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Found out my apprentice was making 2x what I made at his level
I was going through old pay stubs my buddy kept from 10 years ago. Turns out when I was a first-year apprentice I was getting $14 an hour. My apprentice now? He's pulling $28 starting out. I looked it up through the local hall records and the union rate sheets. The cost of living numbers from our city's labor council showed rents jumping almost 40% in that time. Sure the wage went up but the buying power is basically the same. Anyone else notice the gap between what we made starting out versus what the new guys get?
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rowanw319d ago
Man that's wild. I did the same math a while back with my old pay stubs from when I was an apprentice in 2012. I was at $12.50 and now the new kids are coming in at $26. It just stings a little knowing you were grinding for way less but the buying power never really changed.
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lucas_grant838d ago
That "buying power never really changed" part is exactly what gets me. A buddy of mine was a welder back then making around the same $12.50, and now he's watching new guys start at $26 too. He told me the other day he'd have to be making almost $50 an hour now to have the same living standard he had in 2012. Makes you wonder, right, @rowanw31?
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