Exclusive | NYCs blue collar babes are ditching the rat race to do the dirtiest jobs how much theyre making

Freeing frisky lovers from a set of fuzzy handcuffs at 2:00 a.m., or granting law enforcement access into an apartment containing a dead body — it’s all in a profitable day’s work for Upper East Sider Sahar Yona. The 27-year-old residential and commercial locksmith is one of the less than 12 percent of American women — and 8 percent of adults under age 30 — making bank in the blue collar profession. While the New Yorker’s classmates were gearing up for their junior year of high school in 2017, cramming for the SATs and applying for college and student loans, Yona — who dreamed of becoming a criminal lawyer as a kid — made the drastic decision to withdraw from the academic rat race. “I just decided I didn’t want to do school anymore.I was a great student, but I just really wanted to start making money,” Yona, the self-crowned “Locksmith Girl NYC,” told The Post. The unconventional entrepreneur, charging base rates ranging from $50 to $125 per job — not including her time and labor, travel expenses and after-hours fees — asked to withhold her total annual earnings.

But locksmiths in and around the city are earning $60,000 to over $100,000 a year, according to reports. “I had no idea what locksmithing was at first.I’d never used a screwdriver or anything,” said the high school dropout.

“But once I got trained and learned the trade, I fell in love with it.”With college tuition costs soaring past $100,000, and the threat of artificial intelligence commandeering jobs from hardworking human beings, a majority of Gen Zers — adults born between 1997 and 2012 — say they’re not pursuing undergraduate degrees to get their hands on a traditional 9-to-5. Instead, they’re earning up to six-figures by getting their hands dirty. A whopping 60 percent of the whippersnappers are pursuing blue collar careers in 2026, per recent data — which spotlights construction, electrical work, HVAC, plumbing, automotive repai...