**IBEW Daily Wire: Thursday, April 23, 2026**
Big hiring surge at data centers across multiple locals. LU-26 DC leads with 494 open calls, paying $59.50/hr with tons of DC-area data center work featuring OT schedules and $125/day per diem. LU-354 Salt Lake City has 255 calls at $43.65/hr with huge demand at QTS projects — some paying $15/hr over scale plus incentives.
LU-291 Boise's hot with 76 calls at $45.30/hr for the Micron ID1 project, many paying $65.33/hr for 60-hour weeks. LU-354 Salt Lake City shows massive QTS activity with contractors offering premium pay and Saturday bonuses. LU-405 Cedar Rapids running strong at 105 calls ($42.23/hr), mostly for data center work with overtime and scale bonuses.
Notable scale rates include LU-494 Milwaukee at $50.86/hr and LU-100 Fresno at $51.00/hr, both with solid work. Overall, data center construction is driving the market hard right now with premium pay and heavy OT becoming the norm.