how much would a new welder make?

[snappy101]

as in fresh outta trade school with a bunch of certs, what would a new welder expect to make right off the bat? and i dont mean in a freakish rare situation where someone is lucky enough to make 20/hr or something, i mean realistically and generally, thanks for any info since im gonna be job searching in a year or 2 lol, just wondering what im in for, thanks yall for answers

[lotechman]

Wages range all over the place according to where you live. In the Vancouver area you can expect a difference of five dollars between working in the city and working in the upper Fraser Valley. Your best bet is to go to your local library and get the librarian to help you look through the Stats Canada files. You will find the average wage rates for all trades in all regions.
Much of the info you have to pay for unless you use the public library.

[pyroracing85]

8 bucks an hour for a newbie welder.

[WHughes]

Depends, If you are able to enter an apprenticeship with pipefitters or boilermakers you can start around 20 dollars an hour and get to around 70 with benefits as a journeyman.

[ibanezed4yrs]

lol.. library.. those are up to date..lol.... look in the want ads man... what better place to find out your local wage.. if it's national wages you're lookin for, go online and get a hot-sheet..

[snappy101]

Originally Posted by ibanezed4yrs

lol.. library.. those are up to date..lol.... look in the want ads man... what better place to find out your local wage.. if it's national wages you're lookin for, go online and get a hot-sheet..

ya i looked at lots of jobs but they all say "2-5+ years of experience needed" so doesnt really tell me much about a newly cert'd welder with 9-12 certs.

[akpolaris]

Fresh out of school won't pay very well unless you have some demonstrable & practical experience in the field. School certs earned in a booth (with out rain, wind, dirt, grease etc...) are great on paper. Find a job and put you nose to the grind stone and build up some experience. then you can ask for $$ based on knowledge & experience. Good luck

[sn0border88]

I dont think 20 would be a rare situation at all, im close to that and I havent even finished school yet. Most guys I talk to who are leaving school with certs are at minimum $20/hr

[Metarinka]

anywhere from 12-20/hr would be about standard.

There's plenty of production fab shops that just want a trigger puller for Mig and will happily pay $8-12/hr for some newbie to do it.

Grads coming out of my last school with 2 year degrees usually placed around 16-20/hr. times are a little slow so it's not uncommon for employers to try to push it and desperate people to take the work so they can pay down rigs etc.

In college while getting my welding degree I made 12.50/hr working as a Mig/tig welder in a production shop. It wasn't gravy work but it paid my dues and gave me some good experience to put on my resume.

[snappy101]

strange they pay so little even if your certified with aws or cbw proving you know how to weld.. should be regulations

[TIGPro]

If you took a guy who welded on coupons for 5 years and a guy who welded in the field for 5 years, who do you think a company would hire? Unless it is a high volume production job, most companies want to hire a guy that can build things to print, the first time, without having to hold his hand. I had a hard time finding my first welding job, and from experience let me tell you, after about a month you realize how little your certs mean and how much your on the job work experience means. Take a **** job, learn from it, move on.

[03dodgeoffroad]

if you are not afraid to travel most companies are paying 20-28per hr and 50-100 per day perdeim

[welderShane]

Originally Posted by TIGPro

If you took a guy who welded on coupons for 5 years and a guy who welded in the field for 5 years, who do you think a company would hire? Unless it is a high volume production job, most companies want to hire a guy that can build things to print, the first time, without having to hold his hand. I had a hard time finding my first welding job, and from experience let me tell you, after about a month you realize how little your certs mean and how much your on the job work experience means. Take a **** job, learn from it, move on.

A-men on this one. I agree 100% Thats how it is around here. You need job experience everywhere. Companies don't seem to care if you have all these certs and out of school. It all comes down to in the field experience.

[slcolvin]

if you can get on as a welder helper keep your eyes and ears open ask why are you doing it this way ?? you can learn lot;s the older person you work with the moor you can learn to do a lot
i work with a old man the first 2 or 3 days i did know aney one can be thathard to work with . one day
he stop and told me if you want to learn . i will show you . watch just 11 mo later i had to feld
certf. nad my owne helper and still asking quistons

[99trxrider]

Originally Posted by slcolvin

if you can get on as a welder helper keep your eyes and ears open ask why are you doing it this way ?? you can learn lot;s the older person you work with the moor you can learn to do a lot
i work with a old man the first 2 or 3 days i did know aney one can be thathard to work with . one day
he stop and told me if you want to learn . i will show you . watch just 11 mo later i had to feld
certf. nad my owne helper and still asking quistons

WTF does that say??

