highest-paying trade jobs (no 4-yr. kolij deegree required) in the USA

[bloke]

' not certain, but I suspect (??) all of these pay better than cobbling together freeway philharmonic, church-gig, polka band, and adjunct tuber-teechin' work...

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[2nd tenor]

Three of the five require an associate degree - anything applied is usually worth it and two years at ‘Uni’ should be more affordable than four.

Linesmen are out in all (foul) weathers - often during and after storms. They work at heights, and high voltage electricity will kill you. Dangerous and hard labour, you don’t see many old Linesmen. Lift repair is somewhat responsible; on top of that they’re working at heights, working in dirty and dark places, and need to be multi-skilled (electrical and mechanical engineering). Site work usually carries a premium and both of those jobs will be work that typically only strong and fit men are physically capable of.

Americans might have forgotten how to work with their hands, but a lot of other folk (nationalities) have too.

[bloke]

Truth be told, "buffing musical instruments" is filthy and - particularly when buffing small parts - one could end up in the hospital, if they screw up.

We can't keep on (if we expect to avoid collapse - which is the way we're quickly headed) paying each other to prepare food for each other, selling foreign-made goods to each other, or typing stuff into keyboards about each other - while paying the "public" sector half of those with "jobs" to do little more than boss the rest of us around.

[2nd tenor]

For a while I’ve thought that our standard of living is artificially high and that there’s too wide a difference between what captains of industry and shop floor workers earn. If you buy stuff in from low cost countries then you put your neighbour out of work, and if you don’t gainfully employ the poor then it’ll eventually end badly - for a healthy society there should be work for everyone and everyone should expect to work.

I don’t hold with university degrees for all but do hold with helping everybody to achieve the best that they can. Amongst the best teachers I’ve ever had were colleagues rather than academics and then one learns from one’s own observations and analysis. We teach our youngsters to expect to be taught everything from books and from lectures rather than from engaging others and from engaging one’s own brain.

As a society we’ve forgotten the value of those who do the basic hands on stuff, we forget that we depend on those that work with their hands and think ourselves superior because we’re academically qualified. There’s a lot of stuff that a fancy degree don’t give an ounce of help with and they can leave the graduate with a load of debt and a poor income, better to learn a trade and do something useful in and for society.

[bloke]

I'm pretty sure that skilled/blue collar/high-demand/reliable people in the USA write their own tickets, and - as expensive as it is to become and continue to be and M.D., I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to discover that some HVAC people NET more than quite a few M.D.'s.

btw...Being an M.D. is a blue collar job. They work with their hands and operate machinery.

[Three Valves]

Leave “we” out of this….

[2nd tenor]

I'm pretty sure that skilled/blue collar/high-demand/reliable people in the USA write their own tickets, and - as expensive as it is to become and continue to be and M.D., I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to discover that some HVAC people NET more than quite a few M.D.'s.

btw...Being an M.D. is a blue collar job. They work with their hands and operate machinery.

I have friends in various professions or trades, one had to call out an emergency plumber and was shocked at their high charge rate. Why so shocked? The friend also had to do out of hours and response work, was much more qualified and received a much lower payment for their work. It’s a weird world - to an extent it always has been - and he that has scarce and in demand skills can often set their own tariff. A long dead friend asked her boss why she, as a skilled shorthand typist and book keeper, was paid less than an evening hours office cleaner; the answer was that he could get daytime office staff but he couldn’t get evening office cleaners.

[bloke]

Typical tradesmen's skills' educations are not cheap, but are affordable. Some are allowed to apprentice, and then take qualifying tests (as they move up through their industries).

M.D.'s' educations cost a fortune, require nearly a decade of time, and their liability insurance (not to mention other expenses, how slowly they are paid by others' medical insurance, and all sorts of other costs) is all sky-high.

Again...An M.D. is blue collar, but (once all the costs of doing business are paid) I tend to suspect/wonder than a successful hustling HVAC person might actually come out ahead, annually, vs. many medical doctors.

bloke "apologies for redundancy"

[shawnv]

Late to the party here but worth mentioning is the scholarship opportunities for trade schools. There's a ton out there. I've been taking classes towards a CNC Machining/Programming Diploma for about a year now and after scholarships I haven't paid a dime yet. I've still got a few classes to go because I've only been taking them part time, but anyone who's looking at trades school could come out paying very little even compared to what the "advertised" price of tuition is for their school is. Just some food for thought for anyone considering the trades.

[Three Valves]

“Scholarship Opportunities” available in the Army, Navy, Air-Force and Marines.

[Willys]

Typical tradesmen's skills' educations are not cheap, but are affordable. Some are allowed to apprentice, and then take qualifying tests (as they move up through their industries).

M.D.'s' educations cost a fortune, require nearly a decade of time, and their liability insurance (not to mention other expenses, how slowly they are paid by others' medical insurance, and all sorts of other costs) is all sky-high.

Again...An M.D. is blue collar, but (once all the costs of doing business are paid) I tend to suspect/wonder than a successful hustling HVAC person might actually come out ahead, annually, vs. many medical doctors.

bloke "apologies for redundancy"

I retired early a few years back from a fairly large electric and gas utility company. Having many years experience as a mechanic, my role at retirement was a fleet supervisor overseeing 6 of our repair garages. This company has a union workforce so the hourly wage is stable within various trades and most differences in earnings come from the amount of OT worked.

Amongst mechanics, the top 5 wage earners the past several years have made just over $300k. There were several lineworkers and welders whom earned over $400k. I don't know where that falls in the range of MD earnings though I'm certain there are some who earn no more than $3-400k.