Starting from scratch: The reality of entry-level welding

Aspiring metal fabricators looking at a potential welding career need to realize that they likely will start off making entry-level wages. Getty Images

The wonderful thing about social media is what happens to cross your path on any given day. On one recent fall afternoon I saw a link to a story from The Atlantic, “Welding Won’t Make You Rich.” I decided to click on the link and read the Paul Tough-written article, which was adapted from his book, The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us.

The point of the article was to question the push for people to bypass the four-year college education in favor of schooling and training that focus on the trades. A Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., quote from a 2015 GOP presidential debate was one reference cited to frame the conversation: “For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.”

That statement alone is hard to debate, particularly if the focus is on the cost of pursuing that philosophy degree. The newspapers are filled with headlines of young people weighed down by college debt and no marketable skills, who then have to delay home ownership and starting a family because they aren’t in a financially viable position to do so.

The newspapers—and trade journals like this one—also have had headlines bemoaning the dearth of skilled labor in manufacturing. According to the “2018 Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute Skills Gap and Future of Work” study, manufacturing would need to employ approximately 1.96 million additional workers between 2017 and 2028 to produce the goods that a growing U.S. economy would need, but an inability to find the right skilled workers and impending retirements of baby boomers could lead to a potential 2.4 million jobs going unfilled. The American Welding Society argues that a large percentage of these needed skilled workers will be welders, and there will be a shortage of 450,000 skilled welders by 2022.

That’s why politicians have gravitated to promoting welding as a path to the middle class and all the trappings associated with it. They are aware that the mean annual wage for the welder, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is $44,360, and they know that industry is clamoring for welders. That’s a win for politicians, job-seekers, and employers, right?

Starting as an Entry-level Welder

As much as politicians love to promote job creation, they also love hyperbole, and that’s where promotion of the welding trade can get questionable. Welding jobs are full of opportunities, but in most instances, they aren’t going to result in riches for the entry-level welder. Unfortunately, columns in The Wall Street Journal (“Welders Make $150,000? Bring Back Shop Class,” by Josh Mandel, April 21, 2014) and internet stories about underwater welders making $300,000 have a way of influencing a perspective of reality that isn’t quite true.

The author latched on to that premise in his article in The Atlantic. He told the story of a 20-something in rural North Carolina who was broke and raising two children with his ex-wife, but saw an associate degree in welding as a way to steady work and good pay. Setbacks emerged, however, and the young man didn’t follow through on his goal of getting that degree. Was it even going to be worth it if he had completed it, with local welding jobs offering $12 to $15 an hour for experienced welders?

That’s just one example, obviously, but others have raised the point that hyperbolic talk of welding pay can cloud the reality for those looking at making a career change and pursuing a welder career. Welder and trades advocate Josh Welton wrote a popular blog post for thefabricator.com in December 2018 in which he stressed the need for people to know the facts about welding because it may not be everyone’s “bag.” He wrote: “But I want potential tradespeople to go into their career with both eyes open, and part of that is putting an end to the misleading numbers the industry has pushed into our everyday vernacular through the media.” One statistic he mentioned was the framing of $45,000 as an average starting wage by some “advocate” organizations, when in reality that’s closer to the mean annual wage.

Entry-level Welding Is Like Other Entry-level Jobs

As in any industry, entry-level work is usually accompanied by entry-level pay. There’s always the chance of overtime and a fast-track promotion if the entry-level worker shows promise, but that is incumbent on the right fit between employer and employee. Nothing is guaranteed.

Welders may not get rich right off the bat, but they have the potential to make a very good living. They just need to be in the right place, have the right skills, and have the commitment to continue to develop those skills.

Others who land in a fab shop might not have the same potential to earn top wages like the pipeline workers, but they may have a more clearly defined career path that could lead to a supervisory role or even shop management. In short, welding is full of opportunity. It’s up to the welder to take the steps necessary to maximize the payday. If you are a good welder, you won’t go hungry, and you might have a pretty nice Ford F-150 in the driveway.