Since the time CTE Editor Alan Richter started covering manufacturing for CTE in 2000, industry professionals have frequently informed him that manufacturing jobs typically pay more than most other professions, such as sales and low-level, white-collar jobs. Furthermore, he was told, they provide a multiplier, or ripple, effect—in which one manufacturing job produces numerous other jobs. As he observes in his August 2017 Lead Angle column, Richter questions whether that's still the case.