Fixed, high demand combined with a low offer explain the high price. Contributing to reduce the offer of work capacity is that handyman, plumber, gardener and

Fixed, high demand combined with a low offer explain the high price. Contributing to reduce the offer of work capacity is that handyman, plumber, gardener and related careers still rely on experience and apprenticeship to qualify people (as opposed to easy access to formal and informal information sources in IT) - how does a subredit for plumbing compares with stackexchange, moocs and all sort of tech manuals availabe? On the other side, IT gets other forms of compensation, such as a greater sense of "doing something with your life", and that is one reason it can pay less than plumbers. N.B. I'm not saying one can't feel accomplished with a plumbing career, but it is far less common to find one such person than it is to find someone who finds a IT career fulfilling. You could also say the IT market is just better/more efficient and that there is way more liquidity on IT work than plumber work. If you have a stock and someone is attempting a aggressive takeover (that is, one agent in the market intensely needs what you have), you can ask more than market price and still sell. In plumbing, the client often faces similar situations. Other factor is that there almost always is a time pressure and the client does not have perfect information, calling every plumber in town to gauge prices has a cost in time. Concluding, I still wouldn't go for plumbing. I (personally) wouldn't be fulfilled with such a career. More relevant is the fact that $125 is probably the most you will ever be able to charge (correcting only for inflation, some fluctuation on demand or offer) while on IT, the cap is likely higher (I don't know the market you are inserted in, but plumbing is more commodity than IT)