The Salary Calculator
Compare up to three trade paths side by side. Real federal wage data. See which trade pays more, breaks even sooner, and has the strongest job outlook in your state.
Which Trade Pays the Most?
The highest-paying trades in 2024 by BLS national median annual wage are Powerline Worker ($89,820), Plumber ($63,350), Electrician ($61,590), and Aircraft Mechanic ($75,400). But median wage is one number — the calculator above projects what each trade actually earns you across 10 years, accounting for school time, school cost, and the actual wage progression from journeyman to senior.
State matters as much as trade. A California Electrician ($88,210 mean per BLS OEWS 2024) outearns a North Carolina Electrician ($66,850) by a meaningful margin. The calculator pulls real state-level percentile data so you're comparing what's actually happening in your state, not a national average.
How We Calculate the 10-Year Net Position
The calculator uses a 10-year window starting at enrollment day. School time counts as $0 earnings during the program. After graduation, the wage curve runs from BLS day-1 wage (entry-level) to BLS year-5 wage (journeyman) to BLS p90 wage (master/senior) by year 10. School cost is subtracted upfront.
This is the honest math. Older calculators that treat the full 10 years as working time over-state earnings by $30K–$50K depending on program length — a kid who spends 12 months in a trade school cannot have earned 10 full years of journeyman wages. The calculator above counts only what actually happens.
Which Trade Has the Best Job Outlook?
Per BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034: Electrician (+11% growth, ~80,200 annual openings), HVAC Technician (+9%, ~37,700), and Powerline Worker (+8%, ~23,800) lead the field for projected openings. Welder and Diesel Mechanic are projected slower but still positive. Carpenter has the highest unemployment among construction trades (5.4% per BLS Labor Force Statistics 2024) which factors into long-term stability.
What's Missing from This Calculator
The calculator runs the math on salary, school cost, time-to-paycheck, job growth, openings, and unemployment. It does not weight fit factors like work environment preference, hands-on vs. desk preference, or location flexibility — those matter just as much for the right person, but they're not money math. For fit-based recommendations, take the 2-minute quiz.
Data Sources
- Trade wage data: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 — by SOC code, state-level percentiles.
- Trade growth projections: BLS Employment Projections Program 2024–2034, by SOC code.
- Annual openings: BLS Employment Projections — projected average annual job openings 2024–2034 (combines growth + replacements).
- Unemployment by occupation: BLS Labor Force Statistics 2024 (Current Population Survey).
- Trade school costs: NCES Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 2024, sub-baccalaureate certificate program tuition data.
- Bachelor's degree salary: BLS OEWS 2024 weighted average for occupations requiring a bachelor's degree (median entry $60,140).
- Bachelor's degree cost: NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2024 — average total cost public 4-year in-state ~$108K with room and board.
- Federal student loan debt: Federal Reserve Consumer Credit Report Q4 2024 — average bachelor's debt $38,375, ~$400/month over 10 years at standard repayment.
- Associate degree salary: BLS OEWS 2024, median entry $46,124 across associate-required occupations.
- Bootcamp/cert salary: BLS OEWS 2024 software developer median, with placement data from Council on Integrity in Results Reporting (CIRR) 2024 — note ~35% non-completion rate across reporting bootcamps.
All figures rounded. Calculator uses 10-year window starting at enrollment day. School time counts as $0 earnings during program duration.