"My husband is an airplane mechanic. He has had multiple people assume that, because he works a blue-collar job, he must be making minimum wage..."

As a staff writer at BuzzFeed, I write about all things celeb and pop culture.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for water transportation workers was $66,490 per year in 2024.

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for architectural illustrators is $57K to $88K per year.

"My uncle was an elevator tech for nearly 40 years. He pre-paid for both my cousins’ college (but only one took advantage of it and eventually earned a master's degree), he assured his wife would enjoy superior healthcare for her remaining years, paid off his home and hobbies way before expected, and always gave his friends and family phenomenal gifts. Not to mention the countless people he saved, freeing some from being stuck in an elevator, and who knows how many he saved because of his knowledge and experience.

Uncle Mike was a damn good man. He didn't stay long with us after he retired, but he was well respected, loved his family, and was an absolute boss in his career."

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for elevator and escalator installers and repairers was $106,580 per year in 2024.

"I didn't start in bird seed. I started in waste.  First job out of college was with a facilities contractor that serviced municipal parks. Low pay, long hours, a lot of time around dumpsters behind visitor centers and zoo enclosures. You learn fast what gets thrown away and what gets bought in bulk. And one thing kept showing up on both sides of that equation. Seed. Every park, every zoo, every aviary. Pallets coming in. Half-used bags of food getting tossed when they got damp, contaminated, or just rotated out for fresh stock.

During COVID, budgets got tight. Parks cut corners. Quality dipped. I overheard folks bitching about procurement. How it was locked up with some dusty ass French Canadian dude giving inconsistent product. So I started asking dumb questions. Who supplies this stuff? How do contracts get awarded? Why is it always this guy?

Turns out the big distributors hate this category. Margins are thin, logistics are annoying, and nobody at the top seemed to know shit about bird seed. I quit six months later and drove down to a co-op in the Carolinas that processed grain. Sunflower husks, millet, cracked corn. Cheap inputs, locally sourced.

First contract I landed wasn’t glamorous. A county park that lost its supplier midseason. I undercut the existing price, but what I really sold was consistency. Same blend, same moisture control, delivered on schedule. I showed up in person. That alone put me ahead. I learned how procurement actually works. If you can hit specs and not fuck up delivery, you become the safe choice. Once you're in, they have a hard time replacing you. I reinvested everything into storage and transport. Better packaging so the seed didn't spoil. I started tailoring blends for specific waterfowl. Nothing revolutionary, just paying attention where no one was.

Dirty truth is, contracts renew quietly. No one wants to re-bid unless there's a problem. So I made sure there were never problems. I answered emails fast. Showed up when something went wrong. Replaced bad shipments without arguing. Word spread. A zoo procurement officer asks who the reliable guy is, your name comes up. Now it's a network. My own warehouse, a handful of processors, a routing system that keeps deliveries tight and costs down. I'm not the biggest supplier in the States, but I'm the one nobody has to think about. And I'm the youngest.

And that's the whole game. Find the thing everyone overlooks because it feels too small. Then treat it like it matters. And outlasting the generations above us."

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for a seed sales representative is $95K to $159K a year.

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for house sitters is $32K to $51K a year.

According to Pet Sitters International's State of the Industry Survey, PSI member businesses averaged a gross revenue of $100,537 in 2024. This average was determined from responses that included both solo pet sitters and pet-sitting businesses with multiple employees.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for aircraft and avionics equipment mechanics and technicians was $79,140 per year in 2024.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for sales engineers was $121,520 per year in 2024.

"In Alabama, my cousin just got an LLC and made social media accounts to promote their services. You'd be surprised, but most of the time, family or businesses are just left to clean up after things happen in their homes."

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for crime scene cleaners is $48K to $75K per year.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators was $58,260 per year in 2024. 

A farrier trims and shoes horses' hooves.

According to the American Farriers Journal, the average gross income for a farrier was $115,457 in 2024. 

"I was a temp for $20 hourly while I went to school in 2018. Same job now pays temps $26. 

Then $27 at the local government. Promoted to Sr. Surveyor at $32.

We had a job analysis company decide we were underpaid, and our average salaries got a huge boost, along with 6 percent raise per year, now around $48/hr."

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for surveyors was $72,740 per year in 2024.

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for a school financial officer is $114K  to $212K per year.

Told to me by an old plumber who had no qualms about driving out to unblock an apartment building at 2 a.m. in a basement knee-deep with sewage. $700 an hour for emergency work in the city, he said."

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for septic tank servicers and sewer pipe cleaners was $39,870 in 2024.

"Depends on the industry and position in question, but broadly, it involves being on call to go work long hours dealing with the aftermath of catastrophes like floods, earthquakes, wildfires, etc. Think about downed power and telecommunications lines, damage to houses and other buildings, totaled out vehicles, etc. Catastrophes result in a lot of work, and people willing to go and do that work can be hard to find, so even low-skilled positions get paid well. There's also a ton of paperwork and related phone calls and logistics."

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for catastrophe adjusters is $82K to $130K per year.

According to Glassdoor, the pay range for paintless dent repair technicians is $51K to $84K per year.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for court reporters and simultaneous captioners was $67,310 per year in 2024.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for stationary engineers and boiler operators was $75,190 per year in 2024.

Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.