My brother-in-law is 34 and the hardest working man I know. He is a welder and travels all over the South on projects. He makes shucks... I think $35 an hour. That's $72K a year. Try to raise a family on $72k a year... if your wife ain't working you are broke.
If he's traveling all over the south on projects, he should be getting per diem also. If he runs his own welding rig (truck, welding machine, etc) he should be getting an hourly rate for them also. That's where the $ is made. I deal with welders all the time and don't know of too many that's going to run the roads and be gone from home all the time for only $35/hr
He gets per diem, company truck, and works a ton of overtime. So he does really well but has no life. His base salary is still $72K. No one wants to work these days, you are correct. No one wants to work 65 hours a week in a trade to make $35 turn into 120k.
My son is a nurse and he works 3 days a week and makes bank! He has a 4 year degree in nursing. He worked on a lawn service from 15 to 22 and he said nope... I ain't going to work this hard ever again. Leaning a trade is great if you turn that trade into a small business where you pay other people to be your worker. But if you are out there slaving in the Alabama heat for someone else....it's not worth it.
