Hi folks! 

I am an assistant in a sign shop. I have recently shifted from spending more hours flameworking borosilicate to more hours assisting in the shop. As a result, I have become more proficient in processing tubes and would like to be prepared with some understanding of this specific market before negotiating a higher hourly wage. I'm happy to provide more context but that's the gist! If you are comfortable sharing, what would you pay an assistant, and for even further down the line, what can an assistant hope to get paid once they can bend? :) 

This is a tough one, with multiple factors for you to consider. Also, a disclaimer--my entry level days are decades in the past and some of my working philosophy will rub some the wrong way. Having said that, when I started, I was fortunate to work in an environment that not only valued and appreciated skilled labor but also sought to train, retain, and advance their personnel. In exchange, I was happy to put forth a great effort.  

In terms of salary, starting out in my career, I was making something between 12 and 15 dollars an hour. About 35-ish years ago. Adjusted for inflation, this is close to 25-32/hr.  Now today, businesses will bristle at such a demand. (Even in the location I was living in.) And we all know that nobody's wages have really kept pace in the last 4 decades.

Now the philosophy on a job:  Ultimately, the bottom line is simple in that a job is taken either for it's intangible benefits such as educational opportunities or strictly for the purpose of earning enough to cover one's living expenses. Obviously only you know exactly what that number needs to be....and it is not always just money, those intangibles are very important too....and of course this varies by location. Only you can decide what combinations of salary and other factors will work for you. Also, an employer is really just a client for your services. This is something I learned early on and once I understood this, I began treating myself as an independent contractor and the employer as a customer. This did not mean that anyone was always right. But it did afford me the freedom of thought to realize that I cannot undertake a project for less than it cost me to do it. In this case, those costs included my housing, transportation, food, etc and the salary needed to reflect these costs...if you can't afford to eat, live somewhere, and go to the job--then you can't afford to work there.   I realize this is an unpopular view in some quarters.  But it is one of life's truths.

So, really, you need to determine what you need to get in terms of the combination of both the intangibles and the salary based around the costs where you live and whatever that number is will be what the position needs to pay in order to make it worthwhile for you. 

Robert,

Thank you so much for such a thoughtful response. I appreciate the breakdown and feel I am on the right track. I have an idea of entry level wages for trade jobs in my area, and am hoping that this information as well as my self-advocation will land me at a wage a little more sustainable for the area in which I work. I have been with these folks since the fall of 2019, starting with sweeping and organizing patterns once a week after my full-time job. I stepped away from the full-time job to work with glass full-time in 2022, which resulted in essentially four part-time jobs to make a living. 

The "trouble" is that I enjoy and value each of the part-time jobs. This is one aspect in which I definitely excel as an independent contractor, to your point. However, time is a very important commodity and splitting it in such a way means that I also split the rate of growth. Sometimes that slowed growth feels more frustrating than other times, but, I feel lucky to work with such a material. Even though I do not work full-time at the shop, my time there is very important to me, speaking to the intangibles. I'm sure you get it - it's neon, after all. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and insight. I appreciate it!