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Comment by jimmy1 | Hacker News Reader

Average roofer pay is 18.53, average amazon warehouse pay is 13.50. Good roofers in a hot market (currently) can get well over 20.

There seems to be this bubble of thinking on HN that hard labor jobs don't pay well. The reality is they pay more than your average IT Support job. They are in demand because they can't find people willing to do the work. Another example is electricians. Some electrician companies are so desperate for skilled electricians that they are paying their retirees to come out of retirement and still allowing them to keep pension benefits. Another one is plumbing, etc.

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Absolutely. This is a sign that the system is working. Amazon doesn't have a monopoloy on jobs that allows it to pay dramatically under market for warehouse workers.

Roofing especially in a hot climate is harder more demanding work than a warehouse job. And it pays considerably more.

Huh?

Roofing pays a premium because it is a crap entry level job that is hard to staff with reliable workers. The labor force is generally limited to younger able bodied men with transportation who are willing to do seasonal work.

Amazon can recruit almost anyone to do picking and can get value even from the people whom they purge.

>Roofing especially in a hot climate is harder more demanding work than a warehouse job.

Have any evidence of this or is it purely anecdotal? Many warehouses aren't air conditioned, especially Amazon ones.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-2011-9

> Amazon kept paramedics in the parking lot of the warehouse to treat employees who were fainting, suffering from dehydration, or exhaustion.

Still anecdotal, but I’ve personally done roofing (for a portion of a summer) and worked in a warehouse (for a year and a half including 2 full summers). Roofing was worse, but not by that wide of a margin - just in terms of physical exhaustion, the warehouse work I did was much closer to roofing than to, say, retail or food service.

Then again, while the warehouse I worked in had much less stringent metrics than Amazon’s, there were other factors that may have made it worse overall.

Roofing is incredibly brutal job on your body. Many people that work in amazon warehouses simply wouldn't be able to take it. Plus it often requires driving to job sites, so you aren't guaranteed regular hours like you would at amazon.

Typically contractors and subcontractors are paid by the job, not hour. Yes, it's definitely considered difficult labor, but again, the body adapts and strengthens. I wouldn't suggest working in 100 degree sun, however, that's just crazy.

Amazon workers - look here. More money, exercise, outdoors.

People do have choices.

I think you mean “skilled labor”. Hard labor is what chain gangs do.

I mean hard as in difficult or physically demanding.

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