Yeah, everybody is rooting for advancements in hardware/mechanical until they see the salaries this field pays.
I'm surprised the field is advancing at all seeing app kiddies can walk home with more $.
I'm surprised the field is advancing at all seeing app kiddies can walk home with more $.
- Metal and Plastic Machine Workers make $17.35 per hour or $36,080 per year
- Machinists and Tool and Die Makers make $21.61 per hour or $44,950 per year
- Software Developers make $50.77 per hour or $105,590 per year
Employees at a top notch company like Kern Microtechnik probably make more than the machine worker average aboves, but then software developers at FAANG make more than the developer average as well.
It's sometimes astonishing that there isn't more correlation between skill and craftsmanship and how much you get paid.
Trust Me, A Tool and Die Maker makes much much more than you quoted. Problem is everybody wants to learn whizbang instead of getting a foundation of conventional machinery.
What cracks me up is I see CNC programmer jobs paying less than Tool and Die makers when programming requires computer knowledge.
The real problem with the trade is Vo-Tech is dead and kids can't even swing wrenches these days, let alone the strong mental math skill required.
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes514111.htm
It's probably a thing where there's people BLS considers tool and die makers that you aren't roping into your expectations.
You can't just get into the field by being a self-taught mechanical or electrical engineer without investing the time and $ in attending a proper university but you can call yourself a software "engineer" after a boot camp and start making $.
The only advantage of these fields though is that you can (still) find work in your 60's as a gray beard while if you're in web dev, hopefully, you have moved far enough up the ladder or made fuck you money until your 60's because I don't expect to see many graybeards doing React in the future.