[SunTzuWu]

The only people who make more than 15 dollars an hour are shrinks, plumbers and electricians.. and they make closer to 80 dollars an hour.

Plumbing companies may charge $80 per hour but plumbers don't make $80 per hour. An employer must match the SS and FICA taxes deducted from employees paychecks. Workers comp. insurance and liability insurance is based on payroll. After you figure in truck payments, fuel, vehicle insurance, maintenance and overhead for the office, I end up with costs of around $67 per hour. Thats breaking even. I still must turn a profit after taxes. Thats why Plumbers, Electricians, Mechanics etc. charge what they do. I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination.

[Myrddin]

Customers pay the loaded or "burdened" rate to cover all the other expenses required to provide the service. Insurance, training, office space, electricity, networking, vehicles are figured into that rate. That rate is often 3 to 4 times the actual gross income of the employee for the service provided. My "burdened" rate ranges from $170 to $250 per hour. At the time I was being billed at $250/hour, I was covering for 4 Java programmers, 2 EEs and 2 C++ programmers. I worked 240 hours per month. In the end, the company folded up and never paid many of the contractors...including my company. Thankfully I wasn't one of the new hires traveling across country with my household goods in a moving van when that decision was made. That happened to about 50 people who had been hired.

[Awestruck]

must just be around here that electricians and plumbers live pretty well... because I used to be married to one, and we had a pretty good life, as did others that I knew in those professions.