It's complicated and depends on the state. AFAIK California doesn't require an electrician license to be an electrician, so salaries are actually not that great compared to other parts of the country (Bay Area possibly excluded). Oregon does require a license, and there is a wide range of salary depending on which part of the State you're in, but at the lowest a journeyman (comparable to junior dev fresh out of college) will be making ~$60,000/yr in the lower-cost parts of the state. In the Portland area, you'd be making more than $60k even as an electrician apprentice.
Anecdotally, my dad is an electrician and makes roughly what I made as a senior developer except he's way more in-demand and can make a decent living in any city in Oregon (or Maine because they have a cross-licensing scheme with Oregon). I live a couple houses down from an electrician in a LCOL part of the state, and his house is nicer and larger than mine!
I would have gone into the field, but the waitlist for apprenticeships was hundreds of people long during the Great Recession, and it's going to be difficult to start a new career at the bottom for me at this point.
Anecdotally, my dad is an electrician and makes roughly what I made as a senior developer except he's way more in-demand and can make a decent living in any city in Oregon (or Maine because they have a cross-licensing scheme with Oregon). I live a couple houses down from an electrician in a LCOL part of the state, and his house is nicer and larger than mine!
Reference: https://www.oregon.gov/boli/apprenticeship/pages/trade-detai...
I would have gone into the field, but the waitlist for apprenticeships was hundreds of people long during the Great Recession, and it's going to be difficult to start a new career at the bottom for me at this point.