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by quickthrowman 327 days ago
> 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.
1 comments
gishglish 327 days ago
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.

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quickthrowman 327 days ago
> 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%)

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gishglish 327 days ago
> 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.

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quickthrowman 327 days ago
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.
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