2013 $20k (freelance) 100+ clients

2014 $75k (salary + super) 100+ employees

2015 $70k (salary + super) ~50 employees

2016 $120k (freelance) 8 clients

2017 $70k (salary + super) 3 employees

2018 $90k (salary + super) ~15 employees

2016 was by far my best year, still living at home (with parents) and after tax almost all of it went into savings.

At this stage I plan negotiating for $120k after christmas which I think is inline with my peers.

And for those talking about $4 coffee's, most places I know give discount if you BYO cup!

The pay tends to start off a lot lower here compared to the hot spots in the US but somewhat catches up from what I’ve seen.

I always get called elitist/out-of-touch when I point this out, but it's really true that most people working in trades do $50k with mediocre benefits.

Everyone always lashes out at this with anecdata, but both the hard data from Labor and the 15+ datapoints I have personally all seem to agree that $60k is "really good", and that's with overtime. Statistically, for every wealthy plumber/small business owner pulling down 100k+, there are a lot of folks pulling down $50k or less working for the man.

Other downsides: The trades are extremely sensitive to certain types of recessions. And most trades are hard on your body. Plumber is actually one of the better trades from that perspective. Even stuff like welding and machining, which outsides think of as less hard on your body, are usually brutal. If the setup was such that they don't need you carrying stuff, going up and down stairs, etc. all day -- ie. if you could just stand in one place and weld/cnc without doing back-breaking labor -- then they'd have automated the work already.

This might all be specific to the two labor markets I know most well, but... sigh for smart kids, going to college for an in-demand STEM degree is still a great life choice and probably much higher ROI than a trade. And saying so isn't elitist.

Driving truck also seems to do better over the past two decades than most trades. Still sensitive to recessions, but much less so. None of my trucker relatives/friends have had bouts of unemployment since 2008, but all the construction and manufacturing trades have been in and out of work pretty much continually since 2009 (maybe things got better around late 2015)

If college isn't for your kids, have them also consider healthcare. Might be more stable during recessions and less hard on their body. The only downside is that there are fewer options for entrepreneurial endeavors than in the trades. Also, outside of large cities, there's only one or two dominant employers and that holds down wages. But the same is true in tech and trades.

> Most tradies here have their own business

Maybe this really is true in Australia. IDK. People say this a lot in the USA, but both statistics and personal anecdata indicate it's complete bullshit. Starting a business is hard. Getting the money to start up is hard. Handling cash flow is hard. Handling everything from deadbeat clients to litigious clients is hard.

> + the cash jobs that they don't declare on tax.

Software engineers can also make $$$ by committing tax fraud and other crimes.

In Melbourne, I graduated school in 1997. With a bachelor and a PhD and a few years in R&D in biotech I am able to rent in the inner city.

My neighbour is a

1) a tradie my age,

2) owns the house and has another investment property,

3) and finishes work at 3pm to hang with his three kids.

How much does a cup of coffee go for in Au?

And developers can certainly make over 100/hr, but in my experience that would mean contracting/consulting as a specialist with at least 5 years experience in a given technology.

can certainly hit $aud 100 / hour and upwards for full-time contract gigs with bigcos (banks, finance, telcos). can hit that with less than 5 years experience.

if the client knows what they're doing they may also assess for ability, not just years experience. but at least some big clients don't know what they're doing and are overrun with whatever resources of varying ability bodyshops manage to palm off onto their projects.