As a software person this sort of thing seldom comes to mind. What we also dismiss is all that professional association and certification stuff that we don't have to deal with. I don't know about you, but so far I still like the freedom and ability to move up and around we have better than being stuck working myself up from entry level through to a high paying job by waiting for someone else to retire or move up and out of the way first. Or you become a business owner, which in the plumbing and electrician business I guess is very common. But not everyone is cut out for that.
That seems super local. I've got welder friends (and electrician friend, and plumber friends and my brother is a GC). I've lived in Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ontario.
I've never heard that biker gangs have a monopoly on welding jobs. And in my crazy 20s I dated a CC Riders ex-wife.
Welders: $47,540 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/welders-cutters-solderers...
Plumbers: $60,090 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/plumbers...
Electricians: $60,240 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/electric...
Software Developer: $124,200 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
Median pay (2022) from the U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
Welders: $47,540 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/welders-cutters-solderers...
Plumbers: $60,090 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/plumbers...
Electricians: $60,240 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/electric...
In the past Hacker News comments also claimed truckers were very highly paid
Heavy and Tractor-trailer Truck Drivers: $49,920 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/h...
We can compare those numbers to
Software Developer: $124,200 per year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
Maybe some individual plumbers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they are an extreme outlier. The other question is how many hours are they working a week to make that much? I'm guessing you either have to work lots of overtime or be a business owner.
I have a lot of friends and family in the trade and the trucking industry. I made more than every single one of them and they all work more hours than me. The one friend I have that makes "almost $100k/year" works almost every weekend to make that.
And even at the senior end, unless you're a contractor owning your own business employing other skilled tradespeople, the money is still at best half what I earn to lay in bed all day typing on a laptop.
I've spent the last 20 years now in cushy, easy jobs giving away thousands of dollars at a time to the rest of my family because of the general unreliability of their income streams working in skilled trades.
They are fetishizing these careers because they're totally unfamiliar with them.
It's so much better to work for 1/2 as long for 3x the salary than twice as long for 1/3 of the salary.
There's plenty of minimum wage job for the foreseeable future as well; but being employeed 24/7 is not the metric to optimize here.
Not necessarily. It's not better if your work is making your life 3x worse, for instance.
