Dayton Tillman didn’t think much of his chances as a freshman welder in this year’s Skills USA competition. But he came out on top as a state champion, and that will have him headed to Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of this month for the national competition.
Regardless of how he does at nationals, Tillman feels great about his prospects for a career in welding. It’s becoming a fast track to making big bucks, thanks to a huge shortage of skilled welders.
“The American Welding Society, which we are pretty tight with, says they are 360,000 jobs short by 2025,” Eastern Wyoming College Director of Welding Lynn Bedient told Cowboy State Daily. “The demand we are seeing, when we have a job fair with 50 students, some companies are looking for more (welders) than that. So if you go to the job fair and don’t find a job? You weren’t looking very hard.”
At a job fair in February, Eastern Wyoming College hosted 13 companies from three states.
Some of these employers are offering large bonuses for new employees.
“One of the companies that came to the job fair is starting their employees out at $38 an hour, with 60 hours of work a week,” Bedient said.
With overtime, that comes to more than $138,000 a year, and the job also came with a $5,000 moving bonus and a $5,000 joining bonus.
“They go to $40 bucks an hour in the first six months if they do well,” Bedient said. “That’s kind of the top end (for entry level) right now.”
Underwater Welders Make The Really Big Bucks
The most highly paid welders do one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. They are underwater welders in a category called "saturation diving."
Eastern Wyoming College doesn’t train students in that particular welding field, although the community college’s training could be considered a beginning step to an eventual career in that specialty.
A lot of additional training would still be required. Those would include underwater diving certifications, as well as training in how to weld underwater.
Underwater welders inspect, repair, install, remove equipment and perform tests or experiments for underwater equipment and structures.
They might even do things like rig explosives.
Saturation diving, meanwhile, is the most elite category of underwater welders. Rather than spend part of each day ascending slowly to the surface so that nitrogen bubbles have time to escape a diver’s bloodstream, these welders instead live for weeks at a time in an underwater compression chamber, completely isolated from the outside world.
They’re basically like underwater astronauts for the duration of each month-long shift.
The compression chamber is pressurized to match the deep-sea ocean depths at which they’re working, so that no time is lost adjusting to high vs. low pressure environments.
Oxygen can cause central nervous system toxicity at exceedingly high pressures, so the underwater astronauts breathe a specialized mixture of gasses that contains less oxygen, with nitrogen and helium mixed in.
And yes, the latter does give them 24/7 chipmunk voices.
The gasses typically used on the surface of the earth for welding behave much differently under high pressures, so saturation divers use processes and materials that are specifically designed for high pressure, underwater conditions.
These can be either “wet” or dry welding processes. In the latter case, a device is used to remove water from around the weld, allowing for a dry hyperbolic weld.
There are only about 300 saturation diving jobs in the United States, and only a portion of those are trained to be welders. But those few folks do make big bucks, according to Indiana Oxygen Company, a premier welding company that’s been around since 1915.
According to their figures, an experienced saturation diver can expect to make more than $200,000 a year, and some specialized saturation divers can make as much as $30,000 in one month, or more than $300,000 a year.
Easatern Wyoming College welding student Dayton Tillman works with instructor Stan Nicolls. (Courtesy Eastern Wyoming College) 
Eastern Wyoming College welding student Dayton Tillman can expect to earn six figures when he graduates because he has a highly coveted skill in a profession that has a huge shortage of people. (Courtesy Eastern Wyoming College) 
Easatern Wyoming College welding student Dayton Tillman works with instructor Stan Nicolls. (Courtesy Eastern Wyoming College) 
Eastern Wyoming College welding professor and department head Lynn Bedient, left, and welding instructor Stan Nicolls. (Courtesy Eastern Wyoming College)
Pipeline Welding Also Pays Big
Pipeline welders can easily make six-figure salaries, particularly in the oil and gas industry.
“I had a student who, when everything as going crazy in North Dakota, told me he made $20,000 in four weeks,” Bedient said. “Then he took a week, two weeks off, and went back for four more weeks and made $30,000 the second four weeks.”
Bedient said that depends on a welder's skill level and hours worked.
“He was an excellent welder,” Bedient said. “He’s credible, he can show up and be there, and they can count on him. They pay a lot of money for that.”
One of Bedient’s other students is now making $150,000 working for a power plant, with excellent benefits.
“He’ll probably retire in 20 years,” Bedient estimated.
“EWS is an American Welding Society Test Center," Bedient said. "And we were doing some well testing for a company about two weeks ago who were looking for welders and not having much luck.”
That company was offering $38 to $40 an hour with 60 hours a week guaranteed, with overtime after 8 hours per day, plus a $140 per diem, which is tax free.
“If you look at what somebody in this area, they’re going to be working in this area about nine months,” Bedient said. “So, if you look at what they can be making with per diem, it’s about $110,000 in nine months.”
Level Up
Most welding schools aren't overly expensive, Bedient said, and students exciting EWC aren't saddled with lots of debt.
The coursework fee is around $25 per credit hour, according to EWC’s website, and a one-semester certificate is around 12 credit hours.
There are additional student activity and tuition fees to attend EWC, but these vary based on a student’s individual circumstances, including whether they are paying in or out-of-state tuition.
“We are one of the better-valued schools for what students pay and what they get,” Bedient said. “We keep our program updated and we have 100 years of welding experience in our instructors. We don’t lie to anybody about what’s going on. We just let our work do the talking.”
EWC also offers several different approaches for its students, so they can customize and get the training they need.
There’s a one-semester certificate, a two-semester certificate and a four-semester certificate, as well an AAS welding degree option.
Any of these programs can be matched with a machine tooling certificate as well.
High-paying jobs are not the only thing that makes welding an attractive career opportunity, though.
For Tillman, it’s the opportunity to one day take over his dad’s welding business.
“My grandpa and my dad were welders, so I just thought I’d continue on with the family tradition,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “When I was in high school, I felt like I was pretty good at welding, so I thought I might as well continue to do it. And I love welding. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
That’s the kind of thing EWC Welding Instructor Stan Nicolls likes to hear.
“That’s a nice thing when we see one of our students and see that, ‘Hey, yes, he owns his own company and he employs 25 people.’ So he paid his dues in the trenches and now he’s become the owner-operator of his own company. That seems to say a lot right there.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
