Thanks guys, this is a great forum

Well I saw a lot of people from all over the country, but no one from the great state of Washington reporting in, so I guess I will. Most journey level machinist's make high teens very low twenty's. That's with over ten years exp. too. Work up here is dictated by the big kite shop (Boeing) and right now it is slow for sure. I have been using MC for years, and as others have said employers are not paying like they should, as a direct result here a lot of companys that I and other journey level people used to work for have gone under because they let thier talent walk out to get better pay somewhere else. Leaving them with 1,2, and 3 year rookies at the machines. A very sad situation indeed here in Washington. After the Sept. 11th attacks I got the lay off slip and was out of work for 8 months before a job finally came down the pipe for me. Worked it for almost a year before I had enough of thier B.S. Now I work for a small shop that is inside a large company. They are independent, but do all the machine work for this Co. and in return only have to pay rent for the space, electricity is included! I am programing and setting up a Mori 40 taper Horizontal with MC 7.2b and they are paying me 23.00 an hour which is pretty damn good for around here! So whatever you guys do don't fall into the I need to move to Washington because Boeing is there syndrome. The pay is bad considering I have been making hourly in the low 20's for the last six years, makes me want to find other things to do. Ok putting my soap box away now