Pet peeve of my veterinarian wife who went through all the advanced schooling to see people with no education make more and retire after 30 years
Example posted: Late life wages for engineers 95-100k
Underground coal miners with no education in my area are making $125-130k with minimal overtime and coal demand is actually increasing and they are looking to hire miners right now
The coward cop from Broward was making $110,000 year in retirement what was he making before he retired with full pension at age 50, meanwile the engineer is still having to work.
It’s fuarked up.
A career in Engineering is pretty much “up or out”, you have to move onto management if you want to continue your career, it’s very hard to have an entire career in engineering as an “individual contributor”.
I have a commercial drivers license and a couple other blue collar certifications. No degree. No trade school certs.
I made just barely under 70K last year and turned down as much overtime as I could.
I am not sure where you got those figures. I was making good money before I retired but get less than half of what I was making in retirement. Typically west coast firefighters and police are payed more than people on the east coast. I am getting no where near what you say the Broward County cop is making.
But regardless... you make a good point. But it is equally interesting to me why people who pursued a basically worthless degree during four to five years of partying and merriment believe that their degree entitles them to make more for the rest of their lives than those who actually get their hands dirty doing the actual work or in the case of engineers calculations.
My brother has no degree, but he has been a captain at a major airline for decades. He calls himself a glorified bus driver; I don't even want to tell you how much he makes. But he is good at his job and is responsible for many millions of dollars of equipment and dozens of lives. These days you get payed mostly for what you do and not so much the degree that you were pursuing in your youth. Coal mining is not what it used to be. It is largely running heavy equipment in often challenging conditions, something your wife would have no clue about. Coal mining still can take a terrible toll on your health as well.
I went to a high school prom with my best friend's sister. She became a vet. She thought that she should be entitled to more money than others for mostly spaying puppies and kittens and giving them shots. She was always unhappy about something and eventually killed herself.
In Washington State, Civils with their PE can get low 90’s to mid $120’s with 6-10 years experience.