01 Free tool
What is this work actually worth?
Move the sliders. Every band below comes from published wage data, and it gives you a range rather than one number, because that is the honest answer.
Built from
Rate bands are built from Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers; American Welding Society workforce figures; published pipeline welder averages; 2026 hourly ranges for 6G pipe work; and published per diem ranges of $75 to $175 a day for travelling pipeline work. Figures were current in August 2026. This is an estimator, not an offer, and it is not advice about any specific job.
Now go and get paid the top of that range.
Part six of the Playbook is about exactly that. Negotiating, per diem math, going traveller and running your own rig.
The number is only half of it.
Which certification gets you there, which shops actually pay it, and how to ask. That is the rest of the book.
