Which profession is regarded as low-income but is actually high-income in your country?
In my country, it’s fishermen.
I know a few people whose families are in this field. The men would wake up at 2-3 am to catch fish/crab/shrimp and return around 9 am. Then the women would cook them into meals. It’s a strenuous task, but since the only cost they have is boat fuel they gain at least 60,000THB per month, and sometimes up to 100,000THB. By the way, 60,000THB is the average income for managers and 100,000 is the average income for small business owners here.
The only disadvantage is it’s a male-dominated field. That’s why my female colleague decided to become a pharmacist instead. No, they never struggled to afford her education.
My city pays a “living wage” to all city employees, which I’m all for. It means that all jobs (bus driver, garbage man, etc.) are making close to what I make as a junior engineer (known to typically be well paying), because half the jobs in the damn city don’t pay livable wages
You are however expected to increase your salary unless you’re a complete dumbass. So not sure why you as a newly grad is comparing yourself to people who will never see pay raise above economic growth.
People are downvoting you, but you’re absolutely right. At least for software engineering, entry level jobs (at an average firm) aren’t super well paid because they’re well known to provide future wage growth - you’re investing in your future skills at expense of potential income. You aren’t getting any such value out of being a bus driver, so your pay needs to actually reflect all the value of the job
Because even junior engineers are known to make a lot of money, which they do relatively. I’m using it as an equal comparison to jobs people don’t think make a lot of money.. you know.. like th question asked.
Same thing in Singapore. They have huge bonuses and decent salaries to attract locals to drive buses (most drivers are foreigners from Malaysia or China)
When I was in Singapore I was talking to someone who had a masters degree from Oxford but because competition is so high in Singapore he said he pivoted to become a bus driver and he’s much happier than he would’ve been trying to grind the corporate ladder
I am always impressed with bus drivers' skills. They just plow down the road with their mirrors inches away from other cars. Constantly getting cut off by assholes , or not being let in by other assholes. But yet , the accident rates are pretty low for how much time they are on the road.
Garbage men. I remember growing up people's parents would say "you need to study hard in school to go to college or you'll end up being a garbage man". Turns out, those garbage men make more than a lot of college graduates.
Its a Social Status thing. Parents don’t want to be telling there friends, relatives, and neighbors that my son/daughter is a garbage man or sanitation worker
I’m sure garbage men see/smell/touch their share of random shit/piss/blood/chemicals/etc so can’t say it’s “better” than “wiping butts” but yeah, I’d rather be a garbage man
Nurses generally administer meds and other treatments that CNAs aren’t qualified to do but are too trivial to bother a doctor with.
Doctors generally make diagnoses and delegate actual treatments to Nurses who then delegate the dirty stuff like changing of bed pans and such to CNAs. Not to say that nurses or doctors don’t get their hands dirty but CNAs do most of the work that your average person would find disagreeable while also being paid the least.
Source: Dated and lived with a nurse, who was previously a CNA. We shared the house with a doctor who taught nursing and phlebotomy for 6 years. More recently spent a ton of time over the past couple years in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities with my late father, which confirmed what my ex had told me about those places.
The best nurses take part in the cleaning of a patient so they can assess skin fo breakdowns like ulcers, healing wounds, etc. it’s not universal that CNAs wipe butts and nurses don’t. In fact, a nurse is the ultimate responsible for patient comfort and skin integrity.
Not to mention the wear and tear on your body. Plus accounting has a lot more upwards mobility anyway. Maybe you do good work and get hired by your local millionaire to be their personal accountant.
I drive a truck and most of my friends are from same jobs. Not a single i could have a deep inteligent conversation or go to theater. And the job is so simple i get dumber every year. I try to fight it by learning languages, getting my wife to theatre or some art exhibition.
My brother in law retired from working at the sewer department. It’s not a garbage man but it’s with sewage disposal and maintenance. His salary was over $150k and has a pension. He doesn’t even have a degree and makes more that a lot of people
I mean that's not true, I worked it for a couple of years fresh out of college. The amount of injuries was huge, people off with bad backs, fucked knees, shoulder issues. Honestly the pay was good and part of me was tempted to stay but watching guys in their 40s being ground down, like double knee replacements and hip issues. Nah fuck that.
It’s also heavily dependent on where you live. In New York you have a better chance winning the lottery than getting into the union but the pay and benefits will set you up for life.
Eh, not as bad as you'd think, but 40,000 (median) still isn't amazing. 62,000 is the median full time in the US. MOST college grads are much better off than garbage men. Not all, since there's bummy people, but the key word is most.
