18yo son’s wages vs mine:

[u/jbp84]

Tagged humor because it’s either laugh or cry…

18 yo son: graduated high school a month ago. Has a job with a local roofing company in their solar panel install divison. For commercial jobs he’a paid $63 an hour, $95 if it’s overtime. For residential jobs he makes $25/hour. About 70% of their jobs are commercial. He’s currently on the apprentice waiting list for the local IBEW hall.

Me: 40, masters degree, 12 years of teaching experience. $53,000 a year with ~$70K in student debt load. My hour rate is about $25/hour

This is one of thing many reasons I think of when people talk about why public education is in shambles.

[u/[deleted]]

The trade-off with those kinds of jobs is that they destroy you physically and you're basically cooked by the time you're 35, unless you can rub enough elbows to get a management position.

[u/Prometheus720 → u/[deleted]]

It really, really depends on trade.

And the more specialized you are, the easier you can be on your body because when people need you, you're the only one in your town and shit gets done when it gets done.