Salary
Average Salary: $36,395
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,519,418
The mean salary for welders is $36,395 (source).
But this is a very incomplete picture. Welding is a career with a lot more salary variation than most. This is because there are many ways to weld, some far more difficult and risky than others.
A recent high school grad, or someone fresh out of a vocational tech program, is probably looking at ten to fourteen bucks an hour (source).
That's not an awful wage, but it's not great either. You can probably afford to take your date out to Olive Garden at least. Endless breadsticks are nothing to scoff at.
Your salary goes up as you master different types of welding. Welding is a skill which requires dexterity and precision—employers want welds to be seamless and they want blueprints to be followed precisely.
So employers will pay for experience. Over time, expect that fourteen dollar wage to start rising (source).
Some types of advanced welding, involving lasers or explosives, may require more advanced math and science knowledge. And if you take the extra step and go to college to become a welding engineer, expect an instant bump in pay. You can start off at over $50,000 a year. That's a lotta moolah.
And then there's underwater welding. This is a field notorious for surprisingly solid wages but extremely high levels of risk (source).
Underwater welders work as divers, going underwater to build offshore structures like oil rigs. They can expect to earn a starting salary of $40,000 to $60,000 per year, and that can rise up to over $100,000 with a few years of experience. Some underwater welders even make over $300,000 (source).
Why the defense lawyer-sized pay rate? Well, for one thing, underwater welders work a lot of overtime. Many underwater welders work on deep-sea oil rigs...and also live on those rigs. They don't go home. They don't catch the game on the weekends. They swim underwater and melt things.
Working deep underwater, in low visibility, freezing temperatures, and high currents, while using ultra-hot torches is not super safe. The career is so demanding that underwater welders typically move on to something else after five or ten years (source).
And just to drive home the whole danger thing, an average of thirty out of 200 underwater welders die on the job (source).
Yikes.
But in general, welders make a low-middle to middle-class salary. It's not a bad wage, and there's definitely opportunity for growth. Just don't melt your fingers together. Or melt them off. Or electrocute yourself underwater. Or any other number of potential hazards that don't sound like much fun.