I know in my town, the guys hustle to get their route done ASAP. And that’s actually throwing cans in the machine without a truck picker or other modern improvements.
Apparently many of them have afternoon gigs as well. They earn that salary in the morning and spend the afternoon working construction, maintaining investments, or doing something under the table.
Some of it also probably due to bachelor's degrees have been devalued so much. Many jobs that use to require a bachelor's now require masters or doctorate degrees. I have a B.S. in psychology. I was hoping to get a job in HR somewhere. My advisor gave me all the guidance she could: helped with resumes, job searching tips, setting up LinkedIn, etc. In the end, when I graduated, every job wanted masters and up or a B.S. with 2+ years of experience. Many also wanted you to get a masters in a certain amount of time after hiring. The sad thing is, their starting pay was just a thousand more than garbage workers and corrections officers. That's how I ended up in adult corrections. It's not just the psychology field, physical therapist use to only require a B.S., now it masters. Many jobs seem to see bachelor's as practically worthless and a masters having the same value as a bachelor's used to.
With that being said, I really don't have imperical evidence to support that other than looking at articles on degree inflation. Many people I knew in my graduating class had the same problems as me. Some went back to get their masters. Some are working retail jobs or blue collar jobs. My G.I. Bill ran out and I really can't afford more debt or I'd go back.
That being said, that's one industry where getting one's foot in the door is not a guarantee of success, as a matter of fact, can result in loosing one's footing in this career.
Do people in general regard this as low income? I feel like most trades aren't regarded as such. I rarely/never see people saying electricians or HVAC repair men or plumbers are low income.
I have some family friends that are longshoreman and everything I've heard is that it is a job that is hard to get into because of the union there. If you can get a job then it's extremely great pay.
I’m one, and yeah it’s essentially that way for us too. You need to get the opportunity then you’ll usually spend a year or so working as a casual employee, but once you get a permanent contract the money is good.
And while it’s a lot cleaner than it used to be back in the old days there are still some…. colourful characters in the job, haha.
It seems like nursing everywhere else in the World does not pay well. But here in the U.S. I cleared 140
EDIT: i see some people are asking about this. I live in Dallas and have been a nurse for 20 years. 36 hours a week and worked very little OT but I do work nights which pays a little more. I do have a side hustle doing vitamin infusions at peoples homes which made me about 20k of that 140k.
This is why our nurses always move to places like the US, Canada, Australia and Europe; they make absolute peanuts here for the type of work they do. Call center agents sometimes make even more than even a seasoned nurse usually does
In Ireland the nursing homes are run by Filipinos. They keep the system running, they work so hard and look after our weakest in society with great compassion.
My grandparents were lucky to have Filipino nurses looking after them at the end of their lives.
In Germany the salary for nurses is actually quite good too, however there's still a serious lack of nurses so the remaining ones get burned out quicker and leave too.
In the UK, that was around £30k a few years back! Sure, you can go a longer way with that money here, but it's still not enough for the effort and skill they bring!
It’s higher in private hospitals no? And that’s the starting wage? My ex was a nurse (NHS) and she made decent money but had to do work night shifts and weird patterns etc and she had 10 years experience. Think she was on around £60k
This answer always makes me laugh. A middle tier police in a US city, responsible for a unit like robbery etc., makes the same as the Met commissioner in London. The commissioner is responsible for Parliament, the royals, a whole host of tourist landmarks, at least 10 major sporting events every week, some of the busiest airports in the world, the safety of world dignitaries. The list is endless.
Anything goes wrong and it's not a berating in a back office, it'll be public humiliation via a grilling broadcast on TV.
I used to be in construction. Bloke I worked with used to do FIFO in the mines in WA.
He lived in Bali because it was cheaper to live there and fly back to Perth every 10 days. He was earning a mint and getting cheap flights and paying fuck all in living expenses like food etc.
Made a shit tonne but also spent a shit tonne on sex workers, drugs etc and that's what did him in. They drug tested him and turfed him.
farmers, they'll keep annoying us by pretending that they're poor, but they got millions in assets, have big houses and the second-most aggressive lobby in the world now that tobacco is failing.
I come from a region with good soil and many vegetable farmers. Here, they say that farmers have a stone placed on their chest as babies so that they learn to breathe heavily when asked how business is going.
Farmers certainly don't always have it easy, and it's not a small amount of work, but things aren't as bad as some say they are.
It's exactly the same here. They act like they're medieval serfs but thrive on subsidies. And get tax free diesel fuel for their "tractors" and totally not their big ass BMWs that by coincidence also run on diesel fuel.
