This state offers six-figure salaries without a college degree
Young people are not willing to get down and dirty for a career in construction, according to the leader of a commercial contracting company.
In big cities like New York, the prospect of making much more on Wall Street is making young people think twice.
“You have to be very smart to be a carpenter, a plumber — and they figure if they have to learn and work so hard — they might as well go into finance or technology,” Evergreen Construction CEO Barbara Kavovit told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Wednesday.
While a career in construction doesn’t necessarily require a college degree, acquiring a job in carpentry, for instance, would involve joining a union to get top wage. There are very few vocational schools devoted to teaching carpentry, she said, and the onus is on construction companies to teach workers how to do the trade.
That’s where her company comes in: “We train them, we have women on the job site, field supervisors, project managers, and you have to teach them,” she said. “And you have to have the patience to learn to teach these people that want to be in construction.”
Smaller cities, on the other hand, present a different obstacle – income.
“You are also not making enough money to afford to live,” she said.
However, wages for qualified carpenters are a far cry from poverty. According to Kavovit, a union worker in New York City can rake in up to $150,000 per year with benefits and without overtime, while “good” non-union workers can potentially earn $100,000 annually.
Even so, Kavovit said it can take up to seven years for a skilled worker to earn six figures.
Her comments come on the heels of a new report by the Wall Street Journal that found young people are shying away from construction jobs.