What does an Electrician earn?

[jonah35]

Sump said:

ruggedscotty said:

exactly a good tradesperson is worth their salt - you note its usually the ones that did a degree and ended up in a crap job with crap pay that bh about how tradespersons shouldnt get more than what they are getting paid...

I work a handful of hours a week so I haven't got anything against tradesmen. I just don't get why a blue collar worker would be earning £100p/a. Well I do get it as it isn't happening.

Sump,

Would you agree or disagree with the following

Some good electricians can earn £100kmpa
Some plumbers earn £100k pa
Some taxi drivers earn £75k pa
Some builders earn £500k pa

or, do you think it just cannot happen?

I agree the majority don't but the majority in any job are just, by default, average. If you apply logic, get referrers, get a good reputation and get good clients then you can do well.

[S1MMA]

ruggedscotty said:

exactly a good tradesperson is worth their salt - you note its usually the ones that did a degree and ended up in a crap job with crap pay that bh about how tradespersons shouldnt get more than what they are getting paid...

So in london whats the most likely thing to be said to a post graduate just out of uni ? Would you like fries with that....

In london whats the most likely thing to be said to a post apprenticeship electrician - Can you work sunday on double time as Im needing this done and I dont have the quantification or expertise to safely wire in this piece of equipment......

the trades are in demand and I think you will find those out there quick to run them down or belittle them have their own issues they need to work through...... Like how many sachets of salt to give the punter....

Well I have a couple of those degree things and I don't have a crap job - I must be special. I'm not complaining that tradesmen get paid too much. They should be paid for their skill and scarcity. They do not warrant a high pay from a moral or free market perspective - whilst many other professions do.

Graduates fall in to a range of jobs when leaving uni, not all end up as high flyers. It's fair to say there is a range of stories both success and failure for grads, that's not the point here though.

The point is that whilst hard work and taking responsibility and some risk is required to work as a tradesman, they are not highly skilled or rare. That's a fact. The fact that the UK opening its borders to free trade of the EU and plenty of Europeans being able to compete on both quality and expertise for a far lower cost (as supply of tradesman increased during this period) saw the market price fall to where it is currently. There are good and bad UK tradesman, and there are good and bad EU tradesman. People and businesses pay their money and take their own choices.

Giving 2 pie in the sky examples of what the most likely thing is to say to a graduate vs tradesman shows your lack of understanding of labour economics, but don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story.

[WinstonWolf]

It's all well and good running down tradesmen until you need them yourself. Oh woe is me, my house is cold/damp/dark.

Let's take a humble boiler engineer, you've got to learn lots of different systems, be a plumber, electrician, general builder and you've got to keep certified for your entire career. Pfft, it's a doddle I hear the white collars say but who is responsible for ensuring your safety? All it takes is a small leak or CO and you're dead.

I can't comment on the building trades but I did an apprenticeship, it took four and a half years, a degree only takes three

I'm in a 'professional' role these days, it's a fking doddle compared to being on the tools

[Royce44]

No idea why that reposted?

I dont think £150 is particularly harsh in the scheme of things, if it were we'd be upping our rates but we dont need to, we have enough labour at our disposal. Its also consistent work in that some guys would rather work for 6 months permanent at £150 rather than a few weeks here and there at £200 a day.

Its the construction industry thats driven rates down, not my company aha. We can only pay what the job's value dictates. Im sure everyone would love to pay £250 a day but it just wont happen if you want work.

[sjj84]

Seems to be two extremes in this thread, from those that have no idea about the electrical industry thinking it's unskilled and uneducated, to those in the industry thinking they're brain surgeons.

The education and skill set vary wildly depending on what you actually do, from house bashing to industrial or power generation and everything in between. The trouble is people see these adverts for house basher courses saying 'become an electrician in six weeks and earn 30-40k' and think that's the entire industry. It's not.

As for the comparison to teachers/health professionals, don't really see what other professions earn has any significance at all, nor the level of education. If people can earn that kind of money then good luck to them.

[ruggedscotty]

Exactly - getting it wrong on so many levels moral rates of pay ? Pfffttt with hospitals you can have a junior doctor earning 30k and a top Harley st cosmetic consultant well north of that.

those house bashers may be on 40-50 k a year but by eck they put in the hours for that and its what the market pays they want guys in and houses built and moved on and sold. more they do more they get paid.

Or you go to the likes of a good building service engineer working in a bank data centre - that's a different thing all together - drop a data centre and the losses are huge.... yeah money losses - nothing comparable to a guy on the slab having a heart transplant going wrong. But who said jobs and salaries are fair ? look at those that kick a ball about a field or those that sell pharmaceuticals from the local street corner....

