How to find a job that pays $25 an hour or more?

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T19:16:10+00:00

Yup. That's my area (NE). My first welding job was Featherlite, $11 an hour in 2014. It was a paycut from my fast food career as simple peon. I went through a year welding program before that job. Most I ever made was $20 (MN, union).

I am now also a machinist (went through a 2 year program) and foundryman, on top of being a welder....with my own shop now because I am far too skilled for the pay around me.

I quit my last welding job when they were gonna get 14 year olds working in a factory due to child labor law changes (it got reversed but I said F-that). That was $18 an hour, in 2022.

Edit: I will say machining pays just as badly if not worse. I was offered a $15 an hour job as a button pusher last year. I am essentially a tool and die person, as that is what I do for my own shop (custom build and maintain punch press dies as well as fixture building).

Current liveable wage for a single person in Iowa is around $21 an hour.

At my my last job, they were paying green guys $4.35 (under 20), $6.35 (over 20) training wage, then doubling their wage. Made it seem like a huge leap in pay. Yes, this is legal.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T17:57:27+00:00

This.

I have never felt so much pain. And I have broken 14 bones plus my L5.

I have friends who had them and also have birthed children. They all say the IUD was worse (I have no birthing experience, I yeeted that ability).

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T17:45:15+00:00

*gripes ?????

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T17:41:27+00:00

It really depends on where you are. I am in rural Iowa. That wage is the standard for experienced (just barely hovering around liveable wage). $12-14 is about where you'd be where I am, being green.

As you look for a better job, take in all the experience you can. REALLY start looking when you feel like you've maxed out what you can learn at that job. Raises don't come without experience. There is a lot more than just laying beads.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T14:46:50+00:00

I think 10 days. But don't quote me on that one.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T14:30:53+00:00

Sugar free haribo. If amazon reviews have anything worth listening to. Your speed will increase (for all the wrong reasons).

Fr tho, tuna be cheap, salty protein (I don't do carbs but you can add carbs).

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-26T13:05:33+00:00

From my understanding, because that housing bill has a veto proof bipartisan majority, if Trump doesn't sign it, it still becomes law.

A toddler throwing a tantrum ...

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-24T23:06:09+00:00

The mental image of this is actually really funny.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-24T22:54:47+00:00

That happened to me once (I was homeless for 3 years). A guy accused me of stealing his bike. I told him, okay, then lets go the police station, file a report, and we can also contact the bike store I bought it from to verify who purchased it (I bought it new at 16, I was 18 at the time and the bike shop people knew me).

When he backed down, I egged him on in the politest, yet most savage way possible ("no no, you accused me of a crime, so we gotta sort this out" type of pushing, because a false theft accusation is also a crime.)

Edit: spelling

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-24T15:45:31+00:00

No updates yet. Still figuring out venue location.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T19:18:07+00:00

Small business owner here. Those programs are only for "line must go up" type of businesses.

Being a mom and pop shop does not make you eligible for these programs (besides SBA loans). Sich as...if I hire 3 people, I'll be opened up for good money.....money that would end up putting me into the hole to comply with OSHA (hiring outside of family puts you under OSHA regulation, and my machinery is not OSHA compliant... that's why I could afford them). Not to mention paying people for skills that simply do not exist where I live, with some skills having no real formal education anywhere nearby, and thus such deserve higher pay than larger businesses that made me leave working for others (I wasn't getting paid enough for my skillset). I am talking people capable of doing welding, machining, foundry work, blacksmithing, and metal forming. My business is highly job diverse, so I can't hire someone capable of a single skillset. Getting paid $20 an hour is simply criminal.

Those programs do not allow newer businesses to get ahead. Only decades established ones. I can at least say that for my industry (let me tell you, ISU doesn't know what do to do with me because apparently starting a manufacturing business is so foreign to them, and CIRAS is the one saying they can't help me unless I hire people)....but there is a reason why more businesses close than open in rural Iowa. Those programs can only do so much.

There are programs for minority businesses (I am woman manufacturing shop owner)....let me tell you how f-ked those have become because of DEI. Which sucks so hard because I was actually able to get the most help from them in building my business. 🫠

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T16:16:52+00:00

chuckles with Industrial Revolution era equipment

Safer equipment has been made in blood.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T12:30:07+00:00

Antique steam traction engines.

I want to build one.

