5 ms·

Blue collar jobs have gained a reputation of being jobs held by slackers or the less fortunate. Ironic given that plenty of blue collar professionals can make

by gascan 8y ago

Blue collar jobs have gained a reputation of being jobs held by slackers or the less fortunate. Ironic given that plenty of blue collar professionals can make a lot more than your average worker in many degreed professions. (That's not to say the average blue collar wage is higher) I feel like referencing welding is pretty cliche, but for example: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/welding-is-a-100000-job/ http://profoundlydisconnected.com/welding-is-a-100000-job/

germinalphrase 8y ago
The downside being, of course, that your vision only lasts so long as a welder.
- biggieshellz 8y ago
  Why is that? If you wear your PPE (helmet with appropriate shade while welding, face shield while grinding), I would think you would be protected.
  - ddingus 8y ago
    You largely are, but incremental damage does happen through error largely. Examples: Difficult to see work becomes root cause if phase error between protection in place and start of arc. Ever glance over and see the bright arc? Hard to not do that. Use of marginal protection happens for a ton of reasons. Each flash exposure adds up.
    - germinalphrase 8y ago
      Yep - this largely what I've been told. Incidental flashes and cumulative exposure.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      Yeah, and my experience with welders (used to supervise shipyard jobs on drilling rigs) is that a lot of them are pretty bad with eye protection while using cutting torches as well.
      - ddingus 8y ago
        Oh good call. Those are well above safe limits. I see this all the time myself.
- blhack 8y ago
  Less so your vision and more your lungs.
rxhernandez 8y ago
Can make a lot more means nothing if you don't look at the distribution. According to Payscale[1] more than 90% of welders make less than $26/hour. I'm sure that there exists some welders that make 6 figures but 9/10 out of them don't come within a mile of that. 1. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Welder/Hourly_Rate https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Welder/Hourly_Rate
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
aj7 8y ago
The salary distribution function has a much different shape, trades vs. college. The expectation value of Total lifetime earnings does too.
mywittyname 8y ago
> Ironic given that plenty of blue collar professionals can make a lot more than your average worker in many degreed professions. No they don't, this is a myth that has become perpetuated in recent years. Mike Rowe might mean well by writing articles like this, but the content is a lie. The median salary of a welder in the US is $40,240 a year according to the BLS. People are essentially selling an entire generation a load of BS in order to flood the market with cheap labor instead of paying them more. There are some welders who make $100k a year, but they are several standard deviations above the mean. Those $100k/welders are like the $5MM/yr programmers. Yeah, they exist, but only in the top 1% of workers. I don't want my kids to be tradespeople. I watched 2008 destroy the careers of every tradesperson friend I had, along with nearly wiping out my family's (second-generation) construction business. I had talented friends in their early 20s that were forced to move back in with family after having their work hours cut to 2-3/hr a week (but they had to report to work everyday). The ones with family safety nets went to college, those without joined the military.
- megaman22 8y ago
  A half-way decent welder can generally make $20/hr, and live in low cost of living areas. That's a good living for many people. If you're willing to accept the boom-or-bust nature of construction projects, or remote (as in, go to where work is in demand) work, you can make considerably more. Then there's overtime, which your salaried white-collar worker doesn't get at all.
  - somethingwitty1 8y ago
    They do in locations such as California.
  - PC_LOAD_LETTER 8y ago
    Sure, but $20 an hour isn't really "more" than what people are making in degreed professions. > Then there's overtime, which your salaried white-collar worker doesn't get at all. Not true across the board - in fact, many mid-paying office jobs are hourly and do pay overtime. I know a bunch of people that worked at AT&T as "salaried" workers, but they still needed to log their hours toward projects, and received 1.5x pay when they worked more than 40/wk, which was most weeks.

by gascan 8y ago

germinalphrase 8y ago

The downside being, of course, that your vision only lasts so long as a welder.

biggieshellz 8y ago
Why is that? If you wear your PPE (helmet with appropriate shade while welding, face shield while grinding), I would think you would be protected.
- ddingus 8y ago
  You largely are, but incremental damage does happen through error largely. Examples: Difficult to see work becomes root cause if phase error between protection in place and start of arc. Ever glance over and see the bright arc? Hard to not do that. Use of marginal protection happens for a ton of reasons. Each flash exposure adds up.
  - germinalphrase 8y ago
    Yep - this largely what I've been told. Incidental flashes and cumulative exposure.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    Yeah, and my experience with welders (used to supervise shipyard jobs on drilling rigs) is that a lot of them are pretty bad with eye protection while using cutting torches as well.
    - ddingus 8y ago
      Oh good call. Those are well above safe limits. I see this all the time myself.
blhack 8y ago
Less so your vision and more your lungs.

rxhernandez 8y ago

Can make a lot more means nothing if you don't look at the distribution. According to Payscale[1] more than 90% of welders make less than $26/hour. I'm sure that there exists some welders that make 6 figures but 9/10 out of them don't come within a mile of that. 1. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Welder/Hourly_Rate https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Welder/Hourly_Rate

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

aj7 8y ago

The salary distribution function has a much different shape, trades vs. college. The expectation value of Total lifetime earnings does too.

mywittyname 8y ago

> Ironic given that plenty of blue collar professionals can make a lot more than your average worker in many degreed professions. No they don't, this is a myth that has become perpetuated in recent years. Mike Rowe might mean well by writing articles like this, but the content is a lie. The median salary of a welder in the US is $40,240 a year according to the BLS. People are essentially selling an entire generation a load of BS in order to flood the market with cheap labor instead of paying them more. There are some welders who make $100k a year, but they are several standard deviations above the mean. Those $100k/welders are like the $5MM/yr programmers. Yeah, they exist, but only in the top 1% of workers. I don't want my kids to be tradespeople. I watched 2008 destroy the careers of every tradesperson friend I had, along with nearly wiping out my family's (second-generation) construction business. I had talented friends in their early 20s that were forced to move back in with family after having their work hours cut to 2-3/hr a week (but they had to report to work everyday). The ones with family safety nets went to college, those without joined the military.

megaman22 8y ago
A half-way decent welder can generally make $20/hr, and live in low cost of living areas. That's a good living for many people. If you're willing to accept the boom-or-bust nature of construction projects, or remote (as in, go to where work is in demand) work, you can make considerably more. Then there's overtime, which your salaried white-collar worker doesn't get at all.
- somethingwitty1 8y ago
  They do in locations such as California.
- PC_LOAD_LETTER 8y ago
  Sure, but $20 an hour isn't really "more" than what people are making in degreed professions. > Then there's overtime, which your salaried white-collar worker doesn't get at all. Not true across the board - in fact, many mid-paying office jobs are hourly and do pay overtime. I know a bunch of people that worked at AT&T as "salaried" workers, but they still needed to log their hours toward projects, and received 1.5x pay when they worked more than 40/wk, which was most weeks.