re: If you have kids starting to search for college/career... what is left worth pursuing?

They already do. Medicare reimburses less and less every year and more and more insurance companies are going to a flat rate reimbursement system. But I still make pretty good money all things considered.

Plumbing. He is going to be rich.

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Who the frick wants to travel and work OT once they have a family? Why do yall act like careers where you have to do those things to make good money are suddenly Great jobs? Much rather have my kid be an operator and work ot there than the jobs yall are recommending where have to travel.

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It is a great way to lose a family for certain.

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Those people don’t get paid salaries

They work by the hour and punch clocks

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They work by the hour, they never punch a clock. They may drop a brass but they will never punch a clock.

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engineering and then get a law degree....best of both worlds

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I know a PI attorney in Lafayette that did this. He's pretty well rounded as far as oilfield cases go.

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College is for suckers...

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Some careers require degrees and advanced degrees, hoss.

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Show us a job posting for a trade that has this salary.

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8 at $172,579

There's 8 that would pay someone qualified $172,579 a year without any overtime.


There are open calls in North Carolina on a Toyota Battery plant scheduled to finish in August of 2027 that is scheduled 6/10s and paying $12 an hour over scale and $150 a day per diem for working 90% of schedule. As of 2 weeks ago they were calling for 300 Journeyman wireman. At that scale in 52 weeks an electrician would have earned a little over $182K.

These jobs are out there. They are not scarce....what they are is damned hard work in damned rough conditions that require an enormous amount of skill and knowledge and a willingness to work an assload of overtime and be away from home at least part of the time. They are out there, they are not for everyone. And at the end of the day almost no one is physically capable of doing the work beyond their 50th birthday BUT they have 12 or more years yet to work.

"What this country needs is more lawyers"--Lionel Hutz

Here is the problem with going into a trade. The money is great, you can do it without going into debt, there is a lot of potential to own your own business.

There are ample opportunities in the trades to make 6 figures a year. Despite what some would claim it is not at all unusual. Despite what others would claim it is not at all easy to do. It requires LOTS of overtime, lots of skill, lots of knowledge, lots of physical ability and lots of simple luck. It requires working in conditions that most people would find intolerable doing what is at times incredible dangerous work.

The reason young people do not go in the trades like they once did is not because they are lazy or no account. Its because they can make a living without destroying their bodies and their lives. While it is entirely possible to make 6 figures even in the south as a tradesman most never do because most are not in a position where they can. You can't go on vacation, you can't get sick, you can't have a sick child, you can't have family members get sick or die....because you will be replaced. It is that simple. You also can't decide not to work 10-12 hours a day when needed because you will be replaced. Seriously, if you have not been in it you would never understand how truly difficult it is to earn a living in the trades. No matter how lucky and healthy you are you will eventually slow down due to age...at that point you will have difficulty keeping a job unless you have transitioned into management, something about 95% never do. These are the reasons young people shy away.

The industry has known it for years. I sat in on a Business Roundtable Think Tank 30 years ago and this was the very topic of that process...how to attract young people into the trades. The industry has failed miserably because they have not evolved.

Most people today are not making 6 figures a year. Only 18% of the people employed as we speak are earning in excess of $100k a year. 55% make less than $50k a year. That means somewhere around 27% make somewhere between $50 and a hundred. Median income is around $45k so it is not plausible that middle class requires $100k...it may require it to live a middle class lifestyle, certainly the middle 33% of Americans are not making it.

With that in mind it is VERY possible to make $45-65K year, before any benefits, working 8-10 months a year in MOST of the united states as a tradesman. The problem with that is after about 40 or so it gets harder. After 50 it is damn near impossible for most people. Meanwhile you can earn a degree, make about the same amount of money and continue to do so until full retirement age.

The trades have recognized this forever, we rely on young people who do not want to go to school, lure them in with promises of making big money which many certainly do, and then when they reach 50 we thank them for their service and wish them luck...and they are then forced to try to earn a living with a broken down body and a skill set that requires anything but. The idea of working as pipefitter on industrial jobs from the age of 18 through the age of 67 and earning a 6 figure salary half of those years is insane, it does not happen and will not happen. Anyone saying otherwise is telling a lie or does not know any better. Is it possible to make that money for 10-15 years? ABSOLUTELY. Very possible. Whats never been done, or rarely, is for anyone to do it for 40 years, allowing enough time at the start for learning the trade.

I am a 5th generation union tradesman. I make a helluva living based almost entirely on the fact that I decided to go into the trade...and get a college degree. I am 59 this year. I could work with my tools again but I would suffer severely and I would be among the first to be laid off when lay offs come and they come every fall. I know thousands and thousands of union tradesman, all trades, all ages. Most never see $100K a year. None do not slow down around 40 and find it damn near impossible to keep a job past 50. The few that do have transitioned in to management almost exclusively, that is about 3% of us. The rest earn a good living, if they are lucky, from about 25-45, less of a good living from 45-60, almost no living beyond 60, retire and die earlier because of the abuse they put themselves through in their 20s and 30s and 40s. It is not easy and it is not for everyone...its damned hard.

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