Moving to Mississippi as a journeyman plumber: every state's rule
Mississippi does not issue a statewide journeyman plumber license, so there is no reciprocity to speak of. Here is what that means in practice.
Mississippi journeyman plumber
Licensed by cities and counties
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.
How local licensing works in Mississippi
How local licensing works. Mississippi's contractor law (Miss. Code Title 31 ch. 3 for commercial work, Title 73 ch. 59 for residential work) is enforced by MSBOC at the business level: a commercial license is required for every contractor and subcontractor on commercial jobs over $50,000, and residential plumbing subcontractors need a residential license on new homes over $50,000 or remodels over $10,000. Those licenses attach to the company and its qualifying party, not to journeymen, and no statute standardizes city trade cards. Journeyman licensing is a municipal matter and varies by city; many cities have no journeyman card at all and simply require plumbers to work under a licensed contractor.
Southaven. The Building Department's Application for License covers Apprentice ($20), Journeyman ($50) and Master ($100) trade licenses. A journeyman applicant files the application with photo ID and either a copy of a current, active journeyman license held in another jurisdiction or written proof of passing the ICC journeyman exam; no Southaven exam is given, so an out-of-state journeyman card or ICC plumbing score substitutes for local testing. The city refers all questions about out-of-state reciprocity to MSBOC. There is no journeyman license; plumbers work under the licensed contractor.
Jackson, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Tupelo. These cities license contractors and, in some cases, trades under their own ordinances, but no official page publishing a journeyman plumber card could be opened in this pass: the Jackson contractor-licensing URL redirected to a map embed and the Hattiesburg plumbing ordinance PDF returned 404. In practice a journeyman card from another jurisdiction or a passing ICC journeyman plumbing score is accepted by Southaven, and elsewhere the plumber simply works under a locally licensed contractor.
- Southaven (Building Department)
- Gulfport (Building Code Services)
- Jackson
- Hattiesburg