[Pickled]

This is what happens when everyone for the past decade or so has been led to believe that getting a degree is the be all and end all, they think that anyone without one shouldn't be allowed to earn more than them.

My mate is a self-employed heating engineer/plumber, I don't know his exact earnings but I would estimate its around £70k, but as he hasn't even got a CSE to his name it must be lies...

[R1 Indy]

I'm sorry but £150/day is far too cheap for a proper NICEIC registered self employed spark.

£150 X5 X4 = £3000 / month. This is assuming no days without work.

Say 11 months a year, as work goes dead around Xmas, and a fortnight off in the summer.

This is only 33K. Minus business expenses/overheads for example:

Van lease. (£3K)
Insurance(both van and public liability). (£600)
Tools (£300)
Any advertising (300)
Waste disposal (300
Fuel (£2K)
NICEIC registration, notifications, half day wasted from assessment. (£700

This is assuming not Vat registered, if are then another 20% ish gone.

So you thing a good self employed spark should go to the hassle of being self employed for a mesely £26K max

When you can earn £25K as a bloody employee.


If times ever get this bad, I will quit and go back to an employee and easy life.

£200-£250 is more than fair price.


All this talk about nurses etc, they turn up do there shift, go home and get paid there salary no matter what. It's a completely different game being self employed.

[Pickled]

swerni said:

Can we have a break down of the estimate?
Or is it one of those dodgy finger in the air ones

I'd love to see how much income these mega earning trade people declare to the tax man

Majority of his work is commercial & industrial heating, does a lot of schools and hospitals, so I don't see why it isn't feasible for him to earning £300 per day after costs, and thats with him having 4 weeks off, and only working 5 days - I know he works 6 days most weeks, so entirely feasible for him to be earning £70k, he has a lad working for him as well, so I'm sure he make some money on his labour as well.

If it helps, I'm sure its a Ltd Co. and he's a big old lump - therefore making him a powerfully built director

Edited by Pickled on Wednesday 18th November 22:05

[mph1977]

R1 Indy said:

I<snip>

All this talk about nurses etc, they turn up do there shift, go home and get paid there salary no matter what. It's a completely different game being self employed.

point both got and missed at the same time with regard to the role of the Registered Nurse ...

but self employed (genuinely) vs employed or scam self employed 'contractor' is a relevant factor

[R1 Indy]

mph1977 said:

point both got and missed at the same time with regard to the role of the Registered Nurse ...

Well the nurse would not be able to do her job without electricity, so us sparks are saving lives

[mph1977]

R1 Indy said:

Well the nurse would not be able to do her job without electricity, so us sparks are saving lives

what part of an RNs job absolutely requires electricity ? other than certain invasive monitoring , there are hand / gas / mechanical powered alternatives for the rest ...

[Vroom101]

I can't help it. I've got to post this...

www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DTYfecnhKvjo&ved=0C...

There are so many different kinds of Sparks, from semi-skilled house bashing cowboys, to very specialist highly trained types, it's hard to give a simple answer to the Op's question.

ruggedscotty said:

Maintenance electricians if in the right place can earn really good money- but that's a different ball game to wiring houses and the like.

1st line breakdown cover investigation and resolution - ensuring the breakdown doesn't impact production. Car assembly lines ? check what maintenance electricians earn at Nissan or Toyota

•Maintenance Technician salary with 4 shift premium
Starting from £38,539

•Controller/Engineer/Supervisor salaries
£35,068 - £51,485

£1000 a week ? £52,000 a year - that is achievable in the trades if your willing to do overtime and have to participate in on call rotas.

I work in this industry, but I'm more involved in the high voltage power distribution side of things. I also deal with water treatment and chemical plants.

A little more info about my job.

My basic rate is £19.85 per hour, but once you add the shift premium, overtime premium, weekend working premium and cover shifts it can soon add up. Those figures above are more than achievable. I'm PAYE, so no hiding anything from the tax man either

As I'm involved in high voltage, the job has to be covered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our shift pattern is structured to cater for this. Seven night shifts and seven day shifts per lunar month in either three of four blocks of twelve hour shifts. It sounds a bit confusing and took a little while to get my head around but I've done it for nearly 15 years and its just normal to me now.

There are good and bad sides to the shift pattern - working three Christmas days in a row isn't nice, especially when you've got young kids like I have. This is followed by two years of Xmas nightshifts. It's not just those nurses that have crappy shifts!

