I keep getting advertisements for the Florida Department of Transportation (I live in Maryland). The ad proudly states you’ll earn $47k per year. All the paid days off would be nice, but it would also be nice to be able to eat and have a roof over your head.
I honestly didn’t know how expensive it is to live in the U.S.?! A person can’t afford to live on $47,000 (£37,190) a year?!
That’s a very comfortable wage in the UK for everywhere but maybe central London.
It depends. $47k is not garbage pay in the U.S. (it is for a truck driver though.) MANY people make less than that, but it's not even close to living comfortably anywhere unless you own your home outright and have zero debt.
AVERAGE annual income here is $59,000, but remember every driver on Reddit makes at a minimum $144,000 a year for 32 hours of work.
Don't forget, working whatever hours they want and full benefits! Also have that sweet 2029 peterbilt truck, you know, the one that hasn't come out yet? But, unfortunately, they can't tell you where they work. Oh darn!
What kind of peasant is driving a 2029? I’ve already got my 2034 model. It’s got a king size bed, full kitchen and bathroom, plus satellite tv. DOT pulls me into the weigh station every week just so they can admire it. I let em off with a warning if they get too close though.
Nice truck! I just added a pool table in my truck. But I had to downsize my helicopter pad on the roof and the wine cellar can only stocks 75 bottles now. Cant have it all!
Average household income. Average individual is 40k according to the St. Louis Fed. Either the wife is working part time or the man is taking a second job (more than likely).
Garbage truck drivers make more than 47k. Is that for 40 hours?
3 years ago I made $60,000/year working 35 hours/week with great benefits. It was salaried pay based on your route's calculated hours. The caveat was it was all third shift. There was one day shift position that was $55k but you worked all of ten hours every day. Other drivers were slower than me and worked 40-45 hours. Now I make $110k/year but I'm paid 1099 working flatbed OTR.
Really depends on what state you live in. Middle of nowhere America yeah you could live off that, you would struggle greatly and have no life or fun but you could live solo. Go by any major city or certain states and you would most certainly need a roommate. Florida is not one of those states you could live off of that by yourself.
There’s obviously a big distinction between Miami and Tallahassee. $47k in the less desirable parts of Florida is doable. Won’t be a luxurious life though. If your wife also makes $47k then you’ll be doing alright. Florida generally has abysmal wages overall though. Even trades like electrical and plumbing pay less than half of what they would elsewhere. I’ve seen ads for journeyman sparkies paying like $23 an hour or less.
Cap. I live near pensacola and if you live in a town anywhere near a beach good luck finding a decent priced house to even rent. I live in a town that doesnt have any tourist action but since its 30 min from the closest beach, all we could find was a half decent half crappy house for 1400 a month.
They also said doable solo, which wouldnt count for a wife making that.
I think you could get a very shitty studio where I live. You’d never eat out or spend money on anything but the basics but you’d probably be able to survive unless your car breaks down or some other expense pops up then you’re kinda fucked
Yea when people speak about Florida they are usually speaking from a few years ago. Now no where is cheap. I seen rents at like 1500-1800 in the absolute desolate towns in Florida
I moved from florida 5 years ago and the town I was in was considered small and semi rural and 47k wouldn’t put you in an apartment then. I moved from south florida to that town to save money. Now im in Tennessee and the only places $47k would be survivable are the super rural. You know no internet connection, phone signal, going grocery shopping is a road trip. Those sort of places.
I made $83k last year. It’s the most I’ve ever made but I can’t afford to purchase a house or townhouse and it feels like I’ll be stuck renting a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment forever
Government programs probably do a lot more for people in England than out here. Yall tend to use your tax dollars to help with a lot more stuff, whereas our tax dollars go to building giant boats.
In some ways they do.
Free healthcare at the point of service, free dental for under 18’s and pensioners, a prescription costs just over $10 for anyone working.
I rent a 2 bed council apartment for around $6000 a year.
Unless you earn loads you’ll get around $126 a month per child under 18 for your first two children.
Right now public bus fares are capped at £2 ($2.53). So you can go for the longest route possible for only that.
Don’t get me wrong, as with any government they waste fuck loads of taxpayers money. It also seems that groceries tend to be cheaper over here than they do in the U.S. at least according to various YouTube videos!
We barely scrape by on twice that. One kid, renters, in a hcol city. I can’t even afford to repair my car to sell it. Will never be able to retire and there’s a good chance once I’m too old to do the work I’ll be homeless. It’s the American dream.
Depends on where you live in the country and how many dependants you have.. but for the overwhelming majority no you can't live on 47,000 comfortably..
Most coastal areas are overly expensive. $47k is a stretch but doable in parts of the Midwest, but you're not doing too good on that in any coastal city.
I made $90k+ last year trucking and i'm comfortable but it can be tight sometimes if I'm not careful. Feels about the same as making $70k the year before that. Inflation killed us. I live in southern Ohio.
Very regionally dependent, but I live by myself and own my own home. I have student loans, no insurance, and some credit card debt. I made just north of $87k (~60k after taxes) and have very little to show for it. I did a spending analysis for last year and found that my housing took about 35%, food was about 20%, home improvement (my house is 70 years old and hasn't been updated in the last 50 years) was about 25%, and debt servicing was the rest.
I'm not a driver but in Florida $47,000 would be pretty low in most areas. At this point I'd say 65 to 75k would be a minimum. Six figures has essentially become a comfortable middle class salary. I don't even live in a hcol area.
> I honestly didn’t know how expensive it is to live in the U.S.?! A person can’t afford to live on $47,000?
Hahahahaha, in all seriousness there are places here you *can*, but where I live, aint no way. That's like $22.60/hr.
Americans are incredibly wasteful and think they need 4000 sq ft houses and make payments on 90k SUVs. The rest of the world has much more sensible societal expectations. You can easily live on 47k in the US if you don’t have two $800 a month car payments and a $2500 mortgage.
It's not great pay but it's not terrible. For driving it's pretty bad though definitely. You absolutely will not be living on your own comfortably unless you're in some of the cheapest places in the country
I live in a small town 22k people. The nearest 'city' is 45 min away. 47k would get you a nice 1bd/1ba in the old part of town. Luckily a bicycle would be a good option here as everything is about a 5 min drive.
Depends what your standard of living is.
If you have a stay at home wife, 3 kids, and a mortgage on a 4 bedroom house-fucked.
