With all this talk on the MSM about coal mining accidents, it got me thinking just how much does a typical coal miner make in a year? Not an engineer or supervisor, just a run-of-the-mill "worm" as we called them on the oil drilling platforms in Oklahoma.

Not enough to take care of their surviving family.

Have some respect for folks that helped build this country.


Artist: Dwight Yoakam
Song: Readin', rightin', rt. 23
Album: Dwightyoakamacoustic.Net
[" Dwightyoakamacoustic.Net " CD]

Chorus:
They learned readin', writin', Route 23
To the jobs that lay waiting in those cities' factories
They learned readin', writin', roads to the north
To the luxury and comfort a coal miner can't afford
They thought readin', writin', Route 23
Would take them to the good life that they had never seen
They didn't know that old highway
Could lead them to a world of misery

Have you ever been down Kentucky-way
Say south of Prestonburg
Have you ever been up in a holler
Have you ever heard
A mountain man cough his life away
From diggin' that black coal
In those dark mines, those dark mines
If you had you might just understand
The reason that they left is all behind

Chorus:
They learned readin', wrightin', Route 23
To the jobs that lay waitin' in those cities' factories
They learned readin', writin', roads to the north
To the luxury and comfort a coal miner can't afford
They thought readin', writin', Route 23
Would take them to the good life that they had never seen
They didn't know that old highway
Could lead them to a world of misery

Have you ever seen 'em
Put the kids in the car after work on Friday night
Pull up in a holler about 2 a.m.
And see a light still shinin' bright
Those mountain folks sat up that late
Just to hold those little grandkids
In their arms, in their arms
And I'm proud to say that I've been blessed
And touched by their sweet hillbilly charm

Chorus:
They learned readin', writin', Route 23
To the jobs that lay waiting in those cities' factories
They learned readin', writin', roads to the north
To the luxury and comfort a coal miner can't afford
They thought readin', writin', Route 23
Would take them to the good life that they had never seen
They didn't know that old highway
Could lead them to a world of misery

Yeah, it turns out that that old highway,
Leads you to a world of misery

They found out that that old highway
Leads you to a world of misery...

Make good money five dollars a day,
Make any more might move away.....

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average non-supervisory worker earned $21.57/hr in 2004.
Mining Wages

Mining is best-paying job for many in W. Va.
Despite dangers underground, average salary of $55,000 is lure in state

msnbc.msn.com/id/10706312/

Around 40 to 60 thousand a year depends on the job.

Also depends on if its a union mine or not.

And damn near everything else outside the gates pays minimum wage.





Keep buyin that Chinese crap!

Quoted: Make good money five dollars a day, Make any more might move away.....

love that song

Grew up in coal mining country.  Dad was a surface miner.  The underground guys don't make nearly enough for what they do.  40 or 50K sounds about right as I recall.

a friend of mine makes alittle over $1100 every to weeks. which is about $400 less than me, so we were talking about it the other day and i told him i didn't miss it. i said i don't have to worry about the roof at work falling on me, well not yet anyways.

my whole family was union. people was shot and shot at all around here. a guy i work with grand paw was shot at a strike in late sixties. as of today there isn't one union job in the county. has anybody ever heard of BLOODY HARLAN. it was war, from a UMWA magazine i learned that the goverment dropped BOMBS, yes bombs from an airplane to break up a strike in west virginia.

"On August 24, the march began as approximately 5,000 men crossed Lens Creek Mountain. The miners wore red bandanas, which earned them the nickname, "red necks." In Logan County, Don Chafin mobilized an army of deputies, mine guards, store clerks, and state police. Meanwhile, after a request by Governor Morgan for federal troops, President Harding dispatched World War I hero Henry Bandholtz to Charleston to survey the situation. On the 26th, Bandholtz and the governor met with Keeney and Mooney and explained that if the march continued, the miners and UMWA leaders could be charged with treason. That afternoon, Keeney met a majority of the miners at a ballfield in Madison and instructed them to turn back. As a result, some of the miners ended their march. However, two factors led many to continue. First, special trains promised by Keeney to transport the miners back to Kanawha County were late in arriving. Second, the state police raided a group of miners at Sharples on the night of the 27th, killing two. In response, many miners began marching toward Sharples, just across the Logan County line.

