state journeyman plumber license therefore has no state-level recognition in Mississippi; the plumber must check the ordinance of each city where they will work and apply locally, and Southaven-style acceptance of another jurisdiction's card or an ICC score is the closest thing to reciprocity that exists.