Blue-collar needn’t mean low-paying

Dear Joyce: I have three sons, two of whom are still in high school and say they’re not at all interested in going to college and pursuing a professional career. But they’re very interested in money and, in fact, work part-time jobs. You always recommend working with school counselors, but they haven’t been very helpful to my sons. What are your comments? — W.F.P.

Who says money doesn’t make the world of work go around? Despite surveys claiming that money is far down on the list of must-haves when comparing jobs, I contend that most people want decent pay as a given.

If blue-collar work is where two of your sons see themselves, they may be on to something. Blue-collar pay can be very good at the top. For instance, long-haul truck drivers who wheel on down the roads for days or weeks at a clip can earn more than $100,000 annually. So can installers and repairers who go into business for themselves.

A recent Forbes magazine article uses Department of Labor data to calculate average nationwide blue-collar earnings based on a 40-hour week, 52 weeks per year. Specific areas of the nation pay more, others less. Overtime can add heft to earnings.

Forbes identifies “The Ten Best-Paying Blue-Collar Jobs” in the article. They are: public transportation attendants, $62,088; longshore equipment operators, $58,198; brickmasons and stonemasons, $57,200; power plant operators, $56,472; locomotive operating occupations, $56,347; aircraft engine mechanics, $55,494; electrical power installers and repairers, $55,390; mining occupations, $54,704; oil well drillers, $53,227; and telephone line installers/repairers, $52,478.

You can read the entire article on forbes.com; search by the title of the article. And you can read the details of each occupation — as in mining is dangerous work, and some aircraft mechanic work has been shipped overseas — on the Department of Labor’s Web site for the Occupational Outlook Handbook: www.bls.gov/oco.

Your college-bound son may be interested in a new book due out this fall by Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, 250 Best-Paying Jobs, (JIST Publishing; jist.com). High-earning occupations one through eight are in the health field, followed by chief executives and government service executives.

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