GOP debate fact check: Was Marco Rubio right about welders vs. philosophers?

[JoeyT]

23. Speaking as a welder, some of us double as philosophers in our free time.

We might not be particularly good at it, but we give it a shot.

I also don't know a single welder that makes $36000 a year. I mean...maybe a guy in a fab shop that can't pass any tests, but when you're figuring up the income for surgeons you don't add in Stitches Jimmy that doesn't have a fancy-ass degree or that useless book learnin', but if you know the password will pull out a bullet or stitch up a knife wound for fifty bucks and two grams of meth. When you're figuring up the average income for lawyers, you don't factor in every idiot on the internet that fires off a badly spelled cease and desist claiming to be a lawyer while demanding the offending party cease their "liballous" behavior.

Real welders? Ones that can actually pass tests? You're looking at $50k-60k a year in states with low costs of living minimum. A philosopher would break down and cry if he saw a professional combo or tube welder's paycheck. I've seen those guys bring home $5k a week or more after taxes on 7/12s or 7/16s. (Sadly, I ain't that kind of welder.) Mostly because the tests are damned difficult to pass, so they're hard to find.

So he's not exactly wrong about what welders make, but not really right either.

We still need to hike up the minimum wage, though. No one should work 30-40 hours a week and not be able to afford the essentials.