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What Mick Rowe and all these other tradesmen don't tell these newbies is that many tradesmen jobs are taken over by skilled foreigners will to do the job for half the price. Why bob for 100 an hour when Jose will do it for 40 an hour. I only use my trade when I can't get overtime on my corporate job.
The other thing they don't tell you is how worn out you'll be by the end of your working years, if you even get to retirement. For every 10 people I know who were in the trades, well over half had to retire early because they wore out their bodies doing all that hard work. Some jobs are easier. But a lot of them involve very heavy work that's hard on bones and joints not to mention extremely dangerous. The other thing that tradespeople have to deal with is competition from those working under the table, doing side work, not having a legal company and working without permits and insurance. Hire a company to do your work responsibly and legally and pay that high price y'all are talking about or save half that money and have your friend down the street do it. It's good money in his pocket, meanwhile the legal company struggles.
Not overrated but definitely over hyped someimes. Right now, tradespeople are pretty busy due to the crazy demand for home renovations cause by more remote work. But, that will settle back down to normal. Soem people will go back to offices and some remote will even rent cheap office space close to home just so they can have separation and not bring work clutter into their homes.
Commercial/industrial tradespeople seem to make more money than those that mostly to residential and smaller jobs so there are subsets within the trades that affect income. And, as someone said above, how much you charge will affect how many customer/which customers you get and your overall income.
It depends on the skilled trade, and it depends on the college degree. It also depends on the skill of the person.
I spent 10 years in the electrical trade. I saw lots of subpar work by guys who were terrible at the trade, and lots of high quality stuff from top electricians. You really do get what you pay for and the latter has enough work where they are free to pick and choose jobs and command a very high rate. At the same time, some of the guys who don't do that well, struggle in the trade, get laid off frequently, have to charge low rates to land jobs/or pick up the crap work that the "good" shops don't want to do, and get labeled a hack when the work is subpar. There was also a lot of drugs and drama in the industry. It was also a heavy physical toll. For every electrician making 6-figures plus, there's probably a handful struggling to make half of that. SO if you enter a trade and think you will be making 6-figures, think again. It takes a level of skill and drive to get to that level.
It's the same as any job really. Nobody is going to pay you big money just to show up. You actually have to show you are capable of providing value.
That guy is selling a bill of goods. He should let me know when non-degreed workers have more than a few percent of big company management or technical positions.
1. Earning a degree isn't just about getting that first good job.
2. Using Google as an example - one may not need a degree for some positions....that said google has a hyper well educated workforce (see below).
The no-degree path works well for a few geniuses and near geniuses and a small percentage of coders, some in gaming, VR and whatnot.
That said, I'm well acquainted with a young man who by IQ measure is a genius. College was one long watershed moment for him.....studying subjects he didn't enjoy, being forced to work hard and in groups, studying under profs./TAs etc. he disliked, for the first time not automatically being the smartest person in the room etc.
lol...all these price quotes have just made me realize that somebody has to be able to afford these services which the trades provide, which, as for me and my household, we "canna" right now
What Mick Rowe and all these other tradesmen don't tell these newbies is that many tradesmen jobs are taken over by skilled foreigners will to do the job for half the price. Why bob for 100 an hour when Jose will do it for 40 an hour. I only use my trade when I can't get overtime on my corporate job.
There are scads of desk jockey jobs with the same problem.
It's not clear whether being a sparky or an EE is the right move at this point.
I cut grass at $90-130/h hour on the side. I guess it’s where you live.
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