Originally Posted by
neville_nobody
Before we all get too carried away and angry about those sort of pay levels it’s worth remembering that qualified trades in this country are literally Koala Bears politically. Both sides of politics protect them from any sort of labour competition that is why there is a skills shortage and they are now looking at pay levels 2-3x minimum wage. Neither the Libs or Labor will allow any sort of skill migration for skilled labour and that is why construction costs are astronomical and Unionised Labor are getting these sort of deals. No other country in the world would allow that to happen except in Australia.
The issue this generates is that it destroys the incentive for any sort of educated job. Why would you go to Uni, incurring decent amount of debt when you get paid management level incomes to work a trade? Or worst still spend 150k to be a pilot to earn minimum wage type of salaries. Honestly what’s the point? It’s even worse when you look at how this affects qualified white collar jobs in the building industry.
As a former tradesman, I can assure you that tradies earning over 150k+ is very rare, except in the mines.
many will yell but $120 an hour for a sparkie, well by the time you add in insurances, advertising, vehicle, tools, registration, tax, super, etc etc... you most certainly arent seeing $120 an hour. Another issue for sparkies and plumbers is say they spend $150 a day advertising, they might only get 2 calls and they might only get 1 job. It may only take 15mins but they need to still operate their business, hence the huge hourly rate or call out fee. Now go talk to a sparkie working for a large firm that contracts out to builders, they would be lucky to see $45 an hour. As for chippies, plasterers, painters etc... private work will range from $60 to $90 per hour, but if they contract to a large builder they are on about $50 an hour for consistent work. But I will agree there are some loaded tradies, but it isnt the norm.
Also there is no skills shortage in the building industry, never has been, never will be. It is a shortage of people willing to earn peanuts. I went fifo and gave away construction to fund my flight training. It didnt matter how desperate builders were they could never offer me a reasonabke wage. Hell I had a builder from way back, call me up in Decemeber asking if I would work for him again on an abn for $35 an hour... so no there is no skills shortage, and as for importing tradesman if you can call them that. You would be horrified at the quality of work they produce.