As a 46 year old I agree, but I'll say that most tradesmen I knew have either moved on to owning/managing or have switched careers. Overall they've done very well.
Also, IME, tradesmen always have the nicest houses regardless of income because they or someone they can trade with will do top quality work for barely any compensation.
Depends on where you choose to live. From what I'm seeing, the various trades people are earning very good incomes, in the same ballpark as the majority of IT (non-FAANG) staff.
Do trades even pay that well, or is it just selection bias making them seem like they do?
According to BLS, median annual income for plumbers, electricians, and welders are respectively 56k, 57k, and 44k. Meanwhile, the median kindergarten and elementary school teacher—a famously non-lucrative career among those requiring university education—earns 60k according to the same resource.
I'm not so sure of this. I have lots of trade friends/acquaintances/family members because my family runs a construction business. I know lots of people in the trades who are struggling and can't afford to own a house in the "cheap" midwest. Some are 30 and have been at it for several years and still live with their parents or shake up 6+ to a rented 3 bedroom.
They are skilled too, mechanics, electricians, welders.
The old dudes running the business make bank, for sure. But the people turning the wrenches are still getting the shaft.
Nobody is claiming you can't make good money running a small plumbing company or finding a niche trade.
The claim is "on average, those with college degrees out-earn those without college degrees." The existence of skilled tradesmen who earn good incomes doesn't discredit the analysis. They just contribute to average.
More specifically, the path to making good money in the trades can be long and arduous (relative to college and a desk job). Years as an electrician's apprentice earning low wages. A journeyman electrician makes reasonable money, but it's not until you either strike out on your own (with the risk that entails) OR specialize in something in high demand (time to acquire that skill) that the income really goes up into the range most of us would consider high/good.
Welding is one trade I see mentioned a lot. Skilled welders (food-grade, off-shore, underwater) can make excelling money. But, the job is still pretty crap compared to many desk jobs. The food-grade jobs are hot, long-hours, on-call, and wages are only good, not great. The off-shore stuff is dangerous and requires weeks/months away from home.
As I wrote, this is a skilled job and they are apparently in very short supply here in the UK, where most houses are made entirely of bricks and even many taller buildings use a lot of them... so they can make a good living, indeed. Maybe not as high as you suggest but pretty good.
Actually, many skilled trades in the UK can make 50-60k a year, bearing in mind that these are technical qualifications, no university involved (whereas the system pushes everyone towards uni)
My impression is that the trades are reasonably well served. So the people with work do fine in a trade, but there aren't well paying jobs for millions more people there.
(I'm thinking of the U.S. where home building is at a relatively low rate right now)
I believe that nowadays - at least in developed countries - you can have a stable income way above average as a tradesman. The shortage of reliable people in these areas is unbelieavable. As an anecdote I knew a self-employed poolboy that before crisis was earning more than most managers.
According my experience (I used to help my father during work peaks) I think that we arrived here because ALL talent is nowadays directed to academia. To complicate the situation this is not easily undone, once people get used to be intellectually challenged they see trades as a terribly boring job. And don't forget the stigma..
Tradespeople can make a lot of money. I've started to do as much house repairs/installations as I can by myself after realizing it would cost hundreds of dollars for even very basic plumbing jobs.
I have found the HN crowed has a rosey view on trade jobs that doesn't seem to reflect reality. Family members of mine are employed primarily by trades (lots of plumbers, some carpenters and electrician's) and a lot of what you say is spot on. There are certainly cases where they can make a lot of money, but it's definitely not easy not a golden ticket that I see a lot of HN comments make it out to be.
I've met people in the trades that are just as smart, or smarter than most white collar folk, including software engineers. A lot of these people may have dropped out of high school or college, but street smarts are real
Some of the successful ones that own their own businesses are able to make a lot of money (a consistent >500k/year). The downsides are that those businesses are difficult to scale since they are service oriented, and they depend on good physical health. Moreover, consistent quality is mostly the responsibility of the owners, and again, that can't always scale far either. You also get out what you put in, in most cases it seems like the pay is a linear function of productivity. It's definitely not easy or normal to make that much, but it's doable as a tradesman
I don't doubt your anecdotal data. However there is a difference between being a trades worker and running a business. Usually running a business means managing a team of trades workers and that comes with it own set of headaches. If you look at the BLS data on median income for traders workers, the data is not so impressive ~60K for plumbers, electricians and other workers.
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.
Tradesmen that can run a business and aren’t in the auto mechanics space, the oil industry, or working (vs supervising) in construction seem to do so well.
Those three are caveats based on anecdotal evidence on industry trends and manual labor injury risks.
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