Can You Really Make Six Figures in the Trades? Here's What the Numbers Show

The short version: Most skilled trades don't start at six figures. One does, and it's probably not the trade you're thinking of.

According to federal data, the path to $100K in the skilled trades is faster, cheaper, and more predictable than almost anything you can do with a four-year degree.

Let's go through it honestly.

Elevator mechanics are the outlier that most people never hear about. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts their median wage at $106,580 as of May 2025. That's not the top earners. That's the person in the dead middle of the pay distribution. Half of all elevator mechanics in the country earn more than that.

You don't need a college degree to get there. You need to pass a competitive aptitude test, get into an IUEC apprenticeship, and spend four to five years learning the trade on the job while getting paid to do it. In Nevada, the median hits $151,500. (BLS OEWS, May 2025.)

The catch is that openings are limited. About 2,000 a year nationally. Getting in takes some hustle. But if you make it, you're looking at a career that most MBA graduates would quietly envy.

Here's the honest picture across the core trades, using national median wages from BLS May 2025 data. These are midpoints, not ceilings.

Most of these trades sit in the low-to-mid $70s nationally. Is that six figures? No. But it's also not the floor. It's the midpoint of a career that has a clear upward path.

Here's what makes the trades math interesting. The average starting salary for a bachelor's degree graduate is around $59,400 according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and that's before you subtract four years of lost income and however much in debt you're carrying into your first job. (NACE Salary Survey, 2025.)

An electrician apprentice starts at roughly $30,000 to $35,000 in year one. But they're earning while they're learning. By year four or five, when their college-track peer is just starting a career, a journeyman electrician is already at or near the national median of $71,490.

One analysis put it this way: a 22-year-old electrician who started at 18 has accumulated $150,000 to $200,000 more in net worth by age 30 than a business major from the same starting line, debt included. That gap narrows later. If you're going into engineering or computer science, the math changes. But if your comparison is marketing, communications, or a liberal arts degree, the trades often win outright. (MajorMatch, April 2026, citing BLS OEWS and NACE data.)

Six figures in the trades is real, but it's not entry-level. It typically takes five to ten years depending on the trade, the market, union membership, and whether you move into specialization or business ownership. The better question isn't "can you make $100K?" It's "how long does it take to get there and what does the path look like?" We'll answer that directly in issue 9.

National medians are useful, but they hide a lot. An electrician in Washington state earns a mean wage of $88,620. The same license in Arkansas gets you $49,800. That's a 78 percent gap for identical work. (BLS OEWS, May 2025)

In high-demand markets, that 20 to 40 percent premium over the national figure is real. Major metro areas, union strongholds, and states with active construction booms consistently out pay the national numbers. If you're picking a trade and you have any flexibility on where you live or work, location is a significant lever.

If you're 19 and deciding between community college and an electrician apprenticeship, the salary case for the trades is stronger than it's been in decades. You're not giving up financial stability. You're choosing a different timeline to get there — one that starts paying immediately and doesn't require borrowing against your future to get started.

If you're 34 and burned out in a job that tops out at $65,000, the trades offer a realistic path to matching or exceeding your current income within five years. The data supports it. The shortage of skilled workers means the market is, for once, not working against you.

The honest caveat: this isn't passive income. It's physically demanding, often variable work. The people who clear six figures consistently combine skill, the right market, and frequently union membership or business ownership. None of that happens automatically.

But neither does the college alternative.

The number that stays with me: the median elevator mechanic earns more than 95 percent of college graduates, learned their trade through an apprenticeship that paid them while they trained, and doesn't have a dollar of student debt.

That's not a talking point. It's federal data.

The skilled trades shouldn't be viewed as a shortcut to instant wealth.

Instead, they offer something many careers don't: a structured path where skills, certifications, and experience can steadily increase earning potential over time.

For someone comparing career options, that's often a more useful way to think about long-term opportunity than focusing on a single salary number.

See you next time,

- Hard Hat Nation (hardhatHQ.co)