[gishglish]

> I pay $100/hr for a union journeyworker electrician in a metro area of ~3 million, $106 for a foreman, and $112 for a general foreman.

Genuine question: Why?

I picked the Cincinnati MSA, as an example, as it’s both bigger than yours and is likely to have unionized work.

BLS says the 90th quartile is still only ~90k which while certainly not bad, is only the top 10%.

[quickthrowman]

> Genuine question: Why?

Because.. that’s what the union charges my employer per hour for an electrician? I don’t have a choice lol

Cincinnati is a rust belt city with depressed wages (no offense to anyone that lives there, but it’s the truth), my market is higher income (Minneapolis/St Paul) where a journeyworker makes $57/hr on the check instead of $38/hr like in Ohio, which is 1.5x (!!) higher.

[gishglish]

Well sure, my questions is why is the Union charging over double what seems to be 90th quartile for electricians in small to mid sized MSAs and only a bit more than the 90th quartile on high COL cities.

I suspect the electrician they send over isn’t just pocketing $100/h on wages.

[quickthrowman]

> Well sure, my questions is why is the Union charging over double what seems to be 90th quartile for electricians in small to mid sized MSAs and only a bit more than the 90th quartile on high COL cities.

The union is charging that because *that is what’s in the contract that was signed by the union and the local union contractors after negotiation. Electricians get paid a lot where I live because it’s a wealthy growing area that people want to live in, and not a dying rust belt city.

> I suspect the electrician they send over isn’t just pocketing $100/h on wages.

Did you read the post I wrote initially?

I give the breakdown of how much of the money I pay to the union goes to the worker on his paycheck (55%) with the rest going to insurance, taxes, union dues, pension, etc (fringe benefits, which are 45%)

[gishglish]

> Did you read the post I wrote initially? I give the breakdown of how much of the money I pay to the union goes to the worker on his paycheck (55%) with the rest going to insurance, taxes, union dues, pension, etc (fringe benefits, which are 45%)

I misread that intitially.

At the end of the day, anytime this topic comes up, there’s an oddly large discrepancy between the anecdotes and the BLS data.

Even half of that $100 puts these electricians in the 90th quartile for hourly wages in that MSA. So they’re either sending there most expensive guys or I’m misreading misinterpreting the BLS data.

[quickthrowman]

Union electricians make up the bulk of commercial electricians, with the rest being non-union. Non-union electricians dominate the residential market, and that’s who brings the average wage down, along with the year 1 to year 5 apprentices.