Tales of $ 200,000 a Year Plumbers from USA Today
Blue collar can mean big pay
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Shortly after graduating from college, office-supply salesman Trenton
Malm walked into an electrical contracting company looking to land a new
client.
Instead, employees there sold him on a new career. They gushed so
exuberantly about pay and job advancement that Malm quit his job and
decided to learn a trade.
Four years later, he has no regrets. Malm, 29, is among tens of thousands
of skilled workers getting top wages and perks like stock options and
signing bonuses that once were showered on corporate executives.
Many blue-collar workers now are outearning white-collar employees as a
blizzard of construction activity boosts demand for plumbers, painters,
electricians and other tradespeople.
Construction workers have seen hourly wages soar about 20% since
1993. Plumbers in some places earn nearly $200,000 a year with
overtime. And people are quitting desk jobs because they can earn more
working with their hands.
"A lot of kids coming out of school don't even realize this possibility
exists," says Malm, a journeyman electrician and superintendent for
Denver-based Quality Electric, the company he tried to sell office supplies.
"The projects are nonstop, and they're building buildings faster than we
can keep up."
Malm, who just finished building his own home, earns about $60,000 a
year plus bonuses - more than twice what he made selling office supplies.
He also gets profit sharing, a 401(k) retirement savings plan and health
benefits.
The Labor Department says median weekly earnings (half made more, half
less) last year topped $780 for a tool-and-die maker and $749 for
someone who repairs and installs telephones. That's more than the median
earnings of biological and life scientists ($739), computer operators
($513), psychologists ($679) and insurance sales people ($629).
At $594 a week, heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanics earn
more than insurance adjusters, examiners and investigators ($522).
And in areas where shortages of skilled labor are especially acute,
incomes are far higher than the median.
The good life
'We've got electricians making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year,
and we still can't fill the positions," says Rex Wiederspahn, president of
Quality Electric in Denver. "It's good money and a good lifestyle."
That lifestyle is made possible by several trends:
The economy, in its ninth year of expansion, has created an
insatiable demand for skilled labor.
In 1998, there was an estimated $300 billion in new residential
construction, according to the National Association of Realtors.
"So many of these jobs are driven by the construction industry,"
says David Mustard, an assistant professor at the University of
Georgia's Terry College of Business in Athens. "I've seen kids drop
out of college to take these jobs."
Employers have to offer good pay and benefits because the tight
labor market means workers are hard to find.
Among construction workers, the unemployment rate was 6.7% in
July, compared with 10% in 1996.
Blue-collar jobs have been dogged by an image problem that puts
off potential recruits, making it that much tougher to ease the labor
crunch.
"It's a crying shame," says Bill Beekman, a representative of
Plumbers Local Union No. 3 in Denver. "You're looked down on
just because you have dirt on your hands."
But Laura Price, 37, says her kids look up to her. She's earning about
$100,000 a year in pay and bonuses as a project manager at
TDIndustries, a Dallas-based mechanical and electrical contracting firm.
She also gets company stock, a 401(k) plan, three weeks of vacation, and
health benefits.
Her 8-year-old daughter is impressed that Mom uses a mobile phone,
laptop computer and beeper; her teen-age son thinks it's cool that she
drives a truck and wears a hard hat.
"The opportunity is great, but a lot of folks don't give this industry much
thought," she says. "There's so much freedom, so much flexibility. I would
encourage my kids to do it."
Her company also pays for education. It's picking up tuition for employees
pursuing masters' degrees, and there are few restrictions: One worker
took guitar lessons, and TDIndustries paid the bill.
Calling the shots
Many trade workers are calling the shots these days. Instead of working
long hours or agreeing to undesirable assignments, they're demanding -
and often getting - more flexibility and concessions.
"Young people are demanding things like time with family. Overtime is a
bad word today," says Dan Mosser, vice president for education and
workforce development at Associated Builders and Contractors.
Some construction workers won't put in more than 40 hours a week.
Electricians are in such short supply that some employers try to steal
competitors' workers. Some plumbers, emboldened by the demand,
charge nearly as much as doctors who make house calls.
Says Steve Reynolds, who runs the service department at Benicia
Plumbing in Benicia, Calif.: "They can ask for what they want. We're
having to pay more because of the shortage. Money talks."
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates it would take 240,000
workers to ease the skilled labor shortage in the construction industry.
Of course, not everyone is striking it rich, and how much someone earns
can depend strongly on where they live and what they choose to do.
But opportunity abounds. Many blue-collar workers also are capitalizing
on the strong economy by starting their own service businesses.
Chris Roberts, 32, graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.,
with a business degree and got a job washing cars five years ago. He's
turned that into a car-detailing business in Falls Church, Va., that grosses
about $110,000 a year.
"I wasn't expecting that. I got 40 to 50 new customers this year. It's
blossomed," says Roberts, owner of The Right Touch Detailing.
Joseph Fagan, 42, is a plumber in Stanhope, N.J. He makes $60,000 to
$80,000 a year.
The money is well earned. Fagan says it takes years of apprenticeship and
long hours. And the job is rarely easy: He once found himself faced with a
rubber Gumby doll wedged up a bathtub faucet.
"It requires about the same commitment as college, but after that, the sky's
the limit," Fagan says.
"You can make a good living at it. But as a small business, you have to
make an awful lot of money before you start making money."
Those running service businesses are finding they must give workers the
kind of benefits white-collar workers have been enjoying for years.
At TDIndustries, new hires get gift certificates for safety clothes, and field
workers get free jeans and shirts. Foremen can earn up to $80,000 a year,
while senior project managers can take home $150,000 or more, plus
benefits. Employees, called partners, can get stock ownership and
participate in the company's 401(k) plan after their first 90 days.
"I started 46 years ago as a helper in air-conditioning service, and it's as
good as I've ever seen it," says Ben Houston, president of the contracting
firm.
"By the time a lot of these partners are 25, they're making a lot of money.
It's first class."
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