Loading …
What you earn along the way, why pay increases, and what it means to be on a collective agreement
As a roofer apprentice you are employed in a company and receive wages from the day your training agreement comes into force. It is an important difference from many other apprenticeships: you don't pay to learn the trade — you are paid for it. This also makes it a realistic path for those who don't want or can afford to study on state educational grants for several years.
Your apprentice wages are not the same all the way through. They are typically divided into wage periods and for each period you advance the salary increases. The logic is simple: the longer you are in education the more you can do and the more valuable your labor is to the company. Towards the end of education you do much of the same work as a journeyman — and the salary reflects that.
Roofing is covered by a collective agreement — an agreement negotiated between the employers' organization and the employees' union. On the employees' side, the trade is under 3F. The agreement sets wage levels, working hours, allowances, pension, and your conditions as an apprentice. It is renewed periodically, and it's typically there that wage rates are adjusted.
If you are an adult when you start, you must as a starting point be secured a minimum wage at the level of unskilled workers in the industry — or a corresponding level from a related collective agreement area. This is substantially more than an ordinary apprentice wage, so it is important to clarify your conditions before signing.
If you haven't found a company to make a training agreement with, at many schools you can continue in school-based training at a school-based training centre. Here you get a school-based training allowance instead of regular apprentice wages while you continue to look. It's not the same as apprentice wages, but it keeps you going in the education until you find a place.
When you have passed the journeyman exam you switch from apprentice wages to skilled wages. As skilled your hourly wages are typically much higher than as an apprentice because you are now a fully trained craftsperson. In parts of construction work is also done on piecework on some tasks – a form of agreement where the wage is linked to how much you accomplish rather than how many hours you spend.
“Becoming a skilled tradesperson is an investment that pays off both along the way and afterwards: you earn a wage while you learn, and you end up with a trade that is hard to automate away.”
Your apprenticeship agreement is a contract. Read it before you sign and do not be afraid to get help understanding it — for example from your school or your union. It is completely normal to get a few more eyes on an agreement and it gives you peace to concentrate on the trade.