Boeing finance analyst Raymond Scott, right, stands near a diesel generator as electrician Rev. Allen Gooden, left, and diesel mechanic Isaac Daniels look on, in Everett, Wash., Jan. 8, 2005. (AP Photo/Steve Shelton)
During a recent interview with the Round Da Way podcast, community activist Dr. Umar Johnson, a clinical psychologist and certified school psychologist, urged Black people to consider the trades when going into a profession.
Trades can encompass a wide range of skills but include professions such as plumber, electrician, and mechanic.
According to Johnson, who is building a school for young Black boys called the Frederick Douglass Marcus Garvey Academy, where among other topics the curriculum will include students will being taught trades, some trade workers can make more than college-educated workers.
“We have to go back to trade school,” declared Johnson during the Feb. 26 interview. “The reason Black people are allergic to trades is because all we did in slavery was trade.”
He noted that during the construction of his school, he has come to witnesses firsthand how much tradespeople make. He said, electricians “can make in two months what a surgeon makes in a year…the ones who get their hands dirty still make the most money.”
But is Johnson right? Not exactly.
According to job search platform Indeed, an electrician salary in the U.S. can pull in an annual salary of
$59,182, and possibly make an additional $9,438 per year in overtime.
Another jobs platform, Faraday Careers, noted that in 2021, the median salary for an electrician was $60,040, with amounts ranging based on experience, type of employer worked for, and location. Electricians in the lowest 10 percent make less than $37,020 per year, while electricians in the highest 10 percent make more than $99,800 per year.
Meanwhile, the average salary for a surgeon is $298,173 per year in the U.S., according to Indeed.
But one has to take into account the number of years it takes to become a surgeon and the financial debt of medical school.
In order to become a surgeon, students must complete a four-year bachelor’s degree, followed by four years of medical school. Then, surgeons also spend at least five years in a required residency program after earning their medical degree, according to Best Colleges.
In 2018, the cost of becoming a surgeon was around $250,000 to over $500,000 in the U.S., taking into account undergraduate and medical school costs, according to BizFluent.
Becoming an electrician is less costly.
You should expect to spend anywhere between $1,000 and $11,000 for a training program, according to ElectricalSchool.org.
Boeing finance analyst Raymond Scott, right, stands near a diesel generator as electrician Rev. Allen Gooden, left, and diesel mechanic Isaac Daniels look on, in Everett, Wash., Jan. 8, 2005. More than thirty years after he fled his African homeland looking for a safer and brighter future, Raymond Scott will return to Sierra Leone to rebuild the struggling villages that were his father’s legacy. (AP Photo/Steve Shelton)