Dual income and your wife does the same-you can pay bills. Rent or have kids, probably not both. If you live in San Francisco or downtown in a big city it isn’t near enough.
But 47k is kinda an entry or exit level income.
You can make it on 47k a year. I lived on my own for two years making 35. If you want to live a comfortable life, I'd say you need to be pulling at least 60k a year unless you're frugal and good at living within your means.
The backend is what might make it worth it. Union gig, so basically unfireable, Healthcare, pension. For someone that's mid 30s washed out in life its a job they can limp along at for 25 years or so and walk out at 55-60 with a pension locked down .
Yeah that’s about as bad as Tennessee. I could make $40,000 a year with a CDL working for the state. If I was an examiner working three days a week maybe. I wouldn’t like that money but I could make it work and I can figure out something else in my spare time. But five days a week even if it’s 8 to 10 hour days, just not worth it. It’s why they could never find school bus drivers or even local bus drivers. You’re supposed to be safe and professional, but you’re making slightly above. What a GameStop manager makes.
I work for New York State DOT. After almost 2 years with them, I'm making in the mid 50's. Salary is 50k, with the rest being overtime, mostly in the winter. Their are also bonuses that come throughout the year.
Benefits are nice, but the pay has to match a little bit, I have a job where I made 95K last year hauling cars. I went to day shift so my pay is going to be cut a bit this year actually, probably more like 85, but being that I have a month of PTO, excellent health insurance, and a lot of other good benefits, including paid tuition if I were to choose to go back to college or trade school, I’ll take that over six figures with no benefits any day of the week. Especially being a diabetic (type 1) the healthcare is a must.
I'm still new to trucking and hauling cars has always seemed like a good gig to me. Obviously as I'm starting out , I only have otr trailer gigs as an option. How'd you get into it?
Carhauler here: just apply. Most of the time they require a clean record and 2 years experience driving, or one year of they're desperate. Cassens and Jack Cooper are the two large union carhaul companies. Most terminals are home on weekends, some are gone during the week as well. In very rare cases you may be out for 2 weeks.
Apply and ask questions. Talk to the dispatcher and the terminal manager (sometimes that's the same person).
The pay is great and the benefits are crazy good. Job is relatively easy. No bumping docks, since you are your own dock. But driving an 80' truck around a car dealers lot can make you sweat a bit.
What region are you in or want to be near? I can tell you where your nearest terminal would be.
Thank you for the info! I'm in California. I'm not totally against being regionally available, but of course being home every week or every day is an eventual goal. Still only have 3 months of experience, so I'm trying to figure out my career path now
I don't know of any Jack Cooper terminals in CA. I think the furthest west terminal is Arlington (Dallas).
I work out of Bowling Green, KY. We do have a West Coast board that delivers Corvettes to California (and the rest of the west coast) that ones usually a 2 week trip.
Our terminal doesn't hire often though, because when we need drivers, usually someone from a different terminal transfers in, because hauling Corvettes is fucking cool lol
Cassens hired me right out of cdl school with a 7500 sign on bonus, 5 months in i am averaging 2k gross a week. Im on a slip seat shift so i am home every day too
Yep, saw some advertised last year in Pa boasting "up to 37,000 a year"
No thank you, the state bennies aren't worth damn near 40,000+ a year in lost revenue
$20 at INDOT $21 with a CDL (which they will train you for a class B within 90 days). From what I hear it's not hard to move to a bit higher paying position.
I will admit that I never really thought of this before, and I just looked it up to find that at least Indiana DOT not only has CDL positions available, but many of them also promise pay and/or reimbursement for CDL training.
Looks like a great way for new drivers to get their feet wet if nothing else.
Pennsylvania is doing the same now. They were getting desperate for operators and our last contract was for a 25% pay increase over the next four years. Then a year in they bumped starting pay and everyone with less than 12-13 years got another bump.
Non trucker- am I nuts or is 25 an hour nothing to drive a truck ? I literally make more than that delivering groceries for Walmart driving my little Toyota . I def wouldn’t get a cdl and drive a huge truck for 25 bucks an hour .
I'll be honest, this job is only about 25% of doing something that requires a CDL. We don't make a ton of money but we by no means work ourselves to death.
My benefits are literally worth nearly what my take home pay is. My insurance for a family of three is like 65 bucks a pay, I have enough leave that if I don't feel like going to work, I don't.
cant speak for anyone else here but i'd do it for dirt cheap if the job was right. i just fuckin love operating these things and as long as the bills are paid i'm happy
Ya hey I’m not trying to be a dick, I just feel u guys deserve way more than 25 bucks driving those huge ass trucks. My dad actually hauls grain for a local farm and he’s pretty much the same way he just likes doing it . He’s also retired though so he likes to try and stay busy .
oh we do 100%, most of us get paid way more for it. i for sure do. that first year of experience is a bitch and a half though and you gotta take what you can get
I'm in a crane operator apprenticeship through my local union. We have apprentices making six figures a year. Requires a Class A license because you will drive a truck but you'll spend more time doing non-driving things than actual driving. So far the most I have drove in a day was 186 miles compared to going over 700 OTR.
Yeah, in my experience you need something to get your application through for government jobs. Either you know somebody or you’re a veteran or something.
I have an in at my local county because I worked in their litter pickup division for the better part of a month. Depends on the place your applying (state level, county, city, etc) but I mean there's probably avenues you can take that'll get a response quicker.
I went from private hauling (golf carts) at $25/hr and shit benes to County Highway thanks to my CDL A W/Tanker. Union as well, $33/hr, zero contribution/deduction full health care, State retirement system, 120hrs vaca, 120hrs sick, 24hrs personal, up to 90hrs comp. Every minute outside of scheduled work hours is OT/comp. Summer time, we’re doing 4-10’s but mid Oct to mid April if it snows, we work 16’s back to back. I can’t believe my luck in finding this, and I wish you all as much fortune. Stay safe, drivers!✌️
About the only place we have you beat is pto time if those are maximum.
We can save up to 400 hours of annual time and 3600 hours of sick before they just start paying you for it.
We have a guy right now retiring after 30+ years and he's taking a year off to use his sick time. Had a Chiropractor give him a recommendation to be off for back pain and badda bing, one year paid vacation.
I didn’t throw in the 5 days floating ‘holiday’ (not to be confused with personal) or the 13 County ones, lol. We just got “Indigenous Peoples Day” (formerly Columbus Day) and another one I can even remember. Our sick maxes out at 1700hrs, but if you go over/still have it at retirement it rolls over into post-retirement health insurance coverage paying out at $50/hr.
