Comment by pclmulqdq

$40/hour is not bad. Aside from the few thousand tenured orchestra/chorus musicians, none of them are going to be making 6 figures from one job, but a number of musician-musician households pull in over $100k between two incomes built around relatively unstable gig work without either one having a high-prestige job.

Also note that churches, which are a hub for working-class musicians, are exempt from BLS reporting.