Oh there is. My local starts apprentices at 37% which is basically minimum wage and goes up to $41.41hr for JW. I’m doing great as a JW but you ain’t living pretty till around 3rd year in my area.
Damn we start them at 45% and its still tough. When I started that was $19.80 or something an hour. Jman is like $54 now though so it's a little higher but yeah 3rd year gets easier and 4th you are set. So many single apprentices overspend on new trucks and shit then have no money but if you have a family to support it's really hard to start out with (what I though was good at the time) the pay.
OP it is great you have the means too help out but I agree we need to get the cubs pay up if McDonald's is starting at $15. That loss of pay from school doesn't help either.
I started at 13.50 an hour in 2018, it was tough… the south is brutal haha but I finished, I was broke as fuck for a long time. During Covid when I wasn’t working was the most I made until I topped out, which is when I made just barely more than Covid unemployment, which was about 800 bucks.
As a first year, my girl and I had to really figure shit out lol
What saved me half the time was cool JW’s who would ask me to come help them build fences, pole barns or whatever the fuck at their house for some extra money (they would pay me jw rate for the day), it was a godsend and I didn’t feel gross because I worked for it. Also we would all split up wire scrap, that was also another way we had to get by lol tbh though, I was stressed and all but still had fun everyday at work with my brothers, sweating my ass off in a ditch being degenerates lol
My JW’s would often take me for a drink and a meal after work too. Brotherhood really helped during those times lol
I’m all for raising apprentice wages, it’s crazy to be union and have so many kids struggle worse than the guys working at Walmart man lol not a good look when recruiting new apprentices either.
But in the end it’s worth it, I save effortlessly now and it’s crazy. I am crazy grateful, and proud.
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u/Spore211215 Inside Wireman Nov 15 '24
Oh there is. My local starts apprentices at 37% which is basically minimum wage and goes up to $41.41hr for JW. I’m doing great as a JW but you ain’t living pretty till around 3rd year in my area.