As I wrote, this is a skilled job and they are apparently in very short supply here in the UK, where most houses are made entirely of bricks and even many taller buildings use a lot of them... so they can make a good living, indeed. Maybe not as high as you suggest but pretty good.

Actually, many skilled trades in the UK can make 50-60k a year, bearing in mind that these are technical qualifications, no university involved (whereas the system pushes everyone towards uni)