Curiousity thread - what's the most money you have ever heard of a welder making?

[Ultan]

Just curious. There was a few guys with me on a CSR course from England, saying they had mates in Africa making £1000 a day, but they needed security guards 24/7.

What's the most you have heard of?

 

[steve t]

£10 an hour, but must be able to mig, tig, read drawings, work on own inititative, coded, and have own tools and supply ppe, but it might just be a rumour

 

[500e]

Steve you are not ever going to get £10 with those qualifications no MMA

 

[MCKDAVID]

I always take peoples claimed rates with a very large pinch of salt... always seems to be a fairly high exaggeration factor involved..

probably the highest end would be the hyperbaric guys, or those working with the exotic materials, Titanium etc for the oil an gas sector..

 

[cumbriasteve]

All my working life I have heard of these massive wages that can be earned abroad, I reckon less than 5% are actually true, the rest are urban myths, there are without doubt very good wages in some locations by some skills but astronomical I always view as fanciful tales.

I was told of them wanting sheet metal workers in South Africa in the 70's, told it was 100% genuine and they were earning £150 a day, free housing and medical cover, three flights home a year, someone did your cleaning and washing and a load of other grand sounding enticements, I soon found out it was a load of rubbish when I delved a little deeper.

 

[mpats]

I've just deleted an email with these rates given
TIG/MIG/ARC Welder £20-£23

But that was from some company, don't know how they got my email, offering to supply manpower. So I imagine that is how much they charge the company the person will be paid less so they can take their cut.

There were plenty other trades they were offering out too.

 

[winchman]

In my limited experience, the higher wages tend to contracting work with you being self employed as your own LTD company.
Obviously no pension, holiday / sick pay and no doubt minimum of 40% tax. The lads I know who have done work abroad the majority of it is in rougher areas and you usually just see the inside of a hotel and a factory.

 

[Shox Dr]

My lad's training as a plater so knows plenty of welders, 3 he worked with last yr, were in Australia for 3weeks, all expenses paid. I cant remember the wages but it was a Wow! Amount. Circa 10-15k.

However it's not what you know but who you know with these jobs. And those in the know, dont go around telling all and sundry about it

 

[Nick67GT]

I think £1000 a day is really top whack (if actually believable in the first place) apart from maybe saturation diving specialists carrying out sub-sea welding on a vessel in the middle if nowhere.

Even then, you're not going to get that every day, so much reduced standby rates would apply according to the contract terms.

Our charge out rates for ASME IX approved pipeline welders was between $650 and $850 a day including time spent during the weld procedure qualification period and physical mobilisation to job site. This equated to a typical contract term of approximately 8 - 10 weeks on the projects we were involved in.

Areas of ops were Nigeria, Mozambique, Yemen, Iraq etc etc and most other undesirable areas of the world.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

However it's not what you know but who you know

I reckon it's what you know about who you know......

 

[MCKDAVID]

Better if you have thé photos to go with it

 

[W.olly]

Welding rust bucket cars for me. ***** job one of the worst i can bet most folk will agree with in welding. But good money. around £50ph for me, shame it cant be all the time otherwise i would do it again but its getting the work regular. just did it weekends then.

 

[armalites]

In my experience on this planet I have learned that most people who openly talk about their "big" wages don't actually earn anywhere near that. I've also met these "you can earn this much there" kind of people yet it's they never seem to go there themselves.... go figure

 

[johnakay]

the highest I've heard is £18 ph but that is specialist pipe welding tig to be exact.
most pay around here is from minimum to £12 ph but mostly £8.50 and believe or not qualifications as long as your arm is needed.
glad I'm done with all that.

 

[CornishPete]

kind of makes you wonder what's the point of training, getting qualifications, experience etc... To get £2/ hr more than stacking shelves in Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available)
minimum wages going up is good for those who earn it but it doesn't help everyone across the board Imo, especially those who earn just a few quid more.

 

[Brad93]

£200,000 a year. Not just welding though. Years of training and examinations. In charge of people's safety life and death type thing.

 

[Kayos]

kind of makes you wonder what's the point of training, getting qualifications, experience etc... To get £2/ hr more than stacking shelves in Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available)
minimum wages going up is good for those who earn it but it doesn't help everyone across the board Imo, especially those who earn just a few quid more.

I've often said this, as minimum wage rises other wages are devalued, it's great for those on minimum but not for those with say 16 years of experience who have invested thousands in training over those 16 years....

 

[Richard.]

I used to run a team of welders doing welding jobs on cement plants and power stations all over the world
Most of the countries were not high risk but we made good brass.
My team were earning 25-35 an hour over time at 1.5. (depending on there experience) but then they had over night pay travel pay of £100 a night plus bonuses on job value and all expenses paid on top.
If it was a higher risk country it was £200 a night. We did a lot in Nigeria and Saudi. I was on a salary not hourly as I was senior guy on site but I got all the extras and bonuses on top. Couldn't do it now as I was never home with my family. Ten years was enough. We made some good cash. Welding can make good money if you exploit the right areas. I don't rake in what I used to now but I have a life with my kids which money can't buy.

 

[armalites]

When Aldi took over an empty store in our local town they were offering jobs at £9.5/h, I remember hearing a guy on the radio who explained why minimum wage wasn't a good thing and he made some great points. It certainly doesn't encourage anyone to strive for more. I do get tired seeing people who are "struggling" to make ends meet who still afford to smoke/drink but can't afford to feed their kids

I was at a school awards evening tonight and ther were kids there that had 3-4 awards but for me the 2 most impressive awards were 2 kids in year 11 who had a 100% attendance record since their first day in year 7. Those are the kids the world needs not ones who think they are owed a living.

 

[skotl]

Slight disclaimer as my mate is a diver, currently doing pipeline maintenance under sat.
In the good days, off west Africa, he was earning £70k as a dive/maintenance contractor.

Today, as a sat diver, he reckons he'd be lucky to make 45-50k if he was away from home 50/75% of the year. Less if he's home.