Mainly for the OG's

I'm on the North Side of Chicago, IL. The pay for a CMM programmer varies a lot depending on the company and the industry. Lots of small job shops around here offer $20-30/hr for experienced CMM programmers. Aerospace, Defense, and Medical are in the $30-40/hr range. If you have security clearance for the serious ITAR stuff the range can be closer $40-45/hr, but I don't get the impression those jobs are very pleasant. I work in Aerospace, in that middle range.

I once had a similar decision to make as you. I had worked at a company for a few years while attending school. A year before finishing my degree I transitioned to programming CMMs at that same company. Once I finished school and got that degree in Computer Engineering I had to decide whether to stay in the CMM world or pursue the engineering. I decided to stick with the CMM stuff for a while as I was enjoying it, and I was able to apply some of my education to the CMM role (I suspect many engineering disciplines would have some crossover into the CMM world). A year later was the big 2008 recession and I was just happy to have a steady job, so I continued with the CMM stuff and got some Quality Engineering duties as well. As time went on, switching career paths was increasingly difficult. My education was out of date and my wages had increased as I got more experience, so starting a new path would have meant a pay cut. I continued to enjoy working with CMMs so that's where I stayed.

Lucky for me it all worked out. I enjoy the work that I do in the CMM world and feel that the extra education just helps me do it better, even if it isn't an exact match. It also makes my resume stand out, which comes in handy. Money isn't an issue as I make what I expected to make in the Engineering role. And, if I care to make more I can move to a supervisory role. I almost wish I hadn't gone to school and saved the time and money, but the truth is I enjoyed the learning.

I don't know what you should take away from all that, but I wish you luck on whatever path you choose.

$28/hr in Seattle area. About a year total seat time on a CMM. Was a machinist for 10 years, and an F-18 mechanic before that. Solid rock skills, not that they are needed where I'm at. Started at $25/hr after taking CMM-101 at Hexagon.

Schlag HAHAHAHAHA, Minnesooooootahhhhhhhhhhh!

Thats exactly what I do as well, R&Rs, Correlations and CMM Programming, I also troubleshoot new product launches and First Article Layouts.

Lets just face it boys. Manufacturing pays $ H ! T

Lets just face it boys. Manufacturing pays $ H ! T

Yeah, I don't think any of us are getting rich doing this. What concerns me is that I haven't really seen wages go up much in this line of work. Minimum wage in my state has gone up almost 50% in the past 5 years. I can't say I have seen any increase in my earning potential over that same time period.

You never will. THOSE of us that are 'skilled' workers are being screwed by any increase in the minimum wage since we are making more than minimum, we see no increase.
(bogus numbers used in this example)
If minimum wage was $10/hour and we made $20/hour due to our willingness to WORK at learning more to earn more, and they raise minimum wage to $15/hour, then we have LOST a substantial amount of our buying power as the cost of goods & services WILL go up with that increase in minimum wage, thus taking a bigger bite out of OUR paychecks when we need those goods or services. Every time they increase minimum wage, we lose.

Or, hear me out here, the rich people could just be a little less rich. Work is work. Go ahead and take that $15/hr burger flipping job if it is so easy. Just think of all the extra time off you get working part time. Oh, wait you're on call 24/7 because management can't be bothered to staff effectively and you will be fired if you can't fill in for someone calling in sick.

Prices have gone up whether minimum wage was increased or not.

Ah, ok, so, since I've busted my hump to learn to earn (more) than burger flippers, just exactly how much of my 'richness' does Mr. Burger Flipper deserve?

Look at the left coast, places that have instituted higher minimum wages have actually increase unemployment and have a higher (much higher) cost of living increase than places that haven't.

You'll not get much liberal sympathy on working-mens (and womens) internet sites.

Hate to break it to you hump buster, but you're not the kind of rich I'm talking about. To the actual rich class you are no different from the burger flipper. You are just another worker to be exploited. And the rich class's greatest victory was convincing you that paying the poor person more money would hurt you. They are paying you both less than what you are worth. Congratulations on being a pawn so that the truly rich can be even richer.