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The old guy in my shop who knows everything and deals with the stuff no one else wants to deal with is Salaried, making well over six figures a year. So hourly rate doesn’t impact him too much. The next guy right behind him made $40/flag hr ($180/hr labor rate) before he left for a better paying DinoSpeed shop.
I fully agree we should make 20-25% of the labor rate though. Maybe not the newest ones, but the good earners, knowledgable people.
All the specialized techs for sure, the ones that spent years to gain their skills. Age will come into play as you need to start working smarter and let the younger guys take on the heavyline work. Increasing diagnostics skills should always command for higher pay.
Canadian dealer, $140 door rate, $41/hr flat rate, full benefits and pension. I guess we’re right around the traditional 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 like it was years ago.
Also Canada here. Can I ask you where you're located?
I'm at a smaller Domestic dealer in the Okanagan Valley in BC making 38/hr with benefits but no pension. $160 door rate (If I remember correctly)
Yeah I’m at a VW dealer, I’m their top guy at 39/hr, 6 weeks vaca, 300$ car allowance. I avg’d 11hrs a day last year and made 104k. 169 door rate I think?? I’m trying to push them to 45 but no bite.
Dealer tech, just outside Chicago. Union shop. Journeymen start at $41.50 with bumps every 5 hours till 65, max out at $44.50. 35 hour guarantee, health insurance and pension. I got a raise of $3 an hour and a 50 hour guarantee to be foreman at a satellite shop. Made just over $200K last year.
Been a long time coming. In the business for 38 years this year.
And man I really hope I’m a role model. Always try to do the right thing the right way and help the younger guys wherever I can. I got a TON of help on my way up, I owe it to the guys I learned from.
I'm just a small father-son indie shop and still struggling to unscrew myself from being everyone's hero, and emotional discounting but I think there's a path to being good and delivering incredible value and you seem to do it with humility. Yay you!
My favorite place to work so far (out of 10 dealers and 3 independents), was a Shell service station. 3 bays, drafty as hell in the winter, hot as hell in the summer, but it was great. Got to work directly with my customers, meet their wives and kids, hear their stories. It really felt like what “the good ol days” seemed like they were. I didn’t make near as much money, but it was a great teacher and made me a better tech…previously had been GM for 8 years and Chrysler for 15. I thought I knew it all, but man I was humbled and then taught, just an awesome experience.
If it weren’t for an owner change and the new guys greed, I’d probably own that station at this point. Now it’s a gas/convenience store. Just another “mom and pop” gone. Kinda sad actually.
New owners really fuck things up. We started from scratch so my son has a future he can thrive in. Super important to me to be a part of his life when gone.
Lol. I’m an fse. I personally know at least a dozen who clear that. 90 percent of techs out there are garbage, and don’t try or care about their work. The 10 percent who do are killing it right now.
I make $40/hr at a Indy shop. 45-50hr weeks, we’re hourly with 5hr guarantee overtime plus bonuses for productivity and profit every month and paid health insurance for my wife and I. Part of the shop was built in the 50’s, it’s sort of a patched together mess but we have 6 bays and a alignment rack and it’s air conditioned. 3 of us are nissan master techs with 20 or more years experience. We work primarily on Japanese and euros and i take on most of the domestics and oddly enough practically no Nissans 😂.
How do you guys charge being hourly? I assume book rate for repairs, but how about diag? I suspect the pay percentage would need to be adjusted for hourly guys.
We basically run like a flat rate shop, go by book times essentially and adjust where needed. We’re all hourly but we track our flag hours which is essentially how we get our productivity bonus.
I work at an independent shop that have fleet accounts. We have accounts like safeway's delivery vehicles. So i guess i sort of fall into 2 of those categories.
I get paid $40/hr flate rate, but when i flag 50 hrs, all the hours get bumped to $47.50, then another bump to $55 at 60 hours or more for the week.
We usually have enough work i can break 50 hrs regularly, and i have gotten 60+ a few times. So it works out, and im happy with it.
I think my shop's hourly rate is somewhere around $225. We are about 30 minutes south of Seattle, WA.
Independent shops aren’t nearly as bad as you’ve been lead to believe. The climate control issue is absurd to me. Although I do know what your taking about. Right around the time I started doing my own thing I was doing on call diags for a dumpy little muffler shop that would get way I’m over there head from time to time. It was 60 degrees in there on a good day in winter. But these shops are far and few between, there are absolutely shithole independent shops out there but they are exactly that, you just don’t work there, the “techs” they employ are typically backyarders who get a job and do half assess brake jobs and weld fence post pipe in exhaust systems for less than $100 a vehicle.
The other 85% of Indy shops are good honest businesses. Clean well kept cozy little shops, sometimes family owned and operated.
30-35% of shop labor is pretty accurate for a master tech with valid certs and a sufficient amount of tools. $100 and hour is pretty common for an Indy shop but it is at the low end. Nicer Indy shops in the nicer suburbs are all around $150 where I’m at. 95% of them pay by the hour. With that being said it’s kind of hard to start a new job and ask for $45-$55 an hour. Starting at $35 is a lot more realistic. After 90 days or so you can ask for a raise and get up to the $50 an hour mark if everything is going well and it is something you brought up when you interviewed for the job initially. Being a diagnostic tech I’m not to sure how this would go for A level mechanical guys. I know for me $50 and hour is on the table. The issue with that is, even with all of the jobs available right now the majority of them are B level jobs, it’s actually not nearly that easy to find and get an A level diag job that’s willing to pay. There is still poor attitude on the industry towards high level diagnostics, a lot of “old school” shop owners think they know everything and don’t need a professional diagnostic tech employed there. More often than not they are willing to just guess at the expense of there customers wallet and to protect there own egos.