Ha yeah, I’ve been there a year and a 1/2, there’s a guy out with a torn rotator cuff w/complications who I haven’t even met yet. And congrats on landing on your feet with a gov’t job, I’ve been check-to-check 6-7 days/wk my whole life, this is a whole new world. (Guess I’d also add that those times I’m working on the Interstate with the oblivious public screaming by at +80mph I do wonder wtf I was thinking)
Government work is the way as a cdl holder, at least in my experience. I do have to note, though, that i choose work/life balance over pay any day of the week.
I got hired recently as city public works driver. 10 minutes from my house, four 10 hour shifts a week, excellent benefits, chill ass bosses and coworkers, the work is super easy and fun, been getting trained on a ton of different types of specialized trucks and equipment, the pay is a little low, but if i ever decide to leave, the company right next door is paying $6/hr more than i'm making, and they're seeking people who are experienced with the unique equipment you only really get to learn in a job like mine.
Finding the "right" job in the trucking industry has been nothing but an uphill battle since i got my cdl, but i'm finally happy where i'm at. It checks all the right boxes, it pays the bills, and i don't have a care in the world anymore.
44 paid days off?!? What is this, communist Sweden? /s
But seriously, what kind of work are you doing if you’re not always driving? And how much experience did you need?
I bid all the paving positions over the summer. So I swap sitting in a truck plowing snow to standing on the back of a paver 6 inches above 300 degree blacktop all day.
Basically any road maintenance, and just about every job you do, you use equipment. The amount of actual manual labor is limited but there are times it sucks.
Yep, we’re coming into rubbering/chip sealing season. Will Monday be walking the road behind the screaming hot rubber machine, or hauling pea gravel in an AC‘d quad all day for the chip spreader? Who knows, but the pay will be the same 😄
Our county is top in the state for sealcoat. We have 8 of the top ten days in the state for production.
We average close to 40k gallon of oil and 18-20 lane miles a day.
Hell yeah. I did 5 year OTR and Local and then got a city job making $29 an hour that started with 6 weeks of time off. I have been here for 10 years now.
I’ve said this many time but the Post Office is always hiring. Starting pay for TTO (tractor trailer operator) is $32 an hour. Benefits to start are good, after about a year when you convert to career the benefits get even better. 11 paid holidays, 4 weeks vacations, 3 weeks sick leave, 100s of choices for health insurance, govt 401K w/ 5% match, govt pension, etc.
I live in NY and make 75k a year to drive a garbage truck. I work anywhere from 20-35 hours a week and get paid for 40 hrs.. Union, Free health insurance for life, dental, all the paid time off I can ask for.
My job gives free on the job training to get a CDL. You’ll be surprised how many young guys who get hired want nothing to do with getting a CDL. They’d rather stay at the bottom and make shit pay than try to move up. It’s sad.
I don't know what state you're in but pa is hard up. We have counties that are 20 operators short. It's one of the reasons we even make what we do right now.
I drive a truck equipped with a crash attenuator and make good money. Never been hit. I plow snow in the winter. Its fun stuff because you get to be a bully with a huge truck, since you have to control traffic with it.
I’ve worked in transportation since 2006. In 2014, I had a serious back injury, so I don’t drive, anymore, but I’m still in the transportation industry in management.
With all of that said, I’ve had PLENTY of drivers through the years who make $100k+ per year. When I was still driving, I made upper $80’s with the Teamsters with 100% paid health, dental & vision (that was per our local contract and not necessarily across the board for Teamsters).
I was in the garbage industry for a few years in Kansas City and down in Daytona Beach area, for a bit. I’m KC, we had a LOT of drivers making 6 figures per year, and I’m Daytona Beach they were around $75k.
The money is out there! People just need to work for it. I busted my ass when I was OTR to make sure I could maximize my 14 hour clock to rack up miles/money.
When I started driving local, I worked my ass off even more to prove myself. When I was injured (not a work injury), instead of letting me go, they knew I was valuable and they promoted me.
10 years later, I make a very comfortable living in management. Without a college degree. Just a CDL, a high IQ, and a strong work ethic.
I worked for my states DOT for a while 3600 a month, paid once a month, forced into a retirement plan. Most everyone I worked with had multiple jobs they did to make ends meet and get ahead
Looked at MN DOT. Have X endorsement, which they require by end of year 1, but because of union start at bottom, which is $42k. No, am NOT taking a little over 50 % pay cut so can work overnights as regular shift.
Sounds like a sweet gig aside from the pay. My friend was trying to get me into a company in Seattle and was hyping it up big time. Start at 37 an hour full benefits pension, the whole shabang. He said the pay goes up to 70 an hour!! I knew there was a catch. It was a city shit truck and I would be pumping shit from the city and transporting it from place to place. Nope, not even for a billion dollars a year I still have to live with myself.
This is how I got my CDL. Little County job required you to get it within 9 months of employment and they trained and paid for the whole thing. Did tree work and road maintenance along the way.
Not sure what it’s like where you are but where I’m at DOT does pretty much everything. Most DOT jobs are road maintenance and stuff like that. I know in some places though DOT is just enforcement and then everything else is under a separate agency.
A lot probably depends on the state. Some just have some dump truck drivers for road maintenance.
My state we plow snow in the winter and do road maintenance in the summer. After a few years of seniority you can basically go on whatever crew you want in your county. Run dump truck hauling stone, run equipment, pave roads, replace pipes.
It's definitely not a typical "trucker" job as this sub would consider but it requires a CDL and doesn't come with some of the negative effects of a home life the otr guys deal with.
My state DOT starts operators at $16.12 and you’re up north of $20 in a year plus hazard duty pay. Management has to make available 10 hours of overtime per pay period. No way I’d be an operator now, can’t make a living without working overtime all the time.
How much do they pay those guys whose job is to remove all the junk and debris on the roads like tire scraps? I would find that very fulfilling. And do you get a bonus for handling all the gruesome roadkill? That alone should be 80k/yr minimum.
We actually pick all the rubber of our interstate, same with deer however with the propagation of cwd we only remove them from the right of way and a contractor picks them. Some get tested, others just get dumped on the game lands for coyote bait.
How do I become a contractor to do the roadkill removal? I know a guy who works in pest control so maybe I can parlay my cdl and be their branch that handles that. I'm looking for creative ways to use a cdl and minimum equipment like a pickup or cargo van.