[DogMark]

I think it means that this person found a mentor and gets frustrated at the keyboard.

[Bluesman]

Originally Posted by 99trxrider

WTF does that say??

He is saying he got assigned the helper to a hardass and didn't know anyone could be that difficult to work with. One day the ol feller told him if he wanted to learn he would show him. Apparantly he did and now he has his own helper. BUT, he still asks questions and continues to learn daily...

Dude is a lifelong learner, I can appreciate that as I am too. I'm always trying to learn something new and broaden my skillset.

[Big65mopar]

As others have said it does depend on your location so if your in the middle of podunk then $10 - $15 is average from my research while in a major industrial metro it can go from $12.50 - $25. In my area the latter tends to be the case and if you know how to weld pipe as well as metal core and can weld vertical then your in and golden. As for availability of jobs again it depends on the area, I've been looking back in two different states that I used to live in and nearby states and the work is very sparse while here I can apply to any number of ship yards that are hiring as well as a rail company; heavy equipment manufacturer; fab shops, construction companies; research facility; power plant company; and if the last hurdles are cleared a wind turbine manufacturer.

[stickdik]

the local Army depot here starts out their welders at 21.00 per/hr ...climbs from there depending on skill level......

[Eric C]

Originally Posted by sn0border88

I dont think 20 would be a rare situation at all, im close to that and I havent even finished school yet. Most guys I talk to who are leaving school with certs are at minimum $20/hr

Where is this? I think the location needs to be given with these answers. Also the exchange rate if we are talking about above the U.S. border. In Nashville TN. you can expect to get up to about $12.00 right out of school. If you go to KY. on a prevailing wage job you can make up to $25-$30 per hour. The certs are not all that matters. Last year I hired a guy who could tig alum. pipe better than anyone I have ever seen. When the pipe rail job was done I sent him out in the field to drill some beams and stick weld some clips on. He called me after a few hours because he was scared of ladders. My point is dont think the certs are all it takes to make the big bucks. Most places that pay well are going to want you to be well versed in the type of work they do.

[farmersamm]

Most of the kids around here, if not gainfully unemployed, land a job at some fabricating shop, and make minimum wage until they prove themselves.

Be very careful about what you learn. A guy that can make a nice bead does not a weldor make Fitup is the key to all welding in most shops, and in the field. You have to know how to fit the metal before you can weld it.

Saddles, bevel cuts, compound angles, etc.................. Mess up a 12' piece of stock because of a bad cut, and ya got problems.

Yeah sure, learn to weld, but learn to fit before you call yourself a welder. Whole different ballgame.

[Old Fart]

Somebody ought to just straight out tell all the kids going to welding schools those pieces of paper the schools call welding certs are little more than toilet paper.

Certified weldor has become one of the most misunderstood pair of words on Earth lately since everybody from some association of car body repair salesman to AWS is passing them out.

I can test for and have 10 certs today at 1 shop, and they are all worthless if I change shops tomorrow.

[akpolaris]

I worked wit a guy one time that was a Millright & had wrenched & welded at logging camps for years. he could stick together rusty pieces of metal standing on his head in the mud. Built all kinds of great jobs. But he froze up in a booth when it was test time. The shop would send him on tough field jobs as a "helper". As a helper he made the shop lots of $$$

[snappy101]

Originally Posted by Bluesman

He is saying he got assigned the helper to a hardass and didn't know anyone could be that difficult to work with. One day the ol feller told him if he wanted to learn he would show him. Apparantly he did and now he has his own helper. BUT, he still asks questions and continues to learn daily...

Dude is a lifelong learner, I can appreciate that as I am too. I'm always trying to learn something new and broaden my skillset.

thats why im getting into welding, constantly learning and constantly improving

[snappy101]

Originally Posted by Old Fart

Somebody ought to just straight out tell all the kids going to welding schools those pieces of paper the schools call welding certs are little more than toilet paper.

Certified weldor has become one of the most misunderstood pair of words on Earth lately since everybody from some association of car body repair salesman to AWS is passing them out.

I can test for and have 10 certs today at 1 shop, and they are all worthless if I change shops tomorrow.

im getting the certs at a college not a particular shop so their good everywhere, their good to begin the welding journey, shows you know how to weld, then the next step is to get experience, they do mean something though cuz their all tested by CWB or AWS wherever u might be, but from there it does take a lot more adaptation and learning to beable to weld in real world situations, but certs do mean something, means u got a proper footing and starting point, if i ran a shop i wouldnt trust a person that didnt have certs