This general topic about trade workers pops up on HN periodically and there is always some discussion about high-earning people working in the trades. But I can't find any data that actually supports this statement - the BLS numbers tell a story that plumbers and electricians make almost exactly the median income that full-time, year-round workers in the US earn.
I don't doubt that someone who is running a business is earning more, this article in the WSJ says:
"At the time that they sold the company, it had 18 employees and was bringing in about $3 million in revenue a year. "
This was a plumbing business with two founders, founded in 2012. The article goes on to say that PE buys smaller businesses like the one above for:
"smaller outfits (such as Rice’s), which Redwood says it buys outright for an average of $1 million..."
The Occupational Outlook handbook says:
"The median annual wage for electricians was $61,590 in May 2023. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $38,470, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $104,180." The mean annual wage for all occupations in that resource is $65,470.
I don't doubt that someone who is running a business is earning more, this article in the WSJ says:
"At the time that they sold the company, it had 18 employees and was bringing in about $3 million in revenue a year. "
This was a plumbing business with two founders, founded in 2012. The article goes on to say that PE buys smaller businesses like the one above for:
"smaller outfits (such as Rice’s), which Redwood says it buys outright for an average of $1 million..."
The Occupational Outlook handbook says:
"The median annual wage for electricians was $61,590 in May 2023. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $38,470, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $104,180." The mean annual wage for all occupations in that resource is $65,470.