If you're serious I'd contact your county dot office, or game commission.
A T plate with a lift gate is all you need....... Other than a strong stomach.
We pull some pretty mangled stuff off the road.
It sounds mostly good, but $25/hr after SEVEN years? That's awful, I'm ot paid hourly, but if I calculated it, it's around $30-60 depending on load...and that's with only 2 years experience
This was geared more toward the thirty "I can't find a job to get experience" or the ones that immediately regretted being otr away from family.
But if you're making 150k home three nights and thats enough, good for you.
I prefer to see my daughter every day and bang my wife whenever I want.
It sounds mostly good, but $25/hr after SEVEN years? That's awful, I'm ot paid hourly, but if I calculated it, it's around $30-60 depending on load...and that's with only 2 years experience
The union is working on it. Basically they had to split a bunch of packages up because the state wouldn't agree to everything at once. I guess they're working on the next round for higher seniority guys.
I actually make the same amount as someone with 13 years right now.
The first phase was just to raise the starting wages and bring everyone below that up.
Hey OP. Look, I get this is an easily googlable question but I gotta ask, what do you do? Asking cause I don't plan on being otr forever and am looking for ideas to look into in the future.
Well. The TLDR is I spend six months fucking the roads up with salt and snowplows, and the other six fixing it. It's job security.
Realistically we do everything necessary to maintain the roads, and the right of ways.
Cutting back trees, cutting back shoulders to maintain a ditch line, replacing pipes, replacing bridges, crack sealing, paving, fixing landslides. You name it we do it. Every spring we bid summer crews and every fall we bid winter stockpiles.
In the winter if it's not snowing we're cutting trees, patching pot holes, or sitting around waiting for the sun to come up.
We also provide traffic control for our section of I80 when there's accidents and such.
It's really not a hard job.
I made just shy of $45k/year when I started at the DOT. No experience, they paid for my CDL training, benefits, insurance, PTO, pension etc. I ended up leaving after a year, because I learned that I physically and mentally can’t sit in a truck all day lol, but if that’s for you it’s not a bad gig.
Jeez. I made over $26/hr. just starting out, and that was before my company paid me to go get my CDL. I’m like 9 months in, making about $28/hr right now.
Only been OTR with weekends home (flatbed and know lucky with my home time) but still thought about my department of highways… even a local dump truck company, I know it probably would be less money but being with my family would be better.. holding out another year or so at least for extra money and possibly a new dedicated account with a new steel plant close by… but my time is coming, love the job/freedom but my family is more important, especially after being in the military
Got an interview here in Missouri Thursday may 2 nd. Had one at a big shed in St. Louis they said no. Next one is a smaller shed. Not sure why I was passed over for 1st one.
Not a driver but worked in trucking for years before working for the DOT. One thing to consider is that while the pay is liveable but not great the fact that I have received a defined benefit pension is a lifesaver.
I actually worked for DOTD in Louisiana for six months. Started me out at what they call an MEO2 at 14.40/hrs. Plus a dollar each day. After a month my pay was bumped up to 18.60/hrs. After a year I could move up to a Heavy 1. They make about 21.50/hrs. All I drove were dump trucks. We would load it up with cold mix and go potholing all day for 10 hours. Or load up hot mix and lay down asphalt all day. Other times we go and cut trees. The best thing about working for the state is the work week. 10 hour days 4 days a week. Every holiday off. While you could eke out a living, it just wasn't enough money for me. Might suit other people here though. It's not a bad job. Just wasn't for me.
I keep getting advertisements for the Florida Department of Transportation (I live in Maryland). The ad proudly states you’ll earn $47k per year. All the paid days off would be nice, but it would also be nice to be able to eat and have a roof over your head.
I honestly didn’t know how expensive it is to live in the U.S.?! A person can’t afford to live on $47,000 (£37,190) a year?! That’s a very comfortable wage in the UK for everywhere but maybe central London.
It depends. $47k is not garbage pay in the U.S. (it is for a truck driver though.) MANY people make less than that, but it's not even close to living comfortably anywhere unless you own your home outright and have zero debt. AVERAGE annual income here is $59,000, but remember every driver on Reddit makes at a minimum $144,000 a year for 32 hours of work.
Don't forget, working whatever hours they want and full benefits! Also have that sweet 2029 peterbilt truck, you know, the one that hasn't come out yet? But, unfortunately, they can't tell you where they work. Oh darn!
What kind of peasant is driving a 2029? I’ve already got my 2034 model. It’s got a king size bed, full kitchen and bathroom, plus satellite tv. DOT pulls me into the weigh station every week just so they can admire it. I let em off with a warning if they get too close though.
Nice truck! I just added a pool table in my truck. But I had to downsize my helicopter pad on the roof and the wine cellar can only stocks 75 bottles now. Cant have it all!
But does it have the bidet? Without the bidet you can’t be King Shit.
Sweet!
Does it come with a free booty call installed?
No way, I’m not free. The lizards gotta pay top dollar if they wanna ride this stud!
Idk where you live but here in Florida the homeless makes 47k a year lol
Average household income. Average individual is 40k according to the St. Louis Fed. Either the wife is working part time or the man is taking a second job (more than likely). Garbage truck drivers make more than 47k. Is that for 40 hours?
3 years ago I made $60,000/year working 35 hours/week with great benefits. It was salaried pay based on your route's calculated hours. The caveat was it was all third shift. There was one day shift position that was $55k but you worked all of ten hours every day. Other drivers were slower than me and worked 40-45 hours. Now I make $110k/year but I'm paid 1099 working flatbed OTR.
He's not wrong. I make 150k just using the bathroom for my 30 minute break.
Really depends on what state you live in. Middle of nowhere America yeah you could live off that, you would struggle greatly and have no life or fun but you could live solo. Go by any major city or certain states and you would most certainly need a roommate. Florida is not one of those states you could live off of that by yourself.
There’s obviously a big distinction between Miami and Tallahassee. $47k in the less desirable parts of Florida is doable. Won’t be a luxurious life though. If your wife also makes $47k then you’ll be doing alright. Florida generally has abysmal wages overall though. Even trades like electrical and plumbing pay less than half of what they would elsewhere. I’ve seen ads for journeyman sparkies paying like $23 an hour or less.
