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Comment by whb07 | Hacker News Reader

Mike Rowe isn’t talking about unskilled labor. He’s talking about skilled labor like plumbing, carpentry, welding, electricians, etc. Not a stock boy and the like.

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Might be anecdotal, but hooo weee, if you are a good electrician right now, you can essentially name your price. Companies will pay it because they aren't willing to take the risk of having it done wrong. Family knows a couple career electricians -- company is paying for them to come out of retirement, paying $50-55 an hour, AND letting them keep their retirement benefits.

I would have expected "name your price" electrician work to be more in the $100-120/hr range in a high-CoL area.

You are right -- I live in a low CoL area. 55 dollars an hour is astronomical. I would expect it to be double as well.

Is it still high after factoring in paying for your own insurance and tax?

That's cheap. In the Bay Area, even doubling that is cheap. Take a look at this discussion [1] by electricians of what their businesses costs to run, especially the trade-specific section.

There is a fundamental disconnect in daily life between perceptions of what a job entails and its true costs. No wonder management and purchasing departments everywhere is constantly underestimating effort and costs, then getting pissed when risks and quality issues come up.

[1] https://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/why-do-you-charge-so-much...

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