How to hire your first apprentice in South Dakota

The credential check before day one

In the licensed trades, the apprentice carries a credential, not just a job title. In electrical work, the apprentice registers with the State Electrical Commission before hours can count, and the registration expires on a fixed cycle.

In plumbing, the application comes first and the license fee follows approval by email. Hiring an unregistered electrical helper costs your apprentice the hours, since the electrical commission only counts licensed hours toward its exams.

Beauty trades have no apprentice hire at all here. Cosmetology and barbering training happens in schools the commissions license, so a salon hire with training hours still in progress is a student, not an apprentice. The cosmetology page covers that wall.

Electrical experience hours must be licensed for the working time to count toward the hours required to take the exams. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29

Approved South Dakota plumbing apprentice applicants receive an email stating the license fee due, and the license is issued once the fee is paid. — South Dakota Plumbing Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29

The supervision duty you inherit with the hire

Supervision is the employer's obligation, not the apprentice's promise. The electrical statute bars an apprentice from working on an installation without personal supervision, and the administrative rule puts a licensed supervisor on site for commercial projects.

In plumbing, the unsupervised exception belongs to the apprentice's credential, not to your convenience. A third-year apprentice license lifts supervision only on single family dwellings, and only after a state exam.

A registered apprenticeship program adds a written duty on top. Federal standards require assurance of qualified training personnel and adequate supervision on the job, and the program's own ratio of apprentices to journeyworkers. Read the supervision page for the full trade-by-trade set.

Under SDCL 36-16-21, an electrical apprentice may not be allowed to work on an installation without personal supervision. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, SDCL 36-16-21, retrieved 2026-09-29

Federal standards for registered apprenticeship programs require assurance of qualified training personnel and adequate supervision on the job. — 29 CFR 29.5, Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-29

The new-hire report, due within 20 days

Every South Dakota employer reports new hires, and an apprentice is a new hire. All employers are required to report newly hired or re-hired employees to the New Hire Reporting Center per state and federal law.

The clock is short. Newly hired employees must be reported within 20 days of the first day of work, and rehires count too, for anyone not paid in the past 30 days.

The legal footing is dual. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and South Dakota Codified Law 25-7A-3.3 together require the reports, and the data feeds child support enforcement and fraud prevention.

Report the name and Social Security number exactly as they appear on the worker's card. The center says mismatched names are the failure it sees most.

All South Dakota employers are required to report newly hired or re-hired employees to the New Hire Reporting Center per state and federal law. — South Dakota New Hire Reporting Center, retrieved 2026-09-29

20 daysNewly hired employees must be reported to the New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of the first day of work. — South Dakota New Hire Reporting Center, retrieved 2026-09-29

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and SDCL 25-7A-3.3 require employers to report information on newly hired employees. — South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-29

The wage floor under an apprentice's pay

Apprentice pay sits above a floor the state sets. South Dakota's minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $11.85 per hour, effective January 1, 2026, and it adjusts each year with the cost of living, rounded up to the nearest 5 cents, never downward.

A registered program then bends pay upward. Federal standards require a progressively increasing schedule of wages consistent with the skill acquired, and the state's own apprenticeship page lists regular pay increases as job skills increase among the apprentice's entitlements.

Beauty trades are the exception to watch on tips. The tipped minimum wage in South Dakota is $5.925 per hour, effective January 1, 2026, and the employer must make up any shortfall to the full minimum while keeping records of tips.

The pay page covers the full structure, including the separate provision state law makes for apprentices.

$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

South Dakota's minimum wage adjusts annually with the cost of living, rounded up to the nearest 5 cents, and may not decrease. — South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-29

Federal standards require a progressively increasing schedule of wages consistent with the skill acquired. — 29 CFR 29.5, Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-29

Insurance the state does not require, and what replaces it

South Dakota is unusual here. There is no law in the state requiring any employer to carry workers' compensation insurance, though the Department of Labor and Regulation highly recommends it, and an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker.

For an apprentice crew, that exposure is not theoretical. New workers on real tools are the injury profile workers' compensation exists for, and the lawsuit route replaces the no-fault benefit system an insured employer would have.

If you carry coverage, the same department runs it. The Workers' Compensation program, for employers who choose coverage, is an insurance program paying medical and disability benefits for work-related injuries and diseases.

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

South Dakota's Workers' Compensation program, for employers who choose coverage, is an insurance program that pays medical and disability benefits for work-related injuries and diseases. — South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, retrieved 2026-09-29

Records that decide the apprentice's future

The hours you record are the apprentice's currency. The electrical exams read licensed hours, at 2,000 to a year, and plumbing wants 1,900 hours per year documented across four years.

A registered program adds its own book. The work process schedule in the standards allocates time across major processes, which is the record the program is later evaluated on.

Set up the hour log on day one, not after the first month. The hour-logging guide covers what each trade counts and what it refuses, and the costs page prices the whole arrangement once records, wages and instruction are added up.

2,000 hoursARSD 20:44:16:06 defines one year of electrical experience as 2,000 hours. — South Dakota Electrical Commission, ARSD 20:44:16:06, retrieved 2026-09-29

1,900 hours per yearA South Dakota plumber's license requires four years as an apprentice plumber with at least 1,900 hours per year. — South Dakota Plumbing Commission, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions