A lot of people are surprised to learn the the average wage for both plumbers and electricians is ~30 bucks an hour, then that’s in exchange for body breaking work. A small subset earn more, but it’s not the norm.
Union electricians and plumbers make good money, and the non-union shops that do commercial work have to pay close to union wages plus some fringes to get enough manpower. I pay $100/hr for a union journeyworker electrician in a metro area of ~3 million, $106
for a foreman, and $112 for a general foreman. Both of those include fringes, the split is about 55/45 or so. The contracts are for three-year terms with raises every year.
Residential construction is a whole different ballgame that I’m unfamiliar with, but I’d imagine that’s where the average gets dragged down.
Because.. that’s what the union charges my employer per hour for an electrician? I don’t have a choice lol
Cincinnati is a rust belt city with depressed wages (no offense to anyone that lives there, but it’s the truth), my market is higher income (Minneapolis/St Paul) where a journeyworker makes $57/hr on the check instead of $38/hr like in Ohio, which is 1.5x (!!) higher.
Well sure, my questions is why is the Union charging over double what seems to be 90th quartile for electricians in small to mid sized MSAs and only a bit more than the 90th quartile on high COL cities.
I suspect the electrician they send over isn’t just pocketing $100/h on wages.
> Well sure, my questions is why is the Union charging over double what seems to be 90th quartile for electricians in small to mid sized MSAs and only a bit more than the 90th quartile on high COL cities.
The union is charging that because *that is what’s in the contract that was signed by the union and the local union contractors after negotiation. Electricians get paid a lot where I live because it’s a wealthy growing area that people want to live in, and not a dying rust belt city.
> I suspect the electrician they send over isn’t just pocketing $100/h on wages.
Did you read the post I wrote initially?
I give the breakdown of how much of the money I pay to the union goes to the worker on his paycheck (55%) with the rest going to insurance, taxes, union dues, pension, etc (fringe benefits, which are 45%)
> Did you read the post I wrote initially?
I give the breakdown of how much of the money I pay to the union goes to the worker on his paycheck (55%) with the rest going to insurance, taxes, union dues, pension, etc (fringe benefits, which are 45%)
I misread that intitially.
At the end of the day, anytime this topic comes up, there’s an oddly large discrepancy between the anecdotes and the BLS data.
Even half of that $100 puts these electricians in the 90th quartile for hourly wages in that MSA. So they’re either sending there most expensive guys or I’m misreading misinterpreting the BLS data.
Union electricians make up the bulk of commercial electricians, with the rest being non-union. Non-union electricians dominate the residential market, and that’s who brings the average wage down, along with the year 1 to year 5 apprentices.
Industrial electrician around here start at 30 - 35 for 2 years as a trainee then go to 40. That's top 10% income for low cost of living area. It's not unusual to hit 100k with no school debt at a young age.
Industrial automation technician I have worked with makes north of 300k but he is traveling all over the world to do it.
Reminds me of when I lived in a shit meth town. Dead economy, propped up entirely by a single military base. Lots of drugs and violence. Most people I knew there worked a shitty low skilled job and sold meth.
One guy I knew had it in his head he could just go back to school for welding and make 6 figures. Of course that didn’t work out. Turns out the local CC doesn’t have anything for underwater welding. Welding programs for sure, but mostly designed to funnel workers into local, lower paying positions that need filled.
I have a suspicion this push towards blue collars jobs is just another learn to code grift.
