Most people get a certain image in their head when they hear the term “blue collar.” What do you picture?
Hard working? Underappreciated? Underpaid?
Blue collar has always meant skilled people doing manual work—handymen, auto mechanics, welders, painters, bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters, cooks, and other people who work with their hands. The working class, so to speak.
That term originally came from those kind of tradesmen wearing blue—think Rosie the Riveter for a famous example—since their jobs usually involved getting dirty, or at least the threat of getting dirty.
It used to be that “white collar” workers could wear white because there was little danger of getting covered in oil behind a bank teller’s window unless something had gone horribly wrong. White collar workers were typically found behind a desk most of the time. Today it usually means they’re behind an LED screen of some kind. And it’ll probably mean something else 10 years from now.
These days, working hard and getting paid might not always seem like they go together—like they should.
While some people in the white collar world love to Instagram about how much they hustle and grind, editing photographs of charcuterie boards from an over-powered laptop in their dad’s summer home in Rancho Mirage (or whatever)—blue collar grinding is a whole other thing. In some cases, it involves actual grinding (and actual hustling).
"Contrary to popular belief, however, blue collar workers don’t automatically earn less than their white collar, blue light-addled counterparts."
In fact, the pay gap between these two groups is a lot thinner now than it’s been, historically.
All we’ve heard about in the media for years has been tech jobs, Silicon Valley, tech jobs, Steve Jobs, tech jobs, blockchain. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Meanwhile, a huge chunk of job growth in recent years has involved blue collar positions—and it started well before Covid f*cked everything up. As the economy continues to slowly re-open, jobs in construction are booming. Meanwhile, huge blue-collar employers are (desperately) raising wages and offering additional benefits as they scramble to fill positions.
Furthermore, while the average pay of blue collar work has grown, the average pay for white collar job positions has largely stagnated.
While this situation definitely won’t last forever, the amount of workers who are “willing” to do manual blue collar jobs is declining significantly.
If you’re not in that group of people who aren’t willing to get your hands dirty because it might interfere with your Wordle game, there’s a lot of money to be made.
I’ll prove it—let’s look beyond the headlines and look at what some real blue collar workers are earning right now.
As of January 2022, ZipRecruiter wrote that the top earning oil rig workers are making about $130,000 a year. Interestingly, a few years ago, working on an oil rig also made Career Bliss’ list of the 10 happiest high-paying jobs.
For a lot of people, working on a rig in the middle of the ocean probably seems like an extreme example of a high paying blue collar job. So how about some examples closer to home?
Construction managers and even self-employed contractors can rake in over $160K a year. While no one starts in construction in that income bracket (without having some good friends anyway) it’s completely possible and realistic to make between $100-$200K eventually if you work your ass off.
You’ve probably heard about how much good bartenders can make in tips. While their regular pay is complete shit—below minimum wage generally—if you have great people skills, bartending at the right venue can be a gold mine. It’s possible—not easy, but possible—to make $100K or more a year as a bartender—which really isn’t bad for a job that requires no college education.
While you probably won’t realistically make six figures behind a bar mat, if you can mix a mean Pisco Sour and can put up with a few absurdly fussy customers, being a mixologist in an upmarket establishment is probably one of the most fun ways to make money as a blue collar worker. How about bartending on a cruise ship? There are a lot of ways you can go with this besides a dive bar.
My goal here isn’t to give you a rundown on all the potential blue collar positions that can make you a lot of cash—there are too many possibilities. I just want to give you some specific real-world examples so you know I’m not bullshitting you here.
But to get paid what you’re actually worth in the world today, you can’t just have the skills and work your ass off. You have to truly believe you’re worth it—you have to embody that spirit.
It helps if you keep track of your value—keep notes, keep a record of the value you’ve provided at your positions. Don’t wait for performance reviews—review yourself on the regular.
It’s not always manual work or productivity numbers, sometimes it’s the out-of-the-box ideas a blue collar employee or freelancer throws out off-handedly that generate a lot of money for who they’re working for.
If you can pursue blue collar work knowing what you’re honestly worth, you’ll act like someone who is worth a lot.
It’s only once you do that, that potential employers will start to see you that way as well.
Remember—no one gets paid what they want by lowering their expectations.
