The cost of an apprenticeship program in South Dakota
What does it cost to train an apprentice in South Dakota, compared with the school routes?
Two price tags: the fee and the wage
Training an apprentice in South Dakota has two costs, and only one of them is small. The state fees run in tens of dollars. The wages run in years, and they are the real price of the training.
The state's own electrical registration makes the point. The statute caps the biennial apprentice registration fee at $20, collected in even-numbered years, and the application form prices it exactly at $20 with about 30 days of processing.
Everything beyond that is wage and instruction. A sponsor's job is to plan those, and the trades that cannot apprentice push the whole cost onto tuition instead.
$20 biennialSDCL 36-16-21 lets the State Electrical Commission set a biennial apprentice registration fee of not more than $20, collected in even-numbered years. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, SDCL 36-16-21, retrieved 2026-09-29
$20The electrical apprentice application costs $20 and takes about 30 days to process. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, Apprentice License Application, retrieved 2026-09-29
The state fees, trade by trade
The licensed trades keep their fees low and their cycles fixed. The electrical apprentice registration is $20 on a two-year cycle, expiring June 30 of even-numbered years.
Barbering prices its steps by statute. The fee for the examination may not exceed $100, for issuance of the certificate not more than $50, for annual renewal not more than $80, and the Board's own transfer fee for an out-of-state barber is $150.
The registered program route adds no fee of its own at registration. Start Today SD presents itself as a no-cost support service for building and managing programs, funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant, and its five-step process ends in submission rather than payment.
| Fee | Amount | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical apprentice registration | $20 biennial | The apprentice |
| Barber examination | Up to $100 | The student or licensee |
| Barber certificate issuance | Up to $50 | The licensee |
| Barber annual renewal | Up to $80 | The licensee |
| Barber license transfer from another state | $150 | The transferring barber |
| Registered program registration | No published fee | The sponsor |
All electrical licenses expire on June 30 of even-numbered years, on the same two-year cycle as the apprentice registration. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, Apprentice License Application, retrieved 2026-09-29
$100 / $50 / $80Under SDCL 36-14-24, the barber examination fee may not exceed $100, the certificate issuance fee not more than $50, and annual renewal not more than $80. — South Dakota Board of Barber Examiners, SDCL 36-14-24, retrieved 2026-09-29
$150The license transfer fee for an out-of-state barber in South Dakota is $150. — South Dakota Board of Barber Examiners, retrieved 2026-09-29
Start Today SD presents itself as a no-cost support service for building and managing registered apprenticeship programs. — Start Today SD, retrieved 2026-09-29
The wage years, priced by the floor and the scale
The wage is where the money goes. A first-year apprentice in any South Dakota trade is owed at least the state minimum wage of $11.85 per hour, effective January 1, 2026.
A registered program makes the wage staircase part of the price. Federal standards require a progressively increasing schedule of wages consistent with the skill acquired, and the sponsor states the wage scale when building the program.
Priced out, the electrical route buys a full-time year of productive labor at the floor before the first raise. That is the trade against tuition: the sponsor pays wages and keeps the work, while the school route charges the student and keeps nothing.
The exposure runs the other way too. South Dakota has no law requiring employers to carry workers' compensation insurance, and an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker, which is a cost that arrives unpriced.
$11.85 per hourSouth Dakota's minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $11.85 per hour, effective January 1, 2026. — South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-29
Federal standards for registered apprenticeship programs require a progressively increasing schedule of wages consistent with the skill acquired. — 29 CFR 29.5, Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-29
There is no law in South Dakota requiring any employer to carry workers' compensation insurance, and an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker. — South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-29
Related instruction, the quiet cost of a registered program
A registered program is not just paid hours. Federal standards require organized, related instruction in technical subjects, and recommend a minimum of 144 hours for each year of apprenticeship.
The state's build step says the same thing in sponsor's language. Developing a related training curriculum is part of building the program, and the readiness questions before registration include identifying a training provider for the classroom component.
That instruction has a price, paid to a provider, a college, or an in-house instructor. It is the line item sponsors forget when comparing a registered program against a bare state registration, which carries no instruction duty at all.