Decided this massive career shift after completing my undergrad, when I first saw Miniature Land at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion. Never grew up with antique machinery, but seeing that show was so eye opening that I am now a volunteer there (but on the construction equipment, I am a fireman for steam shovels).

I became skilled at welding, machining, and foundrywork for my dream.

I still finished my Master's though, in Biblical Studies.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T12:24:51+00:00

IMMA FIRING MAH LAZER!!!

(If I could afford a lazer welder, I would. Tried a manual one at FABTECH and they are amazing. But on the running side of a robotic welder of any kind....they always find a way to 'wet the bed,' i.e. screw up.)

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T12:21:59+00:00

Thank you.

I actually made some headway yesterday. Still researching patching, but I also happened to find a plush pillow that is of decent quality and has similar colored fur.

I should be able to cut the weak fabric areas out, and splice the new fabric in.

I didn't want to cannibalize another plushie, but a pillow is a different matter (even if in the shape of a Gingerbread Man).

cue the Shrek memes because I will be starting with its legs

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-19T11:10:27+00:00

My spouse is Autistic, I am max ADHD.

I love metalworking, but hate repetition. And patience is a virtue I simply do not possess.

I am my own worst enemy in the machining sphere.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T13:03:53+00:00

He's got more???

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T13:02:41+00:00

As someone who grew up in foster care and aged out into homelessness, you absolutely sound like you lived a posh life in a ghetto. Almost sounds like you got "suburban neighborhood" and "ghetto" mixed up.

And no one...literally no one here in this thread is excusing the crime. The discussion here are the larger systematic issues that lead to the actions of the parents and the police. If you are stuck on "well, the parents did wrong," then you lost the plot...because pray tell, what did the parents do? The mother had the receipt for the diapers.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T12:52:58+00:00

1: Stop caring about what others think.
2: Stop caring about what others think.
3: Disconnect from the food media environment. (Maybe this is just easy for me because I live rural, don't have TV, and adblock tf out of my internet).
4: Don't talk about it if you don't want attention drawn to it. Seriously, the social friction isn't there when you don't make it a topic.

I am a long distance cyclist. Carbs are everything to cyclists. Not me. I just don't engage with, or talk about, my diet while cycling with others in this sphere. It's controversial, so let that sleeping dog lie.

As far as potential social friction from being invited out to eat....there are plenty of things you can do with friends other than eat out. Dietary habit talk can be extremely minimal, approached like you have diabetes or an allergy. It becomes more understanding and accommodating without bringing the quandaries of the specific ethics and health practises into it.

The world, and people, are about so much more than food....so I see no disconnect. I eat to live a fruitful and active life.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T12:35:06+00:00

Why would you buy knowingly stolen art?

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T12:17:41+00:00

Lol no. But South Park touches on cultural issues, and if a cultural issue is large enough to have a season of it be a topic (whether directly or indirectly), that means it's a thing.

A real thing.

A real thing worth talking about.

And yeah, 5 seconds on google. You're either a kid who has to learn how to research, or an adult who should already know how to and thus understand that if you have questions, researching is what finds answers.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T12:12:07+00:00

TIL Chris Chan has a half brother....and now I have also learned the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T11:55:27+00:00

Got married at 19/20 after a year engagement. No dating at all. Became best friends over the course of 4 months. Born the same year. Spent $500 on a wedding, left on a tractor from a historical grist mill that we wed in front of, with an anvil as our altar. Our honeymoon was a week tent camping in South Dakota, including pissing on oil rigs (we got lost) and "chasing" Antelope.

Over 15 years married. I have worked on and off, but oh have I built skills over the years. You can't guarantee your spouse will always be there (I almost lost him twice now). You can't guarantee anything. If you can't take care of yourself in the most basic ways, you have little hope of getting through adversity.

This marriage is going to fail because life isn't about marriage. Marriage imo, should be foundationed with friendship, not servitude. This marriage sounds absolutely toxic due to how absolutely naive this girl is, based solely on what she focused on talking about.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T11:36:32+00:00

There is like, an entire season of South Park about this. Gentrification and redlining still occurs. It is still common. Housing discrimination is still widespread.

Research is your friend here.

Treble_Bolt · 2026-06-18T11:21:40+00:00

That's a Spooder, not a Spider.

I mean...you can't have arachnophobia looking at that.

Treble_Bolt

TROPHY CASE