The town of Logan was protected by a natural barrier, Blair Mountain, located south of Sharples. Chafin's forces, now under the command of Colonel William Eubank of the National Guard, took positions on the crest of Blair Mountain as the miners assembled in the town of Blair, near the bottom of the mountain. On the 28th, the marchers took their first prisoners, four Logan County deputies and the son of another deputy. On the evening of the 30th, Baptist minister John E. Wilburn organized a small armed company to support the miners. On the 31st, Wilburn's men shot and killed three of Chafin's deputies, including John Gore, the father of one of the men captured previously. During the skirmish, a deputy killed one of Wilburn's followers, Eli Kemp. Over the next three days, there was intense fighting as Eubank's troops brought in planes to drop bombs.

On September 1, President Harding finally sent federal troops from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. War hero Billy Mitchell led an air squadron from Langley Field near Washington, D.C. The squadron set up headquarters in a vacant field in the present Kanawha City section of Charleston. Several planes did not make it, crashing in such distant places as Nicholas County, Raleigh County, and southwestern Virginia, and military air power played no important part in the battle. On the 3rd, the first federal troops arrived at Jeffrey, Sharples, Blair, and Logan. Confronted with the possibility of fighting against U.S. troops, most of the miners surrendered. Some of the miners on Blair Mountain continued fighting until the 4th, at which time virtually all surrendered or returned to their homes. During the fighting, at least twelve miners and four men from Chafin's army were killed."



i found a story on the net about a explosion in a mine near my home similar to the sago mine accident. after the explosion a black miner who had been in a previous situation got everybody together sealed up a room and waited. they where rescued and taken to the hospital and place in a ward together, sometime after they got them cleaned up they found that one of the miners was black and tried to remove him to a different section of the hospital. (it was in the forties with segregation it was normal) well all of the white miners came out of their beds in protest all but one and he never regained conciousness.

"Pineville became well known across the nation on December 26, 1945, when an explosion in a coal mine at the Fourmile community left 20 men trapped inside. Heroic rescue attempts were followed by all the national radio and print media. Raging fires continued to prevent rescue of all the men trapped inside, and the mine was eventually permanently sealed. One local man, Bud Townes, was credited with saving the lives of nearly a dozen of his co-workers, as he brought them into a room in the mine and sealed the opening after leaving a message chalked onto a wall detailing their location. Townes rationed the food and water available and kept up the men's spirits with prayer and hymns. When the men were rescued and taken to the local hospital, medical personnel discovered Townes--beneath his coal dust--to be a black man and prepared to move him to the "colored ward." However, the men Townes had saved protested, and the hospital became "integrated."

my greatgrandpaw had black lung and a broken back from working in the mines. before he died he turned blue from the effects of the lung disease. and my pappaw lost a thumb to the mines. people have no idea how much blood and lives was lost in this country to make their electricity.

GOD BLESS OUR MINERS

Whatever it pays, it isn't enough to make me want to do it!

Here in Marshall County , WV the union mines with OT average 68 to 73 K. Good money but no windows to enjoy the beauty of this state.

More then a chinese coal miner I betchya.

ALL of my family who has worked in the mines has been hurt one way or another. My Uncle Rog is the last. He was in the Sago mine explosion and made it out. His brother-in-law Marty Bennett did not.

To make it worse I am working in Logan Co. WV right now on a highway project. So these two men getting trapped really hit home with me. terrible news. Coal mining IS Logan co. that's all there is to do. The lucky ones get a surface mine job.

My uncle is back to work. They moved him to another mine. If I hit the lottery he would most definately never go back under ground. He does it because he makes good money. I think he makes about $18-$20 per hour but I'm not sure. He runs the miner which is one of the highest paying jobs for someone who isn't a boss.

Quoted: More then a chinese coal miner I betchya.

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You are right a Chinese miner makes about 100 rmb a month  (maybe 20 usd )

They don't make nearly enough....That job has to about one of the most dangerous I can think of, You could'nt pay me enough to go in there...

Quoted: They don't make nearly enough....That job has to about one of the most dangerous I can think of, You could'nt pay me enough to go in there...

It is far more than you can make doing other things in a lot of those areas. On $50,000+ a year you can live very well in those hills.

from my coworker:

Damn, didn't know there were that many miners on your website.  Maybe I need to sign up on AR-15.... As to pay, they will make $40 to $50 a year, but, through in overtime and weekend work, will rise to $60+;  never forget we fired a guy for excessive absenteeism and he made $62 that year.  This would have been mid-90's.   Dangerous? Yea, but then again anything can be dangerous if you don't pay attention to your surroundings.  Yep, drop bombs on striking miners in 1921.  I've got a real good tape on that story, but you have to have a VCR to see it.