re: How will young people ever get ahead?

Posted on 5/3/23 at 1:33 pm to Ridgewalker

Posted by AwgustaDawg

CSRA

Member since Jan 2023

13775 posts

Posted on 5/3/23 at 1:33 pm to Ridgewalker

quote:
Guessing this has been posted but.

Become an Electrician, a Plumber, HVAC tradesman. Or go into Engineering. A co-workers kid just signed onto an 80K gig in Engineering right out of school.

But, it is tougher on the kids trying to make their way, no doubt. It's a shame our government is ran by China's pet.

Go in the trades, stay away from engineering...I work in the industry, trust me, engineers owe a pile of money in student loans, we work them like animals and they make WAY less than the tradesmen working with them when the tradesmans package is looked at in its entirety. I manage both...the pipefitters and electricians and tin knockers (and other trades) I work with make somewhere between $48 and $62 per hour in their pocket as we say...that is what they see on their check as gross and net pay. They also have somewhere between 10 and 17% of that amount in retirement paid on their behalf by their employer...they do not match this amount, it is part of their package and is part of the overall cost of employing them. They also have health insurance, paid completely by the employer, that amounts to about $9-$10 on hour. Neither of these is paid out of their "in pocket wages". They receive 1 and half time their rate of pay for any hours worked over 8 per day unless the job is scheduled for 4-10s and then they its anything over 10 plus any hours worked on the fifth day. They are paid one and a half times their wages for any work performed on Saturdays, regardless of how many hours they have worked during the week. They are paid 2 times their wages on Sundays and Holidays worked regardless of the number of hours they have worked during the week. If they work more any shift other than the day shift they receive a 10% premium for the evening shift and 15% premium for the night shift. They have no paid leave and are accessed 2-3% or their wages for working dues (outside their monthly union dues which work out to about .5% on a standard 40 hour week). Part of the working dues goes to a lay off fund where they have some income when laid off and entitles them to a international union pension which, in the course of a 40 year career, means about $3K a month for them and their spouse as long as they live...on top of their annuity. This is the least they can be paid...there is no upper limit to what they can be paid...we often pay per diem, pay for special skills, pay for hazardous work and, rarely, simply because you can't get enough of them to finish a project. They are also paid accordingly for being a foreman or general foreman.

The engineers we employee make about the same hourly rate...but their retirement is a 401K...at least they pay up to 10% out of their pay and the company matches that. They also pay about 30% of the health insurance costs. They also do not earn premium overtime...they are normally paid straight time hourly rates for anything over 40 but depending on the project they may not be paid anything extra for overtime. They do earn paid time off and have 11-15 paid holidays that the tradesmen do not get. At the end of a full 12 months of employment the engineer will have earned about 75% of what the tradesman earned. Many also have substantial student loan debts that the tradesman does not have unless they incurred them outside of the trade...all of their training is on the company with about 10% of it coming from their working dues.

I am their boss. I make a substantial amount more hourly than either....but my package is more in line with the engineers in that all of my retirement is based on the 401k matching model, I get paid straight time for anything over 40 hours, and my I pay out of pocket for about 40% or so of my healthcare. At the end of a typical year if we have all worked say 46 hours a week the GFs I would with will make about what I make when all is said and done. The foreman will make a little less, the jouneymen a little less than them and the engineers will have made less than the journeyman. And we burn engineers out at a startling rate...and can replace one with a couple of years experience in a matter of days when it usually takes a couple of weeks to hire a tradesman, if not much longer, depending on where in the country you are.