Does anybody work in trades? (welding, construction, mechanic, etc...)

[Flash421]

Boilermaker pay is 34 an hour in my area

 

[PICK3]

lot of talk of high wages up in here

knot too much talk of independent craftsmen going out of business or union peeps getting sent home

automatic 40+ hour weeks and 50 weeks/year employment is getting slimmer



just sayin'

 

[miplank]

Stfu

 

[samoth]

lot of talk of high wages up in here

knot too much talk of independent craftsmen going out of business or union peeps getting sent home

automatic 40+ hour weeks and 50 weeks/year employment is getting slimmer

Well, I guess "high" is relative. One can do very well in the oft-neglected trades of today's world, especially relative to the expensive college tuitions and worthless majors being so heavily pushed by everyone; there's also the opportunity cost of 4+ years salary. But, like everything else, it takes time, learning, experience, and ethic. It's not something I hear of being pursued mid-life, but I'm sure it's possible.

 

[themondtster]

I don't know anything about construction -- I freely admit that.

But at those rates, how could a US-built plant ever compete with a foreign one? If you compound those rates with other union-related productivity losses (I.e. Featherbedding), a US-built plant is going to carry much more capital outlay and depreciation cost than its ROW counterpart.

Believe me they make plenty. As long as the product they make is in high demand and selling price in the market doesn't drop its mad profit. That's why even though the price on oil is so high, the refineries are making record profits the last couple years. At our plant its the same. We make about 4 times what we spend to run and we are a really small plant(its all figured in the production cost and then marked up a certain percent). Guess it all depends on the plant, I hear a lot of these "greener" plants are mostly government funded, and around they have also had quite a few get bought out and some shut down.
Some also get tax breaks. We on the other hand pay an obsurd amount of local taxes to the community because of the hazard.

From My Droid!

 

[C0LUMB0]

last i knew union electricans in my state were making around $34 an hour...how much is the journeymen rate in ireland?

About the same $34-36 an hour.

 

[C0LUMB0]

american workers have the highest productivity of any country in the world.
and we consume more than any other country.

Whoa there steve...The Irish built all your major cities, roads and rail roads. .........

 

[binö]

american workers have the highest productivity of any country in the world.

and we consume more than any other country.

why bother even posting in here when you make fun of trade peeps?
remember calling people "plumbers" like it was a disss? i do bro

 

[binö]

Um, how old are you? Apprenticeships take a long time.

And none of the trades are highly paid, man. You can move into the solid middle class with many of them, but that's it.

maybe it is relative, but some of the wages discussed in this thread are certainly high, higher than a lot of jobs in this country, even ones that require some sorta degree.

 

[Sust 350]

Everyone talking about making
30 to 40 dollars an hour, but after taxes your making 20 to 30 dollars.