BRING BACK THE ELECTRICAL TRADE

One of the biggest myths we hear from the “college-for-all” crowd is that despite a higher initial wage, someone with a degree will earn more over the long term than a skilled tradesman. Like most statistics, this one is skewed to portray a narrative. I decided to do a little research and present the results here. I compared data from Indeed.com and Salary.com, both were very close with most reporting salaries within a few hundred dollars of each other. Indeed.com presented some additional data about the experience level of the worker and gave data for entry level through 10 years of experience.

Accountant- average compensation with 10 years of experience= $61,608.00

Electrician- average compensation with 10 years of experience= $62,628.00 (it should be noted that this was based on an hourly scale and it was reported that over the course of a year most electricians earned an additional $9k in overtime bringing total compensation to $72,044

We could stop there but there’s far more to consider. Another boilerplate argument is “There is no opportunity for advancement”. This is false as well. Here’s a few more eye-opening statistics for you. While I choose to use my own industry as a platform for this analysis, we could make similar arguments for most skilled trades. Here are some job opportunities that are available for electricians who want to take their career to the next level:

Electrical Estimator- $69,952.00

Electrical Project Manager- $88,811.00

Electrical Project Executive- $123,391.00

While salaries are important, what’s more important is introducing young men and women to careers for which they truly have an interest. Help your kids find their passion and let them explore anything and everything they might want to consider as a career. If they show interest in the skilled trades, there are great resources like Bring Back the Trades, Inc that are organizing career fairs that will let your kids talk to both trades schools and actual employers so they can learn about career opportunities.