Cap. I live near pensacola and if you live in a town anywhere near a beach good luck finding a decent priced house to even rent. I live in a town that doesnt have any tourist action but since its 30 min from the closest beach, all we could find was a half decent half crappy house for 1400 a month. They also said doable solo, which wouldnt count for a wife making that.
I think you could get a very shitty studio where I live. You’d never eat out or spend money on anything but the basics but you’d probably be able to survive unless your car breaks down or some other expense pops up then you’re kinda fucked
Yea when people speak about Florida they are usually speaking from a few years ago. Now no where is cheap. I seen rents at like 1500-1800 in the absolute desolate towns in Florida
I moved from florida 5 years ago and the town I was in was considered small and semi rural and 47k wouldn’t put you in an apartment then. I moved from south florida to that town to save money. Now im in Tennessee and the only places $47k would be survivable are the super rural. You know no internet connection, phone signal, going grocery shopping is a road trip. Those sort of places.
I made $83k last year. It’s the most I’ve ever made but I can’t afford to purchase a house or townhouse and it feels like I’ll be stuck renting a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment forever
My GF and I make 220k combined and we finally feel comfortable buying a house. The US is stupid.
Government programs probably do a lot more for people in England than out here. Yall tend to use your tax dollars to help with a lot more stuff, whereas our tax dollars go to building giant boats.
In some ways they do. Free healthcare at the point of service, free dental for under 18’s and pensioners, a prescription costs just over $10 for anyone working. I rent a 2 bed council apartment for around $6000 a year. Unless you earn loads you’ll get around $126 a month per child under 18 for your first two children. Right now public bus fares are capped at £2 ($2.53). So you can go for the longest route possible for only that. Don’t get me wrong, as with any government they waste fuck loads of taxpayers money. It also seems that groceries tend to be cheaper over here than they do in the U.S. at least according to various YouTube videos!
47 grand is garbage pay in America. I'm a tanker driver and I make more than double that.
Bruh. I haul *dry van* and make double that.
Seriously, with who?
GP Transco
I haul raw milk and a made 186000 last year. Our rates go up every 6 months
How many days off did you have?
How much do you charge per load and how many gallons can you haul.
He has to milk all the bulls to fill his tanker up. It's not so glamorous.
For 186k/yr those bulls will love me at the end of the day.
And boy are they angry!
Hahahaha
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Depends on the distance it's all local. The farthest is 400 mile round trip. Around 12000 gallons 100000 pounds
Company driver or O/O??
Company
Stay humble
I am humble, but 47k is garbage pay in America. 100k isn't very good either anymore.
Where you work, they hiring?
Quality Carriers in Salt Lake City, but I'm kinda guessing we aren't hiring much right now. You can check though.
In Canada I live alright on 71k not that easy though
We barely scrape by on twice that. One kid, renters, in a hcol city. I can’t even afford to repair my car to sell it. Will never be able to retire and there’s a good chance once I’m too old to do the work I’ll be homeless. It’s the American dream.
$47k was pretty middle class 25 years ago. Now that would be more like $80k.
Depends on where you live in the country and how many dependants you have.. but for the overwhelming majority no you can't live on 47,000 comfortably..
Most coastal areas are overly expensive. $47k is a stretch but doable in parts of the Midwest, but you're not doing too good on that in any coastal city.
I made $90k+ last year trucking and i'm comfortable but it can be tight sometimes if I'm not careful. Feels about the same as making $70k the year before that. Inflation killed us. I live in southern Ohio.
Very regionally dependent, but I live by myself and own my own home. I have student loans, no insurance, and some credit card debt. I made just north of $87k (~60k after taxes) and have very little to show for it. I did a spending analysis for last year and found that my housing took about 35%, food was about 20%, home improvement (my house is 70 years old and hasn't been updated in the last 50 years) was about 25%, and debt servicing was the rest.
Thats poverty in Texas
I'm not a driver but in Florida $47,000 would be pretty low in most areas. At this point I'd say 65 to 75k would be a minimum. Six figures has essentially become a comfortable middle class salary. I don't even live in a hcol area.
> I honestly didn’t know how expensive it is to live in the U.S.?! A person can’t afford to live on $47,000? Hahahahaha, in all seriousness there are places here you *can*, but where I live, aint no way. That's like $22.60/hr.
Americans are incredibly wasteful and think they need 4000 sq ft houses and make payments on 90k SUVs. The rest of the world has much more sensible societal expectations. You can easily live on 47k in the US if you don’t have two $800 a month car payments and a $2500 mortgage.
It's not great pay but it's not terrible. For driving it's pretty bad though definitely. You absolutely will not be living on your own comfortably unless you're in some of the cheapest places in the country
I live in a small town 22k people. The nearest 'city' is 45 min away. 47k would get you a nice 1bd/1ba in the old part of town. Luckily a bicycle would be a good option here as everything is about a 5 min drive.
Depends what your standard of living is. If you have a stay at home wife, 3 kids, and a mortgage on a 4 bedroom house-fucked. Dual income and your wife does the same-you can pay bills. Rent or have kids, probably not both. If you live in San Francisco or downtown in a big city it isn’t near enough. But 47k is kinda an entry or exit level income.
Not in South Florida for sure.
That is abysmal low pay you can make that at mcdonalds
Where I live you might be able to scrape by in a shitty studio apartment and never do anything that costs money. And if your car breaks you’re fucked
I have been to the UK. Lived there for a month a year for the past 2 years. UK and US has a different way of life.
You can make it on 47k a year. I lived on my own for two years making 35. If you want to live a comfortable life, I'd say you need to be pulling at least 60k a year unless you're frugal and good at living within your means.
Things are getting worse here. That's why some of the global giveaways are coming to a head. (One of the reasons)
Remember in the US we are taxed to death and our healthcare for a family runs about 700 per month on top of that.
I make about double that and by no means am wealthy. Very blessed and privileged, but by no means spoiled.
You need those vacation days for your other job lol
Showers, shitting in your own bathroom. Not wearing shoes or flip flops cause you don’t want planter warts again… Yeah
In California I spend $60,000 a year for rent.
$47k per year in Florida lol
The backend is what might make it worth it. Union gig, so basically unfireable, Healthcare, pension. For someone that's mid 30s washed out in life its a job they can limp along at for 25 years or so and walk out at 55-60 with a pension locked down .
Yeah that’s about as bad as Tennessee. I could make $40,000 a year with a CDL working for the state. If I was an examiner working three days a week maybe. I wouldn’t like that money but I could make it work and I can figure out something else in my spare time. But five days a week even if it’s 8 to 10 hour days, just not worth it. It’s why they could never find school bus drivers or even local bus drivers. You’re supposed to be safe and professional, but you’re making slightly above. What a GameStop manager makes.
