Does anybody have more insight into the demand for electricians during data center construction? This article is really light on the details. I was researching it recently and got the impression that the majority of electricians hired during DC construction are much more specialized than the average residential electrician. It also seems like large data center construction typically demands a magnitude of several hundred electricians during the peak of construction. Which to me sounds like a lot less demand for the average electrician than some of the news outlets have been claiming.
If someone has an electrical license, they’re allowed to work as an electrician on a project. As long as there are enough experienced commercial electricians around to tell the residential guys what to do, it would be OK, there’s a ton of work on these projects that doesn’t require much or any thinking.
> Scotty Wristen, the owner of WE Electric in Abilene, lost five workers to the data centers. He can only afford to pay employees $20 an hour.
Data centers being able to pay more is only part of it, $20/hr is a ridiculous wage for an electrician.
My union electricians in a metro area of 3M make $57/hr in wages and around $43 in fringe benefits and they’re receiving a 4% raise on Friday. We have plenty of electricians here since they’re compensated well.
$33/hr seems low, but considering the median income in my metro area ($100k) is 55-60% higher than San Antonio ($65k), it about lines up with the higher journeyman wage here compared to the median income of just under $100k. I thought Texas had higher wages than that overall, guess I was wrong.
$20/hr for a non-union residential electrician isn’t unreasonable then, strangely enough.
Does anybody have more insight into the demand for electricians during data center construction? This article is really light on the details. I was researching it recently and got the impression that the majority of electricians hired during DC construction are much more specialized than the average residential electrician. It also seems like large data center construction typically demands a magnitude of several hundred electricians during the peak of construction. Which to me sounds like a lot less demand for the average electrician than some of the news outlets have been claiming.
They probably fly the best guys in anyways.
This is likely just Homebuilders passing the blame for not building more/finishing work while rates and materials are too high.
That’s not necessary. There’s nothing particularly fancy about data center power that warrants it.
If someone has an electrical license, they’re allowed to work as an electrician on a project. As long as there are enough experienced commercial electricians around to tell the residential guys what to do, it would be OK, there’s a ton of work on these projects that doesn’t require much or any thinking.
Nice to see these data centers are paying their electricians well. That should make salaries more competitive all around.
> Scotty Wristen, the owner of WE Electric in Abilene, lost five workers to the data centers. He can only afford to pay employees $20 an hour.
Data centers being able to pay more is only part of it, $20/hr is a ridiculous wage for an electrician.
My union electricians in a metro area of 3M make $57/hr in wages and around $43 in fringe benefits and they’re receiving a 4% raise on Friday. We have plenty of electricians here since they’re compensated well.
Abilene is nothing like a metro area of 3 million people.
$20/hour is a bit low, but union journeymen were making $33/hour in San Antonio, so I don't know that $20 is too extreme.
Some people need higher pay to offset the opportunity costs of living in a very rural area.
$33/hr seems low, but considering the median income in my metro area ($100k) is 55-60% higher than San Antonio ($65k), it about lines up with the higher journeyman wage here compared to the median income of just under $100k. I thought Texas had higher wages than that overall, guess I was wrong.
$20/hr for a non-union residential electrician isn’t unreasonable then, strangely enough.
Sounds like he needs to be out of business
Scotty probably loves capitalism until it affects him personally.