5 ms·

Not in the tech epicenters they don't, but they absolutely do in most of the country. I know an electrician that made 75k a year plus as much overtime as he po

by icxa 7y ago

Not in the tech epicenters they don't, but they absolutely do in most of the country. I know an electrician that made 75k a year plus as much overtime as he possibly could want (also to show this isn't just a rare anecdote, the top 25% electricians make a median salary of 71k). If you are a solid tradesman or tradeswoman that knows how to a. show up on time, b. communicate well, c. do the job, congrats, you are already in high demand. That's at least equal if not more than most software devs get paid around where I am. I bet if we counted off hours worked and oncall time, and added hours to hours, the electrician would make more. That's 75k working a proper 8 hours a day and not a minute more.

pmiller2 7y ago
>top 25% electricians... median salary of $71k. Hold on. I’m not even sure what percentile this is referring to. It sounds like it has to be at least an 80th percentile salary among all electricians. If that’s the case, then 80% aren’t making $71k, so this sounds a lot worse than you make it out to be.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  That would be the 87.5th percentile figure.
  - jakemoshenko 7y ago
    What an absurd way to say it too. So bad, in fact, it may be intentionally dishonest.
    - icxa 7y ago
      I realized I have worded it badly, I was pulling the figure from here: "The best-paid 25 percent made $71,430". I don't know why I added median there. https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salar... If you note here, there also seems to be cost of living adjustments just like you would find in tech centers as well, so California and New York averages seem higher. A lot of Electrical work is also unionized, so I don't know if that is a factor in any of this, but it seems like some tech workers seem to think unionization is better so there's that. The IBEW (http://www.ibew.org http://www.ibew.org) for example seems to claim their workers on average make 37.69/hr which is right at 75k. The statistic is a bit outdated, but if anything it remained flat, if not slightly increased.
      - pmiller2 7y ago
        That sounds like 75th percentile is $71k. The IBEW number is more convincing (I also can’t imagine it’s gone down since 2016). I still have to wonder how much of that is location dependent. $71k in most parts of the Midwest is quite comfortable. In the most expensive urban areas, it’s “livid with 5 roommates and never being able to save much” levels. It would be good if some of these stats were broken down by region, at least, if not MSA.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
naniwaduni 7y ago
It's also more than most electricians get paid around where you are. Like 90% of them.
- icxa 7y ago
  Doesn't seem to be the case. Average starting electrical work salary is right around on par for average starting web developer salary in my area (45k-50k for both) https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salar... Also, at least according to this union, you can make 10 more dollars an hour being in the union http://www.ibew.org http://www.ibew.org
  - jamesmp98 7y ago
    Unfortunately a large number of states are very anti-union
darepublic 7y ago
also in the event of an apocalyptic scenario I wager the tradespeople would fare better than the devs

by icxa 7y ago

pmiller2 7y ago

>top 25% electricians... median salary of $71k. Hold on. I’m not even sure what percentile this is referring to. It sounds like it has to be at least an 80th percentile salary among all electricians. If that’s the case, then 80% aren’t making $71k, so this sounds a lot worse than you make it out to be.

sokoloff 7y ago
That would be the 87.5th percentile figure.
- jakemoshenko 7y ago
  What an absurd way to say it too. So bad, in fact, it may be intentionally dishonest.
  - icxa 7y ago
    I realized I have worded it badly, I was pulling the figure from here: "The best-paid 25 percent made $71,430". I don't know why I added median there. https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salar... If you note here, there also seems to be cost of living adjustments just like you would find in tech centers as well, so California and New York averages seem higher. A lot of Electrical work is also unionized, so I don't know if that is a factor in any of this, but it seems like some tech workers seem to think unionization is better so there's that. The IBEW (http://www.ibew.org http://www.ibew.org) for example seems to claim their workers on average make 37.69/hr which is right at 75k. The statistic is a bit outdated, but if anything it remained flat, if not slightly increased.
    - pmiller2 7y ago
      That sounds like 75th percentile is $71k. The IBEW number is more convincing (I also can’t imagine it’s gone down since 2016). I still have to wonder how much of that is location dependent. $71k in most parts of the Midwest is quite comfortable. In the most expensive urban areas, it’s “livid with 5 roommates and never being able to save much” levels. It would be good if some of these stats were broken down by region, at least, if not MSA.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

naniwaduni 7y ago

It's also more than most electricians get paid around where you are. Like 90% of them.

icxa 7y ago
Doesn't seem to be the case. Average starting electrical work salary is right around on par for average starting web developer salary in my area (45k-50k for both) https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/electrician/salar... Also, at least according to this union, you can make 10 more dollars an hour being in the union http://www.ibew.org http://www.ibew.org
- jamesmp98 7y ago
  Unfortunately a large number of states are very anti-union

darepublic 7y ago

also in the event of an apocalyptic scenario I wager the tradespeople would fare better than the devs