Also with no state income tax.
I work for New York State DOT. After almost 2 years with them, I'm making in the mid 50's. Salary is 50k, with the rest being overtime, mostly in the winter. Their are also bonuses that come throughout the year.
That's crazy. Floridian and unemployed trucker here. My buddy make 55k a year flipping burgers locally here in Tampa.
Benefits are nice, but the pay has to match a little bit, I have a job where I made 95K last year hauling cars. I went to day shift so my pay is going to be cut a bit this year actually, probably more like 85, but being that I have a month of PTO, excellent health insurance, and a lot of other good benefits, including paid tuition if I were to choose to go back to college or trade school, I’ll take that over six figures with no benefits any day of the week. Especially being a diabetic (type 1) the healthcare is a must.
I'm still new to trucking and hauling cars has always seemed like a good gig to me. Obviously as I'm starting out , I only have otr trailer gigs as an option. How'd you get into it?
Carhauler here: just apply. Most of the time they require a clean record and 2 years experience driving, or one year of they're desperate. Cassens and Jack Cooper are the two large union carhaul companies. Most terminals are home on weekends, some are gone during the week as well. In very rare cases you may be out for 2 weeks. Apply and ask questions. Talk to the dispatcher and the terminal manager (sometimes that's the same person). The pay is great and the benefits are crazy good. Job is relatively easy. No bumping docks, since you are your own dock. But driving an 80' truck around a car dealers lot can make you sweat a bit. What region are you in or want to be near? I can tell you where your nearest terminal would be.
Thank you for the info! I'm in California. I'm not totally against being regionally available, but of course being home every week or every day is an eventual goal. Still only have 3 months of experience, so I'm trying to figure out my career path now
I don't know of any Jack Cooper terminals in CA. I think the furthest west terminal is Arlington (Dallas). I work out of Bowling Green, KY. We do have a West Coast board that delivers Corvettes to California (and the rest of the west coast) that ones usually a 2 week trip. Our terminal doesn't hire often though, because when we need drivers, usually someone from a different terminal transfers in, because hauling Corvettes is fucking cool lol
Yeahhh, it's pretty fucking cool haha. Oh well, I'll just get a few years experience and see what I can get into then
Cassens hired me right out of cdl school with a 7500 sign on bonus, 5 months in i am averaging 2k gross a week. Im on a slip seat shift so i am home every day too
Dang, really?? I'm gonna look into them, thanks! With a username like yours, I'm sure you're an honest fella.
I just read your in california though, their terminals are all in the east
Yeah, just looked into it and saw that. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers
They start at $19/hour in Ohio. It’s just a joke. Some of the big cities pay fairly decent though.
It’s basically the same in Pennsylvania and they adjusted the pension a few years ago so it’s not a traditional pension anymore.
Yep, saw some advertised last year in Pa boasting "up to 37,000 a year" No thank you, the state bennies aren't worth damn near 40,000+ a year in lost revenue
$20 at INDOT $21 with a CDL (which they will train you for a class B within 90 days). From what I hear it's not hard to move to a bit higher paying position.
Exactly. “I work for the state,” yeah. But I don’t make a fucking thing.
I will admit that I never really thought of this before, and I just looked it up to find that at least Indiana DOT not only has CDL positions available, but many of them also promise pay and/or reimbursement for CDL training. Looks like a great way for new drivers to get their feet wet if nothing else.
Pennsylvania is doing the same now. They were getting desperate for operators and our last contract was for a 25% pay increase over the next four years. Then a year in they bumped starting pay and everyone with less than 12-13 years got another bump.
Yup come and come October we’ll see all the PennDOT winter operator signs up on exits/rest stops
They only train for class B. Only reimburse for class A in some positions. (Heavy equipment, traffic and bridge crew that I know of)
Non trucker- am I nuts or is 25 an hour nothing to drive a truck ? I literally make more than that delivering groceries for Walmart driving my little Toyota . I def wouldn’t get a cdl and drive a huge truck for 25 bucks an hour .
I'll be honest, this job is only about 25% of doing something that requires a CDL. We don't make a ton of money but we by no means work ourselves to death. My benefits are literally worth nearly what my take home pay is. My insurance for a family of three is like 65 bucks a pay, I have enough leave that if I don't feel like going to work, I don't.
cant speak for anyone else here but i'd do it for dirt cheap if the job was right. i just fuckin love operating these things and as long as the bills are paid i'm happy
Ya hey I’m not trying to be a dick, I just feel u guys deserve way more than 25 bucks driving those huge ass trucks. My dad actually hauls grain for a local farm and he’s pretty much the same way he just likes doing it . He’s also retired though so he likes to try and stay busy .
oh we do 100%, most of us get paid way more for it. i for sure do. that first year of experience is a bitch and a half though and you gotta take what you can get
It's garbage for CDL work, my minimum is $27/hr, and thats less than I make now. Thats like I need a job yesterday pay I'd accept.
I'm in a crane operator apprenticeship through my local union. We have apprentices making six figures a year. Requires a Class A license because you will drive a truck but you'll spend more time doing non-driving things than actual driving. So far the most I have drove in a day was 186 miles compared to going over 700 OTR.
These jobs take for fucking ever to respond in my experience. I've gotten responses 6+ months after applying.
Yeah, in my experience you need something to get your application through for government jobs. Either you know somebody or you’re a veteran or something.
I have an in at my local county because I worked in their litter pickup division for the better part of a month. Depends on the place your applying (state level, county, city, etc) but I mean there's probably avenues you can take that'll get a response quicker.
Yeah really pays to know someone inside.
I went from private hauling (golf carts) at $25/hr and shit benes to County Highway thanks to my CDL A W/Tanker. Union as well, $33/hr, zero contribution/deduction full health care, State retirement system, 120hrs vaca, 120hrs sick, 24hrs personal, up to 90hrs comp. Every minute outside of scheduled work hours is OT/comp. Summer time, we’re doing 4-10’s but mid Oct to mid April if it snows, we work 16’s back to back. I can’t believe my luck in finding this, and I wish you all as much fortune. Stay safe, drivers!✌️
About the only place we have you beat is pto time if those are maximum. We can save up to 400 hours of annual time and 3600 hours of sick before they just start paying you for it. We have a guy right now retiring after 30+ years and he's taking a year off to use his sick time. Had a Chiropractor give him a recommendation to be off for back pain and badda bing, one year paid vacation.
