Issac Cordoso, who is graduating from Medford Vocational Technical High School in Massachusetts in June, already has a job lined up as an electrical apprentice, earning $12 an hour.
He is also applying for a coveted spot as an apprentice with the local electrical union, where the starting pay is $18.25 an hour. As an apprentice, he could work while training to become a journeyman, a position with an hourly wage of $28. Most of Mr. Cordoso’s classmates also have jobs waiting for them, he said.
So whomever hired Cordoso on as an apprentice is saving $6.25 an hour in wages over a union apprentice. And they'll have to hire him on at $18-24 an hour once he's competent to keep him from jumping ship.