I built my own house because almost every step was more expensive hourly labor than me writing software for an hour instead.

Even the lower rate such as concrete laborers wanted 100+ an hour.

I suspect the low pay of many of these trades is just a symptom of housing and construction being the number one money laundering industry and thus tradesman are always saying they're making nothing while simultaneously asking 100+ an hour cash and working full weeks.

Id bet the BLS income reports are off by like 50+%.