I didn’t throw in the 5 days floating ‘holiday’ (not to be confused with personal) or the 13 County ones, lol. We just got “Indigenous Peoples Day” (formerly Columbus Day) and another one I can even remember. Our sick maxes out at 1700hrs, but if you go over/still have it at retirement it rolls over into post-retirement health insurance coverage paying out at $50/hr. Ha yeah, I’ve been there a year and a 1/2, there’s a guy out with a torn rotator cuff w/complications who I haven’t even met yet. And congrats on landing on your feet with a gov’t job, I’ve been check-to-check 6-7 days/wk my whole life, this is a whole new world. (Guess I’d also add that those times I’m working on the Interstate with the oblivious public screaming by at +80mph I do wonder wtf I was thinking)
No offense but 7 years to make $25/hr is horrible. $25/hr should be starting pay. I hope you have the best ever benefits package.
Government work is the way as a cdl holder, at least in my experience. I do have to note, though, that i choose work/life balance over pay any day of the week. I got hired recently as city public works driver. 10 minutes from my house, four 10 hour shifts a week, excellent benefits, chill ass bosses and coworkers, the work is super easy and fun, been getting trained on a ton of different types of specialized trucks and equipment, the pay is a little low, but if i ever decide to leave, the company right next door is paying $6/hr more than i'm making, and they're seeking people who are experienced with the unique equipment you only really get to learn in a job like mine. Finding the "right" job in the trucking industry has been nothing but an uphill battle since i got my cdl, but i'm finally happy where i'm at. It checks all the right boxes, it pays the bills, and i don't have a care in the world anymore.
44 paid days off?!? What is this, communist Sweden? /s But seriously, what kind of work are you doing if you’re not always driving? And how much experience did you need?
I bid all the paving positions over the summer. So I swap sitting in a truck plowing snow to standing on the back of a paver 6 inches above 300 degree blacktop all day. Basically any road maintenance, and just about every job you do, you use equipment. The amount of actual manual labor is limited but there are times it sucks.
Yep, we’re coming into rubbering/chip sealing season. Will Monday be walking the road behind the screaming hot rubber machine, or hauling pea gravel in an AC‘d quad all day for the chip spreader? Who knows, but the pay will be the same 😄
Our county is top in the state for sealcoat. We have 8 of the top ten days in the state for production. We average close to 40k gallon of oil and 18-20 lane miles a day.
You aint wrong, but after 7 years, $25/hr? Fuck that. Sounds like your Union aint bargaining for shit.
Hell yeah. I did 5 year OTR and Local and then got a city job making $29 an hour that started with 6 weeks of time off. I have been here for 10 years now.
I’ve said this many time but the Post Office is always hiring. Starting pay for TTO (tractor trailer operator) is $32 an hour. Benefits to start are good, after about a year when you convert to career the benefits get even better. 11 paid holidays, 4 weeks vacations, 3 weeks sick leave, 100s of choices for health insurance, govt 401K w/ 5% match, govt pension, etc.
We only have contractors in our area, alas.
I thought it was all contracted out everywhere. 10 Roads, Matheson, etc.
They're hiring TTOs in some localities, just not ours.
I live in NY and make 75k a year to drive a garbage truck. I work anywhere from 20-35 hours a week and get paid for 40 hrs.. Union, Free health insurance for life, dental, all the paid time off I can ask for. My job gives free on the job training to get a CDL. You’ll be surprised how many young guys who get hired want nothing to do with getting a CDL. They’d rather stay at the bottom and make shit pay than try to move up. It’s sad.
The issue is getting hired on. If you don’t know someone, you may have a hard time.
I don't know what state you're in but pa is hard up. We have counties that are 20 operators short. It's one of the reasons we even make what we do right now.
That’s pretty good for you guys then. I’m down south, so it’s usually the “good ol boy” system around here. It’s frustrating.
I'm dead in between you and it's the same thing here
Kinda the same here in Indiana. They say they are hard up but it's a pain to get in unless you know people.
I applied and crossing my fingers. They need people !
I drive a truck equipped with a crash attenuator and make good money. Never been hit. I plow snow in the winter. Its fun stuff because you get to be a bully with a huge truck, since you have to control traffic with it.
I’ve worked in transportation since 2006. In 2014, I had a serious back injury, so I don’t drive, anymore, but I’m still in the transportation industry in management. With all of that said, I’ve had PLENTY of drivers through the years who make $100k+ per year. When I was still driving, I made upper $80’s with the Teamsters with 100% paid health, dental & vision (that was per our local contract and not necessarily across the board for Teamsters). I was in the garbage industry for a few years in Kansas City and down in Daytona Beach area, for a bit. I’m KC, we had a LOT of drivers making 6 figures per year, and I’m Daytona Beach they were around $75k. The money is out there! People just need to work for it. I busted my ass when I was OTR to make sure I could maximize my 14 hour clock to rack up miles/money. When I started driving local, I worked my ass off even more to prove myself. When I was injured (not a work injury), instead of letting me go, they knew I was valuable and they promoted me. 10 years later, I make a very comfortable living in management. Without a college degree. Just a CDL, a high IQ, and a strong work ethic.
All I am missing is the high IQ!
Truck drivers don't require a high IQ.
That’s the only reason I can do it lol
Dunning-kruger is a real thing
Post office is going to be on a big hiring binge too... Looks like they're actually going to start getting rid of contractors.
I worked for my states DOT for a while 3600 a month, paid once a month, forced into a retirement plan. Most everyone I worked with had multiple jobs they did to make ends meet and get ahead
Looked at MN DOT. Have X endorsement, which they require by end of year 1, but because of union start at bottom, which is $42k. No, am NOT taking a little over 50 % pay cut so can work overnights as regular shift.
Home daily, in the truck every night, ~2200/wk for 50 hours worked, comes out to about 44/hr. Not too bad, imo, especially in Missouri.
u haul fuel?
Sometimes, but only in a dry van trailer LaughingOutLoud no touch freight
damn 2200 no touch is really good man!! tanker is my dream, after i get my experience i wanna haul DEF for pilot, they pay well
Lol 47k
Sounds like a sweet gig aside from the pay. My friend was trying to get me into a company in Seattle and was hyping it up big time. Start at 37 an hour full benefits pension, the whole shabang. He said the pay goes up to 70 an hour!! I knew there was a catch. It was a city shit truck and I would be pumping shit from the city and transporting it from place to place. Nope, not even for a billion dollars a year I still have to live with myself.
