Zandra John is looking forward to making $70,000 this year as a Local 7 tile-setting apprentice in New York City. Before becoming a union worker, John was a teacher's assistant bringing in about $25,000 a year. She accrued $5,000 in student loan debt and relied on food stamps and Medicaid to get by. John has worked on tile setting in the NYC subway, Hudson Yards, and the new Moynihan Train Hall complex.

Zandra John is a 28-year-old union tile setter from Flatbush, Brooklyn. But her mother always wanted her to become a teacher.

Three years into earning a bachelor's in secondary education with a minor in English, John was unable to re-enroll in her program because she was behind on her tuition payments. She already owed $5,000 in student loans and was making $12 per hour (about $25,000 per year) as a teacher's assistant. 

While she loved working with kids and liked the idea of becoming an English or special-needs teacher, her teaching assistant job did not have benefits and she relied on Medicaid and food stamps.

"I love kids so much, but I felt like something was missing. I wasn't really doing what I wanted to do," says John. "And while I wanted to finish school, I knew $12 an hour would not pay off my loans, it would not help me pay tuition, it really wouldn't do much but help me get by. So I just went on the internet." 

She googled high-paying roles and found herself looking at jobs in construction. She quickly thought of her father.

"My dad was a carpenter, he worked in the train stations. And that's really where I started falling in love with building stuff, fixing things around the house. I would always help him. I wanted to have a career in that field, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to," John says. "It's a man dominated field. And usually, they don't want women there."

Now, John makes roughly $32 per hour as a tile-setting apprentice. With overtime, she expects to make about $70,000 this year and is working towards becoming a journeyman, who make up to $61 per hour in her union, about $126,880 per year.

"Going from $12 an hour to $32 an hour is a huge difference for me," she says. "I can save more. I can help my mom more."

Getting the job

John's first step into construction was enrolling in a free 7-week training program with Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) — a New York-based organization that prepares, trains and places women in careers in skilled construction, utility and maintenance trades. 

"That was really the start of a whole nother journey for me. I would TA in the daytime and I would leave there and go straight to NEW," she remembers. 

In June 2018, she graduated from the program and began an eight-week pre-apprenticeship program in tile setting that lead to an official apprenticeship. She says she was drawn to the program because it combined her interest in construction with her artistic hobbies. 

"One reason why I love tile is because tile and art, they have a connection. A lot of times when we are putting up tiles it's like a mural. We do a lot of murals. We did a flower mural. We did a cloud mural. We did a mural in LaGuardia," she says. "I love art, so the fact that I can incorporate two things that I love is amazing to me."

Of course, John is the first to say that construction tile setting is not a relaxing hobby. The job can include long days with difficult and dangerous physical labor. She describes an accident in which a pile of bathroom stalls fell on her while she was tiling a bathroom floor. 

She also says harassment is common. 

"They were kind of tough on me my first day, I'm not going to lie. Being the only woman on the job, sometimes it can get weird because the guys are scared to say 'Good morning,' or they stare at you," says John. "Sometimes guys make little comments like, 'Oh, what made you want to be doing this? Shouldn't you be at home?"

A typical day starts around 5:45 a.m. Her commute into Manhattan takes about 40 minutes. John says she arrives at her sight around 6:45 and work typically begins between 7 and 7:15 a.m. 

"When I get in, I get to work. I go to my gang boss, get my tools," she says. "I get my grinder, make sure I have my water, make sure my wet saw is on and I get on my scaffold."

Tasks can include cutting tile with a saw, mixing "mud" that is used to level floors, laying tile or grouting in-between tiles. 

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Making $70K A Year As A Tile Setter In NYC | On The Job