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re: WSJ: The High-School Juniors With $70,000-a-Year Job Offers
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:51 am to Tiger Prawn
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:51 am to Tiger Prawn
quote:
Need more of these types of programs in high schools for kids who aren't on track to go to college.
Exactly. They have pushed college in High Schools for so long even when a large number of their students can't cut it in college. So you end up having students who make bad grades pretty much just give up on trying to learn and then either become criminals or get shitty jobs.
If they had trade classes in school, or pushed more kids to vo-tech, you would get more of these kids to be productive members of society.
0
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:52 am to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
Every single metric, every single one of them, shows college graduates still make more than non college graduates as a whole, plus time off, plus benefits, plus no demand on the body
Sure. And that’s why smart kids should go to college. But not everyone is college material.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:53 am to dgnx6
quote:
You need these people more than the college grads.
I would argue you absolutely need both. Plenty of professions, even removing the bloat of degrees, still need post-graduate education to be competent in their professions.
You also need people in trades and in manual labor professions with competent skills. Trades are absolutely an option for some. It should be an option supported by high schools and colleges (this is a great avenue for utilization of community college for certs as well).
That said, anyone espousing that it's the only option is as ignorant as someone saying that college is the only option.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:53 am to GeauxTigers123
quote:
Sure. And that’s why smart kids should go to college. But not everyone is college material.
I don’t disagree, my contention is with the idiots here who think college is a scam and waste of time
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:53 am to Samso
One part that's missing from this is discussion of how hard the trades are on your body. These are good jobs, but people will be feeling it pretty good by their late 30s. These employers might start talking about fitness and body-wear minimization techniques these young new workers can start employing in their daily lives.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:58 am to Samso
In 20 yrs, there will be a shortage of white collar workers as the pendulum swings back.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:58 am to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
And he will make relatively that for the rest of his life with no benefits. Not bad, but certainly not what you should strive for either
you're right in a sense, but this is part of the problem
Telling every kid to shoot for the moon probably isn't working out for us. "Striving" to be really good at a trade and make enough to live and raise a family in a place where perhaps you don't need 200k to scrape by is fine. Healthy.
"Do what you love!"/"Don't settle!" -> "Do what you're good at, what provides for the needs of your family and something that is productive, honorable work"
Posted on 5/7/25 at 11:59 am to Samso
Trump is bringing back child labor
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:10 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
with 4 weeks paid time off, 401k match, t, etc.
Construction equipment techs get all that and can pull in 100k+ once they have a few years of experience/how much OT you want to work. There isn't a day that they aren't in demand. $40+ an hour isn't uncommon
You've got to be built for that work, but I have also seen a lot of tech become excellent sales reps, typically way better than college boys like myself, cause they know the equipment inside out. Just as many weren't cut out for sales cause it requires a level of taking it up the arse that blue collar dudes aren't built for.
We need these people as much as white collar jobs.
This post was edited on 5/7/25 at 12:12 pm
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:11 pm to Samso
According to Zip, Indeed, Glassdoor, The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, and the Pennsylvania Labor and Trades Council (Union Trades) the average salary for welders in Philadelphia WITHOUT regard to experience is $22.46 an hour. Add about 50% of that for benefits, again for open shop and union shops combined (the open shop will not have anywhere near that level of benefits) and you're talking about $33.69 an hour for a grand total of $70,075.20 a year in wages and benefits ($47, 717 in wages) for all welders in Philadelphia without any adjustment for experience or special skills It is unimaginable that the majority or even a significant number of entry level welding jobs in Philadelphia pay 97% of the average for all levels of experience including benefits and it is moronic to suggest that ANY entry level job welding job pays 150% of the average wages only regardless of level of experience.
So I did a little research and the contractor mentioned in the article has openings for tig welders with 10+ years experience at $27.49 an hour which is $57,000 a year or 84% of what they offered a junior in High School LOL. There is something not exactly right about this story but it feels good so don't question the veracity....
