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.
