In the past it was always 25-30 hour, I'm seeing more and more of starting 38-40. 

so all you younger guys hang in there, when the last of us boomers retire you're going to get to be paid like we should have been over the years 

just going up with inflation, not really getting any better in the sense of standard of living. 

dying profession. 

One day they might come close to plant baws starting pay. 

The good ones are worth their weight in gold, The bad ones, and they are plenty, are not worth the pay check they receive. I've had the pleasure of working with the best over my 40 + years of flying, and survived working with the other. And yes, I came from a Maintenance background in my early years.

It's not gonna get better.  IN fact, it's just gonna get worse.  There's no influx of fresh blood because no one wants to work anymore.  Everyone wants an IT job in the Air Cond.  Couple that with the current social crisis of folks not getting married or having kids and now there's no reason for lil johnny to go get a higher paying job than that of 14 bucks an hour at the Chick-fil-a.

When I retire in 2 more years there's no one to replace me.  I work at a large yellow and black helicopter company doing work no one wants to do.  I'm almost 50 and I'm the youngest guy at work.  Do the math.

Alot of the problem is, x company will have a mechanic shortage, but won't pull back the operation to compensate. They just lure in the one or two guys in the market with higher pay, and expect one guy to do the work of two or three, but get apalled when a work place accident happens or they just up and quit. Airlines after COVID was a prime example. Small helicopter ooerators under the radar are another. 

When one guy is maintaining 4-6 helicopters by himself that fly 4-8 hours a day, there is your red flag. Pay might be ok or even great, but there's a big negative to that equation to what is feesibly and humanely possible.

I also see the younger crowd wants a life and I applaud that.  In my younger days as a mechanic there often times wasn't much of a life due to the reasons stated elsewhere in this post.  Given the choice, a lot of people will choose a job with average or good pay and have a life versus ok pay and often times not much of a life.

Lying flat.

Japanese herbivore men.

Coming to a western society near you....

Gentlemen, welcome to the new Corporate/Socialist system and No that is not an oxymoronic statement. 

I don't know if the laying flat trend is popular in Japan. But it is huge in China, where it was invented.

is what the OP was getting at there.....

hence the two completely different but same mentions there Einstein

Completely different, but the same. How elementary is your observation, my dear Watson?

Of the thirteen students in my a&p class that finished, three of us went to helicopters, five went to the airlines and the others took jobs out of the industry.  The three of us were the last to retire from that class. Can you guess why?

$#!+

??

Pay is coming up finally, but horrible work / life balance and workload in many cases. Environment is usually whatever is outside; hot cold, rain, doesn't matter. Linemen, flight attendants, and parts people have more pull in the company and some cases pay. Bad company politics against mx in union shops. Add to that travel. Not conducive to family. Blows goats. Don't ever do this.