So I did a little research and the contractor mentioned in the article has openings for tig welders with 10+ years experience at $27.49 an hour which is $57,000 a year or 84% of what they offered a junior in High School LOL. There is something not exactly right about this story but it feels good so don't question the veracity....
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:12 pm to Dire Wolf
quote:
Construction equipment techs get all that and can pull in 100k+ once they have a few years of experience/how much OT you want to work. There isn't a day that they aren't in demand. $40+ an hour isn't uncommon
Like I said, not bad and good for someone with no secondary education, but nothing to strive for
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:13 pm to AwgustaDawg
quote:
There is something not exactly right about this story but it feels good so don't question the veracity....
as is typically the case
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:13 pm to Samso
70k in 11th grade is pretty sweet. Unfortunately they all died of alcoholism at 23.
This post was edited on 5/7/25 at 4:17 pm
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:16 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
Prepare for all of the people coming to swear that anyone who can be a tradesman is destined to be a silent $400k year owner/operator.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:16 pm to GeauxTigers123
quote:
Employees plumbers in Texas are making 100k+.
According to industry recruiters and the DOL average wages for plumbers in Texas for all levels of experience is $60, 278.40. or 14% of the average of ALL wages in Texas. This means that half the plumbers in Texas make less than this and half make more, more or less....
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:21 pm to AwgustaDawg
They know someone who makes $100k+. Thats all this is.
One of my best friends is a lineman for a utility company. He makes over $100k a year.
He also jumped at every OT opportunity. He is on call every 4th week. He works on average 55 hours a week. He has to deal with live wires, he works in storms, and sometimes he has to travel and stay in shitty places.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but this is a guy who would have been successful no matter what he did. He’s one of the smartest people I know. Had he done what I did, he’d be making twice as much as me because that who he is.
Let’s not pretend that the average tradesman is making $100k. They aren’t. Those with the 100k as a tradesman stories are likely people who would be in the top earner category no matter what they chose to do.
One of my best friends is a lineman for a utility company. He makes over $100k a year.
He also jumped at every OT opportunity. He is on call every 4th week. He works on average 55 hours a week. He has to deal with live wires, he works in storms, and sometimes he has to travel and stay in shitty places.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but this is a guy who would have been successful no matter what he did. He’s one of the smartest people I know. Had he done what I did, he’d be making twice as much as me because that who he is.
Let’s not pretend that the average tradesman is making $100k. They aren’t. Those with the 100k as a tradesman stories are likely people who would be in the top earner category no matter what they chose to do.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:21 pm to Bunk Moreland
quote:
In a UA local, he would get good healthcare, pension, and free apprenticeship training.
He will far better off in UA Apprenticeship and working for UA contractors but the apprenticeship training is not free. He would pay nothing while attending school but a portion of his working assessments for his entire career will go toward training AND at least part of his salary will be forwarded to the UA local apprenticeship training committee from the contractors he will work for because those contractors ONLY source of revenue is what their employees earn....and the employers pay for apprenticeship training when they could pay the pipefitter/plumber or service tech that money....again, he is far better off but nothing in life is free....it may well be that you do not reach in your wallet to pay but when your employer is paying they are using your money that you earned because they sure as hell ain't using theirs....
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:22 pm to AwgustaDawg
What we need is for the students that aren’t killing it, but are still qualified for college need to elect to go into trades instead of maximizing their ability for a useless liberal arts degree.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:23 pm to BluegrassBelle
quote:
A person making $68k individually in the state of Louisiana is damn near double the median income.
But the op isn’t about Louisiana. It’s about a major NE city where the col is much higher.
Posted on 5/7/25 at 12:24 pm to Tiger Prawn
quote:
Need more of these types of programs in high schools for kids who aren't on track to go to college.
I'd have saved a pile of money if I'd gone straight into a trade from high school. I went to college when I didn't know what I wanted to do, did poorly, and ended up working a trade. After a year of that I figured out what I wanted and went back to school and finished, grades were good enough to cum loud.
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