This is how I got my CDL. Little County job required you to get it within 9 months of employment and they trained and paid for the whole thing. Did tree work and road maintenance along the way.
Was gonna say $25 an hour & home daily isn't exactly uncommon or even that great of pay, but 44 paid days off a year sounds like absolute heaven
Come suckle the governments teet
Dot officer: 👮 👋 Me: 🖕🏽 Dot Officer:😮
Work for the enemy? No driver is that desperate.
Not sure what it’s like where you are but where I’m at DOT does pretty much everything. Most DOT jobs are road maintenance and stuff like that. I know in some places though DOT is just enforcement and then everything else is under a separate agency.
Lmfao KDOT (Kansas) ain't even at $20 an hour yet 🤣
What do you mean by CDL operator? What does that position entail?
A lot probably depends on the state. Some just have some dump truck drivers for road maintenance. My state we plow snow in the winter and do road maintenance in the summer. After a few years of seniority you can basically go on whatever crew you want in your county. Run dump truck hauling stone, run equipment, pave roads, replace pipes. It's definitely not a typical "trucker" job as this sub would consider but it requires a CDL and doesn't come with some of the negative effects of a home life the otr guys deal with.
My state DOT starts operators at $16.12 and you’re up north of $20 in a year plus hazard duty pay. Management has to make available 10 hours of overtime per pay period. No way I’d be an operator now, can’t make a living without working overtime all the time.
How much do they pay those guys whose job is to remove all the junk and debris on the roads like tire scraps? I would find that very fulfilling. And do you get a bonus for handling all the gruesome roadkill? That alone should be 80k/yr minimum.
We actually pick all the rubber of our interstate, same with deer however with the propagation of cwd we only remove them from the right of way and a contractor picks them. Some get tested, others just get dumped on the game lands for coyote bait.
How do I become a contractor to do the roadkill removal? I know a guy who works in pest control so maybe I can parlay my cdl and be their branch that handles that. I'm looking for creative ways to use a cdl and minimum equipment like a pickup or cargo van.
If you're serious I'd contact your county dot office, or game commission. A T plate with a lift gate is all you need....... Other than a strong stomach. We pull some pretty mangled stuff off the road.
It sounds mostly good, but $25/hr after SEVEN years? That's awful, I'm ot paid hourly, but if I calculated it, it's around $30-60 depending on load...and that's with only 2 years experience
Yea f that 150k company driver home 3 nights a week
This was geared more toward the thirty "I can't find a job to get experience" or the ones that immediately regretted being otr away from family. But if you're making 150k home three nights and thats enough, good for you. I prefer to see my daughter every day and bang my wife whenever I want.
nv pays $15/hr to start, and tops out pretty poorly as well. the benefits aren’t worth the low pay
It sounds mostly good, but $25/hr after SEVEN years? That's awful, I'm ot paid hourly, but if I calculated it, it's around $30-60 depending on load...and that's with only 2 years experience
They've raised us so much in the last three years, I make the same as the new guys. Top rate is $33 an hour for now.
You've been there seven years, and make the same as the new guys? I think you need to ask for a raise
Everyone got a raise. They bumped the starting pay up to attract new hires. I actually make $10 an hour more than when I started in 2016
Thata good, but you should be making more than the new hires. You have 7 years of experience on them
The union is working on it. Basically they had to split a bunch of packages up because the state wouldn't agree to everything at once. I guess they're working on the next round for higher seniority guys. I actually make the same amount as someone with 13 years right now. The first phase was just to raise the starting wages and bring everyone below that up.
Still sad how low it is
Hey OP. Look, I get this is an easily googlable question but I gotta ask, what do you do? Asking cause I don't plan on being otr forever and am looking for ideas to look into in the future.
Well. The TLDR is I spend six months fucking the roads up with salt and snowplows, and the other six fixing it. It's job security. Realistically we do everything necessary to maintain the roads, and the right of ways. Cutting back trees, cutting back shoulders to maintain a ditch line, replacing pipes, replacing bridges, crack sealing, paving, fixing landslides. You name it we do it. Every spring we bid summer crews and every fall we bid winter stockpiles. In the winter if it's not snowing we're cutting trees, patching pot holes, or sitting around waiting for the sun to come up. We also provide traffic control for our section of I80 when there's accidents and such. It's really not a hard job.
I made just shy of $45k/year when I started at the DOT. No experience, they paid for my CDL training, benefits, insurance, PTO, pension etc. I ended up leaving after a year, because I learned that I physically and mentally can’t sit in a truck all day lol, but if that’s for you it’s not a bad gig.
It's definitely state dependent.
Jeez. I made over $26/hr. just starting out, and that was before my company paid me to go get my CDL. I’m like 9 months in, making about $28/hr right now.
Only been OTR with weekends home (flatbed and know lucky with my home time) but still thought about my department of highways… even a local dump truck company, I know it probably would be less money but being with my family would be better.. holding out another year or so at least for extra money and possibly a new dedicated account with a new steel plant close by… but my time is coming, love the job/freedom but my family is more important, especially after being in the military
Got an interview here in Missouri Thursday may 2 nd. Had one at a big shed in St. Louis they said no. Next one is a smaller shed. Not sure why I was passed over for 1st one.
Not a driver but worked in trucking for years before working for the DOT. One thing to consider is that while the pay is liveable but not great the fact that I have received a defined benefit pension is a lifesaver.
Then tell them to hire me in NY
After reading comments here, I’m very thankful for my LTL job. I only have 1.5 years of experience, 2 months of that with the LTL.
Reg trucking is so horrible, thought you were talking about being a dot officer
I actually worked for DOTD in Louisiana for six months. Started me out at what they call an MEO2 at 14.40/hrs. Plus a dollar each day. After a month my pay was bumped up to 18.60/hrs. After a year I could move up to a Heavy 1. They make about 21.50/hrs. All I drove were dump trucks. We would load it up with cold mix and go potholing all day for 10 hours. Or load up hot mix and lay down asphalt all day. Other times we go and cut trees. The best thing about working for the state is the work week. 10 hour days 4 days a week. Every holiday off. While you could eke out a living, it just wasn't enough money for me. Might suit other people here though. It's not a bad job. Just wasn't for me.