re: New figures on apprentice trade pay vs. new college grad pay

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And say what you want, AI will annihilate the white collar job market. Medical, law, accounting, customer service, even marketing will be radically affected. It’s coming.

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You mean the customer base for these high paid plumbing company owners? Sounds like the rates they can charge will bottom out..or we will just re import Mexicans to do it.

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I am amazed that the average compensation out of college is $69k. My younger brother is 25 and it seems like most of his peers were making around $55k out of college a couple of years ago. Also,

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There is just such a huge variance. I work for a regional bank and our corporate banking first year analysts fall into 3 starting salary buckets:

$75k- underwriting and portfolio management
$95k- Relationship management
$105k - capital markets

All are eligible for a bonus of up to 20% year 1

And we can’t compete with the money center banks, much less investment banking, private equity, etc.

I’d assume most engineering degrees far exceed $69k as well as a bunch of techy majors too

Btw this is Charlotte and not NYC, SF, etc

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Everyone has to choose their own path but I’d say for me the college education that I “didn’t directly use” was, far and away, the most important step in all of it.

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This is true for many many people.

I attended trade school 2 nights a week and worked at least 40 hours a week as an apprentice electrician for 4 years and after the first year went to college 2 nights a week for 6 years. I worked as much OT as I could get and sidelined wiring houses when I wasn’t working OT. I earned an associates degree in trade school and a BS EE degree in college during this time. I got injured just after topping out and knew my days as an electrician or an engineer were going to be limited so I went back to college and earned a BS BA with the intention of earning a masters degree and going to law school. I was the second person in our family to graduate from high school and the first and second to earn a degree. About the time I finished the business degree I was hired as a project manager for a large industrial contractor and a year later I was hired as the general manager of the electrical division of an multi disciplined engineering firm. 2 years after taking that job I drug up and started my own business with me and my dad and in 3 years had 45 full time employees. I sold that business 12 years after staring it for enough money to retire at 45. I did so and nearly lost my mind and started doing some consulting work which I have been doing for 15 years and will probably do until I reach room temperature.

I provide that information to say this. Had I not had an education when I was injured on the job I would be disabled now and living on about $2000 a month. I have a trade. It opened up soooooo many opportunities for me but without the education also I would be in serious financial trouble as soooooo many 45 and older tradesmen become. This is the reality for a majority of people who go into a trade instead of getting an education. It is far more common than someone working into their 60s, becoming upper level management or running a successful small business. I was extremely lucky… I had a family that supported me emotionally when I was going to school 4 nights a week and working 40+ hours a week, that same family instilled in me a work ethic that is not normal and an attitude that quitting is not an option and when things go to shite you wipe the shite off and get on with life. I am also lucky in that I can be taught, can learn and I am not overly stupid. Even with all of that it was a razor thin margin….. of the 60 apprentices I started to school with 2 are working as superintendents, 1 started a VERY successful contracting business, 3 managed to retire at 50 and 55 and as far as anyone knows 2 are still plying their trade. The rest are doing something else unrelated to the trade, disabled or dead. 9 of 60 made it to either retirement or managed to leverage our trade into a career that allows us to work into our 60s so far. That’s 15% from a highly formal apprenticeship program with the most respected educational requirement in the building trades who worked in the safest segment of the building trades….85% of us did not make it to retirement and have gone into unrelated fields. Only 2 still work with their tools in the trade. That’s reality. Yes, when we were 25-35 years old we earned more than out educated peers. I would guess 4 of us are still earning more than most of our peers….but 85% of us did not make retirement age in the trade. That is reality. Mike Rowe can eat a bag of dicks….he is either a con man or an idiot. My experience is not unusual….it is the norm, it is the reality of trade jobs.

The bullshite people throw out about AI is dumb AF, especially the blue collar people like white collar guys don’t already use AI.

But guess what, I can do what they do, I did for years, but they can’t do what I do nor what you do…they aren’t smart enough, aren’t good enough with math and frankly they just don’t have the IQ to even learn or understand the concepts.

And what they don’t understand is someone still has to make decisions and when millions are on the line industries like the petrochemical or even finance or accounting are not going to leave final decisions up to what the computer says and only what it says.

Everyone in the petrochemical industry has been using machine learning ai before it was cool…guess what still can’t find enough

And look if you are going to go into the trades, go the industrial route and get on with an actual plant as soon as possible.

The funniest thing though is the blue collar guys who are all 5’10 240 thinking people iqs 50% higher and much higher mechanical aptitude couldn’t learn what they do within 2-3 years. I’ve been there and done that and if you have an iq over 110 you move up stupid quick. When you work around 90iq people all day…just 110 seems like a genius

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I’ve done both, being on white collar side is much better

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Ive done both too and its not as clear cut as you’re making it

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Ask Augustan he has don’t both too

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Yikes

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Ive done both too and its not as clear cut as you’re making it

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Sure if you are in management on the field side it isn’t, but actually in the field climbing in attics, climbing under houses….it clear as day.

And sue me, I misspelled a username

Once again, I’ve done both

And I was laughing at you for agreeing with Awgusta, not at your misspelling

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It is an anti-education agenda that is being driven that is the same old chestnut that capital has employed against labor since the dawn of civilization

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Leon frickin' Trotsky over here.

Anecdotal evidence here, but I work a white collar job in tech and my older brother is a high voltage electrician. He’s 4 years older than me and we make roughly the same amount of money. The difference is that he has to work 10-15 hours of overtime every week out in the elements traveling to wherever work is for that week, while I work my 40 hours per week from home in the A/C.

That is the difference between college education and trade work.