The good sides? Ah yes, the way the shift pattern is structured means I get fourteen days off a month. Yep, two weeks in total It also means I can take three days holiday and end up with a fortnight off work.
My shift partner actually does this every month and lives in Spain. We call him Two-week Tony . I also get five weeks holiday, and a decent pension. Dont get me wrong, I know how lucky I am. This is not 'normal' for a Spark, but the jobs are out there.

There are downsides about the job though - it can be dangerous work. I work with dangerous chemicals (how does 98% sulphuric acid sound?), at height, in confined spaces and as I mentioned, with high voltage. Most electricians have had a belt from 240 volts and it hurts. If I were to get a wallop from 11kv or 33kv - the voltages I work with - it would almost certainly be the end of me. And if it didn't kill me I'd be in hospital burnt to a crisp wishing it had. For my family's sake, I am very well insured.

This is by no means common, but it is an example of one of the various types of sparking jobs out there. People say 'Electrician' and usually only think of one thing.


I don't get the perverse dislike of working class/blue collar (call it what you will) earning decent money. We're all out to make a living - some make more than others, that's all. It does appear the middle classes get a kick from looking down on the likes of me, but then complain because I might earn more than they do

[Jamster123]

Typical looking down the nose at trades.... happens a lot, and generally by the folk who have attended university, picked up 3 degrees yet still struggle to push 30k per year.....

Too many variables and really comes down to self employed or employed.....

I had a really well paid employed job for over 10 years averaging 40-52k....

I work very hard. Ive been under more floorboards than I care to remember, and will probably die of asbestosis before I'm 50....

I have friends offshore 2-3k per week easy.

I went self employed....I still work very hard and now employ 12 people.... skys the limit, depending on how hard you want to work.

Take for example, a consumer unit change.... £300-600? £100 materials and 2-3 hours labour for someone who knows what they are doing.... If your good enough and market yourself well enough you could do 10-15 of these a week.

We do rewires.... Averaging 3-4k per job.... on a good week we can do 4 of these...... When I was mega fit and a little younger, I could do 2 full rewire per week, on my own, with very little social life.

I know heating engineers doing 1 boiler change a day 5 days a week...... you do the maths.

I now employ various trades on employed and sub contracted level...... My tiler takes £500-1000 per bathroom.... he does it in one day and I know he does a fair few a week for other companies..

I once had a ignorant customer challenge my prices..... She questioned how I could charge so much for so little hours. (We proposed to rewire her house in 2 days at £2-3k) Her words were "but I'm a doctor and your hourly rate works out more than mine, I don't understand" .....

If your good, you can command what you want.

Edited by Jamster123 on Thursday 19th November 00:30

Edited by Jamster123 on Thursday 19th November 00:32

[Al U]

Condi said:

AJS- said:

schmunk said:

AJS- said:

Wacky Racer said:

bearman68 said:

Shocked at what you guys earn. Are you Positive?

Stop being so negative.

Not negative, just down to earth.

You guys - I see a potential difference between you.

Laughing so much it hertz!

Meh, it came across a bit static to me.

Revolting sense of humour, the lot of you.

[dingg]

there appears to be a lot of envy in this thread

[Super Slo Mo]

swerni said:

How does and individual do 10 to 15 jobs a week when each takes 2 days ?

Think you misread that bit, he said it takes 2-3 hours if you know what you're doing.

[Nightmare]

When I had to pay the plumber and sparks working my extension I ended up getting cash from the bank and then meeting them and my builder......they were expecting to only see him. Plumber has a yellow gallardo and the Sparks a red 430.

Just saying!

[sjj84]

I think this thread is going in two directions, what electricians charge, and what they earn. Two entirely separate things as illustrated by Indy above.

Not sure why people are getting hung up about degrees, there are plenty of sparks that have degrees. Possibly not house bashers so much, but I certainly know some.

[ruggedscotty]

Some of the comments - even if in jest have grated some - this country is tied with degree snobbery that was brought upon by an education system that is self serving - of course they want you to go and do a degree - keep you in the education system and make money out of you - and there are some pretty hopeless degrees out there if you look......

I have no ruck against a degree, what I do have is a dislike of peeps that think they have a degree they are better than someone else or vice versa, its just a piece of paper that indicates that you went through a period of study. My papers for my apprenticeship indicate much the same thing.

Ive been involved in electrical maintenance in one way or another since I left school. Served my time in a hospital and then worked in a few places and worked over seas on contracts aswell - its always been good money but that money has come through being available and willing to work when required - on shifts or on call that sort of thing. I enjoy it and its interesting work. Ive been in a bank for over ten years now, started within the data centres as a shift technician and then in a monitoring team.