‘Crazy’: Aussies lose it over apprentice’s wild hourly rate

A young Aussie has revealed how much he makes an hour and his response has some people calling it “crazy”.

An apprentice electrician has revealed his hourly rate, leaving Aussies in shock and absolute disbelief.

The job app GetAhead works like Tinder, except you match with jobs, not potential lovers.

The marketing team behind the app has created a very clever online series in which they stop Aussies in the streets and ask them about their salaries and respected careers.

It has taken off with people loving having a stickybeak into people’s careers and salaries. For instance, everyone’s shocked to learn how little nurses earn.

But a young man was recently stopped in Brisbane and asked what he did for a living. He said he was an electrician and earned “around $50 an hour.”

He elaborated and said he worked for a big company that is currently working on Queen’s Wharf.

The twist? He said he wasn’t even fully qualified and only had been doing an apprenticeship for around a year.

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He said he was earning around $50 per hour. Picture: TikTok/Getaheadapp

He also claimed he was earning triple in Brisbane. Picture: TikTok/Getaheadapp

MORE: A guide to salary averages in Australia in your industry

The young Aussie said he started his apprenticeship on the Sunshine Coast but moved to Brisbane and is now earning triple.

He also added that he was enjoying his career because the “boys are really nice” at his current job and “the money is pretty good” as well.

If he worked 40 hours a week and earned $50 an hour, his annual salary would be just over $90,000.

However, that doesn’t account for overtime or weekend rates, so realistically, he could also be earning over $100,000.

MORE: Australia’s fastest growing salaries

Online Aussies were shocked to learn an apprentice could be racking in such a high hourly rate.

“$50 an hour as a first year?” One questioned, someone replied and said their doing the same thing but only earning $15 and another claimed in comparison they were only on $28 an hour.

Another jumped in and said he is probably getting $50 an hour because he is working on a union site where there are “better pay rates.”

One person said he probably gets “so much” because electricians are hard to find at the moment, and employers are paying more to attract talent.

Another calculated that if he was earning $50 an hour, he could potentially earn a $120,000 yearly salary, which they dubbed “crazy” for an apprentice.

Someone else said the money was “more than good,” and someone else asked, “Why are the people shocked with $50 an hour? That is nothing,” before claiming they were earning $95 an hour and had only been in their trade for two years.

Online the salary sparked debate. Picture: iStock

According to MIGAs, an apprentice group training organisation that specialising in employing and placing Australian Apprentices most young tradies are earning way less.

The organisation has offices all around Australia and reported that the award wage for first-year apprentices is $16.62 per hour.

It increases to $19.53 in the second year, $20.99 in the third year, and $24.49 in the final year of the apprenticeship.

Job search platform SEEK has found that the average salary for fully licensed electricians is between $90,000 and $110,000.

Originally published as ‘Crazy’: Aussies lose it over apprentice’s wild hourly rate