Do PhDs in engineering get paid more and have less stress than people who work in the trades?

This comment was posted to reddit on Jan 20, 2021 at 1:56 pm and was deleted within 19 hour(s) and 24 minutes.

Do PhDs in engineering get paid more and have less stress than people who work in the trades?

"Even entry level jobs in engineering require a PhD."

What jobs are you talking about? Where?

"4 years for a PhD only to find an entry level job after graduation that pays $50k?"

Unless you're talking about academic adjunct/lecturer jobs that's unrealistically low, at least for the U.S. Personally, which is just an anecdote of course, I was never paid less than $81k post-Ph.D. and I got a raise to $90k after six months.

This is not to say that a Ph.D. is a great financial choice. It is widely considered a net negative for lifetime earnings relative to the equivalent years of work experience. Also I didn't have the money to put anything in an IRA when I was in my early 20s. But now I get paid pretty well for interesting work.

I've never had the drive to pursue the max-$$$ option for employment and it took me a while to hit $100k, but shortly after that I asked for and got $150k at the next job.

I also make nearly $200/hr consulting on the side. I still feel kind of weird and embarrassed to Invoice a thousand bucks for a couple of Saturdays setting up finite element models and scripts with my coffee. But it's a low number compared to other Ph.D. consulting rates of people I know.

"In addition, there is also debt to pay off."

Everyone I know who got a Ph.D. in hard STEM got paid to get their degree. Didn't get paid a lot, but tuition and a living stipend were covered.

"In comparison, people who work in the trades for 4 years get a certificate, find good paying work, and have to worry less. After 10 years of work experience, they can be paid 100k per year."

If you work hard, have some luck, and keep your physical health, sure. I have immense respect for the trades and think they're the right path for many, but it seems to be that this "you make six figures in the trades" thing is anecdotally true (if you own the business?) but statistically false.

The median annual wage for electrical engineers, most of whom don't have a Ph.D., is $98,530 according to BLS. For electricians, $56,180.

Now there are only 200,000 electrical engineers in the US, and I bet if I did more digging I can find the underemployment numbers that jive with the anecdotal "got an EE degree work as a tech at a factory" story you see a lot in this sub.

But still, there's something deeply off statistically about "trades make $100k but engineers don't" unless you think the Bureau of Labor Statistics just lies (or we're talking about a different country).