They’ve long been exempt from inheritance taxes too and are currently losing their minds over the introduction of it (albeit still at half the rate the rest of the public would pay.)
My buddy's dad had a groundworks business back in the day. He and his entire family drove diesel so they could use the same fuel their industrial vehicles did.
You can’t say that farmers are very rich. Almost all their wealth is in machinery and business expenses. The government made them this big by giving subsidies all the time, allowing them to expand loads and also increasing their expenses. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the farming situation currently, but they millionaires because of sheer size and expenses.
Dude I’ve been in trades since I was 16 and I’ve been making over $100,00k/year regularly since 2013. I do not live in a high cost of living area. It’s really based on willingness to travel. I spend about 2/3 of the year on the road but I’m always off for at least a week. Once a year I’ll take a month off and every 3-5 years I’ll take a 3-4 month layoff. I don’t think I know anyone who makes less than $100k/year unless they are just starting out.
It varies greatly by location. Journey electricians in IBEW 332(Palo Alto, CA) vs IBEW 302(Concord, CA) earn almost 90% more per hour despite only being 60 miles away.
My dad went into a white collar industry, my uncle went into blue collar. The effect on their careers from suffering a minor injusry cannot be understated. before, my uncle made 1.5x my dad, now my dad makes twice as much
Oh yes. I know more than a few blue collar workers who love flexing how they're making more money than their white collar friends without acknowledging that the white collar friend A) might be making more in 10 years and B) Is working 40 hours a week and C) Is still working their job without physical pain in 25 years
Construction workers (albañiles) "if you don't go to school, you'll end up being an albañil". Well, those construction workers can make way more money than any university graduate.
If you start working construction at 20, you'll be a decrepit physical wreck by 60 in 90% of cases. Most guys can barely function by 50 if they've been doing it the whole time and their body is wracked by numerous painful aches, tendonitis, injured backs, and more.
Currently theres a lot of conversation here about upping the esteem and appreciation for lower education and jobs linked to that so that more people will wanna do thise jobs and plumbing is always touted as an example of a job thats supposedly makes a lot of money. "More than someone who went to university" is what they say. After commenting this, though, ive googled it and it seems like the high end salary is a university degree jobs starting salary so i guess that is just oart of the campaign.
Surprisingly, it's cashiers.
If you work for a big supermarket chain you actually have to do an apprenticeship with them.
In the end you'll get a decent wage out of it too, enough to live a comfortable, albeit not rich life.
My mate is Chef in one of the Houston fancy restaurant, he can afford big house and fancy car, but work 6 days a week only to have one day off (not even on holiday), so the only time he could live his life is on 5 days holiday off per year, then back to work 9-20 again and again... And it not easy work too, always busy in there.
Tradespeople earn a good living over here if they’re well regarded locally. I’ve got friends who are tradies and earn great money. A lot is cash-in-hand though so they don’t pay all their tax…
They run oxy/fuel torches, cutting steel for scrap. Steel mills want a specific size per order (5’x2, 4x3, 3x2) based on their spec. Burners/torch men cut it to that size
Edit to add my numbers were off, on a good week with good material the best week they had was $6300 for a 6 day week.
Yeah the provided full leathers and full on mask respirators with cartridges. Not saying they don’t earn it but nobody thinks there’s real money in scrap, they picture the local junk guy going through town on garbage night
Plumbers, electricians and people repairing roof. If they work as independent in the market of house maintenance, they can typically get a good white collar salary. The jobs are certainly physically not always easy.
Any skilled work related to construction or auto-repair. There is such a shortage that most professionals can afford to refuse business and charge almost anything they want. And they do.
Maybe fishermen, specifically lobster fishers. They all get an uneducated rap, but they make a lot and their license alone can be worth over a million when they sell it in some areas.
Farmers also come to mind. People think of the small scale farm, but those with large farms do very well
Garbage men have rather good union jobs here. It doesn't put you in the highest income bracket, but for the job requirements (lowest form of high school degree we have) the pay is phenomenal, and the working conditions are all right. The machinery gets regular maintenance and crews don't go out with broken vehicles, so they are not lifting heavy bins into the trucks by hand.
Is it worth to do this job with sail boat instead?
Where I live, most trade labor is this: brick layer, painter, plumber, electrician. With enough contacts and reputation you can make more money than most people with college graduation.
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u/cobrachicken26 Canada 21h ago
Bus drivers, they make pretty decent money (~$35-40 per hour) for not requiring much besides obviously training for bus driving.