trade school instead of a bachelor's degree

[dfrecore]

Glassdoor, Salary.com, and Indeed have collected salary information from millions of people, so those are good places to look. BLS data are going to be more comprehensive. According to them, only the top 10% of plumbers earn more than $93k.

The auto shop industry probably does need to raise their wages to attract more people because they're kind of low. I thought about completing a correspondence automotive program for myself. Auto repair shops are worse than car salespeople when it comes to scamming customers. I like that some female mechanics have started teaching women basics because women are the most likely to get ripped off. There are also some women who operate repair shops with all women mechanics.

It's really hard to find salary info that is good for your particular area; a lot of places will show you national stats, or state, or even regional, but it still may not be good enough to figure out what you personally can make in the area you live.

If you make $93k here in San Diego county, it's a pretty decent salary.  But if you make $55k in Podunk, Arkansas, that might be a GREAT salary.  It really depends on how much houses cost in your area.  So I wouldn't necessarily go by what someone across the country is making - you need to know what you can make where you live, and if that's enough to buy a house or not.