Skilled trades wages

Rant: How much longer will it be before fast food wages surpass skilled labor? In some cases it has already happened. I've been an automotive technician for 25 years and every year I've been in it inflation has out paced raises. So every single year I can count on making less money and the tools I need costing more. I let my certifications and smog license expire because they are worthless. Its only a matter of time until other jobs catch up enough in pay for me to jump ship and do something different. Probably something easier. It's a dying industry. Very few people are getting in. I'm not sure how shops are even attracting people to work for them. You also will not be able to afford to retire. Ok rant over.

Update: I'm in northern California. I think what set me off was I went into Panda express yesterday and they had a sign up showing the wages for their workers. 21-29.70 for a cook, 21-31.60 for shift leader, 29-37.60 for assistant manager, and 32-41.80 for store manager. Now compare that to your wages in the skilled trades. I get paid in the upper part of the payscale for my area yet its not that far off from a worker at Panda. With 25 years in and all the tools and certs, maybe I'm just not looking at this right but I'm pretty sure the wages don't add up. A long time ago a coworker of mine told me that it doesn't pay to know anything in this field and he was right.