> It’s hard, because the formally decent paying apprentice programs pay has stayed about the same while working, fast food or whatever has gone up a lot. Working at Taco Bell for $18 an hour is less physically demanding than being a grunt laborer for 15.
> Our local IBEW apprentices start at $19/hr with another 9.50/hr in benefits. First raise is an extra $2 on the check and another $2 in benefits after 1000 hours or roughly 6 months.
> I almost accepted a plumbing apprenticeship when I was 26 but the starting wage was so low I just wouldn’t have been able to live. If I could go back in time though I’d try getting into a trade or automotive work by 18.
> I tried becoming an electrician after the military. No where had any interest in taking on an apprentice.
> One friend of mine saved and left her corporate job to become an electrician, only to find boomer electricians wouldn’t apprentice a woman. Just one anecdote, of course.
> I got out of the Army, and tried to join the local union as an apprentice. It was a 6-8 months selection process before I could even start. It took longer and was more challenging to try and get into a trade then the military.
> The trades pay shite. I’m a third term apprentice and it’s hard work for not much more than McDonald’s.
Maybe the whole journeyman/apprentice system needs to be dismantled.