144 hours per yearFederal standards require organized, related instruction in technical subjects, recommending a minimum of 144 hours for each year of apprenticeship. — 29 CFR 29.5, Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-29
Developing a related training curriculum is part of the build step for a South Dakota sponsor, and identifying a training provider is a readiness question before registration. — U.S. Department of Labor, Apprenticeship.gov, retrieved 2026-09-29
The school routes, priced in hours instead of wages
The beauty trades price training in hours the student buys. Cosmetology requires 1,500 Commission-approved education hours, esthetics 600, and nail technology 400, all shown by transcript from a licensed school.
Barbering is the same shape. A barber school must require a course of instruction of not less than nine months with a minimum of 1,500 hours before graduation can be approved at all.
The hours are the bill, and the school holds the record. That is the trade's wall, covered on the cosmetology page: no employer in these trades can buy the training with wages, because the Commission only accepts documentation from licensed schools.
Across a counter, though, the two price tags converge. Four years of electrical wages against 1,500 school hours is the real comparison, and the apprentice is paid the whole way through one of them.
1,500 / 600 / 400 hoursA South Dakota cosmetologist license requires 1,500 Commission-approved education hours, esthetics requires 600, and nail technology requires 400. — South Dakota Cosmetology Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29
9 months, 1,500 hoursUnder SDCL 36-14-17, no barber school is approved unless it requires a course of instruction of not less than nine months with a minimum of 1,500 hours. — South Dakota Board of Barber Examiners, SDCL 36-14-17, retrieved 2026-09-29
The South Dakota Cosmetology Commission only accepts training and education documentation from schools or providers it licenses or certifies. — South Dakota Cosmetology Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29
What the years after the training cost
Licenses renew on fixed clocks, and the clocks are part of the cost. A registered barber's certificate renews annually on or before the first day of July and expires June 30 unless renewed, while the Board's licensing page separately asks for renewals by May 31, so file early. Electrical licenses renew on the even-numbered-year cycle with 16 hours of continuing education, a minimum of 8 of them code hours.
If a business forms around the crew, the state adds its fees. A South Dakota LLC's articles of organization cost $150 filed online, and the annual report costs $55 online, with a $55 late fee for delinquent reports.
Price the whole route before committing. The business checklist gives the order of setup, the registration guide prices the sponsor side of a registered program, and the hour-logging guide shows which years of the plan produce countable hours.
June 30Under SDCL 36-14-22, a registered barber renews the certificate annually on or before the first day of July, and it expires June 30 unless renewed. — South Dakota Board of Barber Examiners, SDCL 36-14-22, retrieved 2026-09-29
16 hoursElectrical licensees need 16 hours of continuing education with a minimum of 8 code hours to renew. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29
$150 / $55 / $55A South Dakota LLC files its articles of organization for $150 online, files the annual report for $55 online, and owes a $55 late fee on delinquent annual reports. — South Dakota Secretary of State, retrieved 2026-09-29
Questions
Is there a state fee to register a registered apprenticeship program?
No published fee. Start Today SD describes itself as a no-cost support service under a federal grant, and its five-step route ends in submitting the standards package for U.S. Department of Labor approval. The costs are wages and related instruction.
Who pays the electrical apprentice registration fee?
The apprentice, as the applicant. The form is the apprentice's, priced at $20 biennial, and the commission caps it at that figure by statute.
How does tuition compare with wages across the routes?
The apprentice routes are paid: the sponsor pays wages that start at the state minimum and rise with skill, and keeps the work product. The school routes charge the student for fixed hours, 1,500 in cosmetology and barbering, and produce no paid work.
Are the school-hour figures negotiable by the school?
No. Cosmetology hours are set per license by the Cosmetology Commission, and barbering's 1,500-hour, nine-month course is a statutory floor a school must require before approval.
What annual costs continue after the apprentice is licensed?
Renewal fees on each license's cycle, continuing education where the trade requires it, and the business filings, like the $55 online LLC annual report, if an entity wraps the crew.