$600 a week and 12-hour days in the sun: Tradies lift lid on Aussie industry in peril

There is big money to be made as a tradie, but there's a lot of groundwork that has to be done before you can be rolling in cash. A collection of apprentice tradespeople have candidly confessed how much they are pulling in each year.

The revelations are significant in the context of a cost-of-living crisis in Australia as some are only just making enough to survive. Sam is a third-year apprentice electrician and told Yahoo Finance that he's only able to get by on his wage because he lives at home with his parents.

“No one can just afford to save really. Every time you get that little bit ahead, you have to pay for more tools, bills come in, car problems," he said. “I would barely have any money to myself after a week's wage really [if I paid rent]."

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How much can you earn as an apprentice?

This all depends on what year you are in, what trade you choose for a career, and where you are in Australia.

The salary once you're through your apprenticeship can vary wildly as well, especially if you're working in the mines or on a union construction site.

But you have to get through several years of comparatively low pay as you learn the tricks of the trade.

Apprentice carpenters

Two blokes at different stages of their apprenticeships opened up about how much they make and what impact that has on their lives.

The Gold Coast man who is in his first year said that he was only earning around $600 a week, below the national minimum wage of $915.90 per week.

“It’s not the best. Living by yourself and all, it’s hard to live on what I’m making but I’m dealing with what I got,” he told jobs app GetAhead.

“My dad gave me a labouring job outside of school and then I was like I wanna go down the direction of being a chippy so that’s what I did."

A Brisbane man who was in his third year of his carpentry apprenticeship said he was making $900 per week.

He said he's spent around $4,000 on tools over those years but admitted the job is easier than he expected, even though he sometimes has to work for 12 hours in the hot sun.

Apprentice electricians

Two women in Queensland not only opened up about their salaries but also what it was like working in a male-dominated industry.

One, who didn't reveal what year she was in, said she was pulling in $60,000 a year, while the other, who is only seven months into her first year, said she earns roughly $2,000 per week, which ends up being $104,000 per year pre-tax.

"There's not too much responsibility of being put on me at the moment, obviously, being a first year," she said.

"But when school starts... I'm sort of being put with more work. It can definitely be a demanding job."

The woman on $2,000 per week said the big pay cheque is the result of 10-hour workdays from Monday to Saturday week-in week-out.

"There's a lot of support, especially for women, I would like to progress in the future and and sort of work my way up," she added.

The sparky apprentice on $60,000 a year agreed that the industry is getting better regarding women and encouraged others to jump in.

"Don't get scared of being in a male-dominated industry at all. Take it head-on and have so much fun with it," she said.

Concreter

A young bloke doing on his first year of his concreter apprenticeship revealed he was earning $30 per hour.

He said the job difficulty ranges day-to-day and his start times can be as early as 5am and as late as 4pm.

The tradie admitted the pay is "good" for a 17-year-old and urged Aussies to get involved with an apprenticeship if they're keen.

Mechanical plumber

A Queenslander with only a few months left before he finishes his mechanical plumbing apprenticeship said he was earning around $1,500 per week.

He said the pay jumps up once he's fully qualified and believed he was getting a fair deal.

"Pay is definitely fair because we're on the union sites in the EBA, we get a lot of benefits that come with our jobs so it's definitely worth being in this industry," he said.

Plumber

A woman in the middle of her apprenticeship said she was making around $1,000 per week and said once she's fully qualified she could be earning just over $100,000 per year.

"I did admin for seven years, just didn't really enjoy sitting at a desk. So after COVID hit, took the time to change what I was doing," she said.

The apprentice said she's met loads of interesting people over the past few years and loves the nature of her job.

From $31,000 to comfortable six figures: Tradies' earning potential

Veteran builder Scott Challen has previously warned about the issues plaguing his industry and the lack of apprentices is high on his list.

“There's only 238,000 apprentices in the whole country and we lost 50,000 in 12 months,” Challen told Yahoo Finance.

“That's a national disaster.

“We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now. This is the Titanic and we are on a collision course … the future is bleak, really bleak.”

While he understands that the low pay might cause many to walk away from their apprenticeships, he said young Aussies need to harden up and make sacrifices now to reap the rewards later on.

That's exactly what Melbourne woman Ashley Belteky did when she was going through her apprenticeship where she was being paid $12 an hour.

It was a tough slog, but she's now a fully qualified diesel mechanic and is pulling in decent money.

“You’re much better off financially for doing four years in an apprenticeship than four years at a university,” she explained to Yahoo Finance.

“I’ve been earning more than all of my peers who went to university pretty much since I left school. Even now, where they’ve got degrees and I’m qualified, I’ve had a greater earning potential.”

How much can you earn once you're qualified?

According to figures released by Talent, the salaries you can earn in certain trades is varied:

• Carpenters: Average earnings per year: $79,892

• Plumbers: Average earnings per year: $85,313

• Construction and site managers: Average earnings per year: $150,000

• Electricians: Average earnings per year: $93,862

• Bricklayers: Average earnings per year: $75,000

• Concreters: Average earnings per year: $83,870

Building industry is desperate for more apprentices

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed the 2023-24 financial year was the "worst" year for home building in more than a decade.

In addition to that, apprenticeship completions fell 8.6 per cent from March 2023 to March this year.

There were 24,545 people who completed their apprenticeship last year and that's fallen to 22,420 in 12 months.

In the same time period, the number of people who started an apprenticeship fell 11.8 per cent and the number of apprenticeships who were in training dropped 2.2 per cent.

Andrew Sezonov, Group General Manager of WPC Group, an apprenticeship training centre, told Yahoo Finance the industry can't afford anymore people dropping out.

"This decline in apprentices makes it more difficult for the housing and construction industry to accommodate the growing demand for infrastructure projects," he explained.

"If this trend continues, we can expect delays in projects, higher costs and compromised work quality. To address and potentially avoid these risks in the future, we need a sufficient pipeline of skilled workers and drive more feasible programs for apprentices.

"We need to invest more in vocational training and amplify support programs to ensure more completions."

He said morale at the coal face was "turbulent" and that could only get worse if there weren't enough tradies rising through the ranks.

"Policies for additional financial incentives must be implemented to maintain and regain morale, promoting better career journeys in the sector," he said.

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