> It’s hard, because the formally decent paying apprentice programs pay has stayed about the same while working, fast food or whatever has gone up a lot. Working at Taco Bell for $18 an hour is less physically demanding than being a grunt laborer for 15.
> Our local IBEW apprentices start at $19/hr with another 9.50/hr in benefits. First raise is an extra $2 on the check and another $2 in benefits after 1000 hours or roughly 6 months.
> I almost accepted a plumbing apprenticeship when I was 26 but the starting wage was so low I just wouldn’t have been able to live. If I could go back in time though I’d try getting into a trade or automotive work by 18.
> I tried becoming an electrician after the military. No where had any interest in taking on an apprentice.
> One friend of mine saved and left her corporate job to become an electrician, only to find boomer electricians wouldn’t apprentice a woman. Just one anecdote, of course.
> I got out of the Army, and tried to join the local union as an apprentice. It was a 6-8 months selection process before I could even start. It took longer and was more challenging to try and get into a trade then the military.
> The trades pay shite. I’m a third term apprentice and it’s hard work for not much more than McDonald’s.
Maybe the whole journeyman/apprentice system needs to be dismantled.
My hack was to offer two months of free work to a local electrician (I was fortunate to be able to do that). He took me up on it, and it worked out. He and I now have an arrangement where I can do my own electrical (solar) projects under his license (with his availability for questions) for a flat per-project fee. ...This pays much better than the hourly rate as an employed apprentice.
Varies a lot by state. I have a friend (was ringbearer at my wedding when he was a wee lad), and he did a lot of research on which state to go through this in (he chose Colorado, btw).
The journeyman/apprentice system, for all its problems, is probably a net bonus to the lifetime wages, since it prevents a huge surge of new entrants in a short time. Also, although it may not be all we would want, it does probably prevent the worst safety/incompetence concerns that we would have if it were left to the market (since people hiring electricians often don't have the knowledge to tell if they are competent or not).
Yup.. the system takes forever to advance through. If you don't start at 18 it's hard to justify doing. Regulations need to be changed but I don't see that happening.
One of the best High Volt electricians we have at work is a woman. She’s an integral part of keeping out data centers working, and we’re actively hiring for an apprentice High Volt electrician!
Middlemen and managers are pocketing the difference. When you hear about tradespeople pulling in mid-six figures, they generally aren't in the trenches, laying down pipes or wiring cables.
Compare it to farmers who get less for their produced goods, while in the shops prices go up. What part of the ticket price of a litre/gallon of milk ends up with the farmer? I never understood this.
Just trying to track where all the money between producer and consumer tends to leak towards. My point was a bit, that low profit does not mean that there are no unnecessary expenses. Are business owners usually not managers? Also often profit is used to invest in the company itself so it not really lost imo.
Generally, a low profit margin amongst the entire industry indicates that business operations are going about as efficiently as possible given current technology and knowledge.
Grocery stores have long had ~2% or even less profit margins. The people working at Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Target, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Amazon, etc. are pretty good at what they do, and those managers are not known for getting lavish pay. After all, how could they, since their competition would steal their customers in their extremely price sensitive business.
I suspect the bottom paid tier of society such as seasonal workers on the farms picking fruits and vegetables, workers in meat processing facilities, drivers, and lots of others in the bottom 20% to 40% of society are getting higher pay. Not that it means their lives are now sunshine and roses, but a lot of our "cheap" goods were based on a lot of people being paid relatively very little.
A friend is a journeyman lineman in NorCal and makes ~$300k/year + pension rebuilding PG&E infra. Lives in a lovely rural $800k home. Started his career climbing poles in Illinois, straight out of high school.
Your friend is a massive outlier in the pay distribution of electricians. He's either gaming the overtime system somehow, or has a unique set of specialized skills (or some regulatory arbitrage combo of both).
Based on the state of PG&E infra from public records and committed capex/infra spend, I'm more inclined to believe the overtime is warranted due to This Is All Terrible And Will Take Decades To Fix. I'll ask! Where there is chaos, there is usually money to be made.
I have a lineman in the family. The pay is great, the 'hey, there is a storm 4 states away they are sending me to help with, i'll be back home in 2 months' is not so great. But all the overtime you want..
Have you seen what linemen do? Work with heavy transmission lines dozens or hundreds of feet in the air, at night, in the rain, etc. They earn every penny of whatever they make IMO.
> It’s hard, because the formally decent paying apprentice programs pay has stayed about the same while working, fast food or whatever has gone up a lot. Working at Taco Bell for $18 an hour is less physically demanding than being a grunt laborer for 15.
> Our local IBEW apprentices start at $19/hr with another 9.50/hr in benefits. First raise is an extra $2 on the check and another $2 in benefits after 1000 hours or roughly 6 months.
> I almost accepted a plumbing apprenticeship when I was 26 but the starting wage was so low I just wouldn’t have been able to live. If I could go back in time though I’d try getting into a trade or automotive work by 18.
> I tried becoming an electrician after the military. No where had any interest in taking on an apprentice.
> One friend of mine saved and left her corporate job to become an electrician, only to find boomer electricians wouldn’t apprentice a woman. Just one anecdote, of course.
> I got out of the Army, and tried to join the local union as an apprentice. It was a 6-8 months selection process before I could even start. It took longer and was more challenging to try and get into a trade then the military.
> The trades pay shite. I’m a third term apprentice and it’s hard work for not much more than McDonald’s.
Maybe the whole journeyman/apprentice system needs to be dismantled.