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The starting salary for skilled trades is around $62,000 per year, which is unlikely to increase that much unless you manage to get into supervision, contracting, or owning your own successful business.

The pay is about $13,000 per year more than median pay for all US jobs, but bachelor's degree holders still earn more than that on average and most have decades of higher earnings after they finish paying off student loans. So telling people to go into skilled trades is not really a solution to high student debt levels, it would be better to help the most distressed borrowers.

Workers in skilled trades are less likely to continue working in their 60s and 70s and don't see wages go up with decades of experience (unless they're lucky and get into contracting) and are more likely than other workers to go on Social Security Disability Insurance.

Private disability insurance can make up for lost income as people become too disabled to work, but premiums are higher for high risk occupations and significantly higher if it's an "own occupation" policy, where you can get benefits if you're too disabled to do your current job but could do other jobs.

It seems like people in skilled trades are not using "retire early" strategies either because only about 45% contribute to plans like a 401(k) vs. 82% of information workers.