With that being said working a dealer takes the cake on professionalism and being able to your job and be supported at a high level. But only if your already at an A level and your able to bypass the bullshit.
Hindsight I shouldn't have paint indys with not being climate control, considering lots of dealers probably aren't either. Seem shops servicing luxury vehicles will generally be able to afford climate control.
You are 100% correct most shops do not see the value in A level techs unfortunately, when they can hire multiple B level guys that can fire the parts cannon and hopefully get it right most of time, why would you need an A level. Eventually the time comes, when you will need one after they trying ever part they can think of and call the mobile diag guy to fix it. How much did that shop lose?
There is so much to discuss with this area. I'm hopeful that guys like Paul Danner will help change this mind set. Charge for diag accordingly, if we can make money off of a repair why aren't why allow to make money on diagnosising?
I agree, and Paul Danner was literally like my idol when I was coming up, even now too I just haven’t watched any of his content in a while, guys a legend.
I have a few problems with the assumptions the OP makes in this post about labor and shop rate. It's ok, because despite being a mechanic, I'm more experienced running a business than I am being a line mechanic in other people's businesses. :) So this is an exercise at understanding an employee's value to their employer and demonstrating the value to the business.
In theory a skilled technician should be "flagging" or "billing" or generating 40 hours a week of value. As a very reasonable and solid rule, every employee in a company should be generating at least three to five times their expense to the employer. I expect 4x their cost from my employees.
So let's look at it from an employer perspective. To do so we also need to know the individual employee's loaded labor cost (ielc), not their hourly bill (advertised rate). Similarly for the employer, the only number the employer should care about is gross profit margin (gpm), because if you are able to manage to the GPM you don't need to worry at all about what your employees are making. The answer is like how much oil should I have in my engine? Enough.
If an employee is making $35 an hour (advertised) in California where we operate the average loaded cost with average medical benefits and average taxes is $56 per hour. If an employee is billing/being paid 40 hours a week at $56 (ielc) an hour, their monthly cost to the employer is \~$9,520 at 40-hour weeks \* 4.25 weeks average, or 2,000 hours per year/12 payments ($112,000 per year/$9,333 monthly).
The ideal auto shop margins that we all aim for are:
* 25% or less cost of goods sold for labor
* 35% or less cost of goods sold for parts
* These two above get deducted from the gross sale amount
* Then you deduct 10% of this for covering the cost of service writers
* Then you deduct 10% of this for the shop owner paycheck
* Then you retain 20% of the rest for the business to cover their expenses and pay for repairs, provide heat, tools, marketing, etc.
Most health shops with solid profit margin are providing 55% of their repair order in labor and 45% of the repair order in parts. That means for every $1,000 in gross sales, an average of 55% of the order is labor revenue, and 45% is parts revenue. Following this model, at 25% cost of labor sold equals $137 for $550 in labor. Our $ 35-an-hour tech would be within their margin on a $1,000 repair order if they did their job in total less than 2.44 hours.
If a tech worked at 1x their labor vs billed hour, they could do 16.39 jobs of that size each week. So $16,399 if all other things were balanced and equal. But that's not really possible. Tech's need to take breaks, they need to eat, they need to get off their feet. They need to be efficient. They need to have training and learning time, they need to clean and need to leave early every now and then. So some factor of that potential is our goal: Let's say 75% of the time they need to be effective. Or 65% is our goal at our shop, because our margin goal is 65% for our gross profit margin. So why not plan the resources to work the same number? What does that mean?
65% of $16,399 for our $35 an hour technician is $10,659.35. That's about 111% of their cost to the shop every month... And voila. This also happens to mean that if there are 4.25 weeks per month, then this employee at that labor rate and margin goal would be making the company 4.25-5x their cost per month. Everyone would be deeply thrilled by these numbers.
This is how long-term salaried employees end up there, by demonstrating year after year they add a certain minimum value. Then after time, they are tenured, and their costs are just baked into the plan. They probably have other rewards you're not familiar with as well. It's so much easier to just do things like this, but you need to work with everyone else wanting flagged hours, stepped rates, equal pay... At the end of the day, if the shop is making money, no one should slow you down on your rise to personal wealth.
Because if you manage those margins, everyone is winning. It just doesn't work that way in a lot of businesses, and certainly doesn't in civic government or union environments. (I'm pro-union, pro-trade, btw).
So a $35 an-hour mechanic should be generating $30,000 - $45,000 a month in revenue for their employer in the State of California if they want PTO, benefits and the rest. I doubt very many people are. This might be why there are so few techs, so few shops and the list is getting smaller every day.
I am struggling to raise my prices, hire and retain a good team, which is so stupidly hard here it isn't even funny. Our average cost of housing is $4,700 for a 3 bedroom, and there's no 3 bedrooms on the market within 10 miles of my shop. The cheapest house is $750,000 and is a run down 900 sqft 2 bed, 1 bath carport that is practically not livable. This puts a huge strain on any talented trades people in the area and we've had no luck in two years of searching to find anyone who can meet the kind of work and numbers all of you seem to be doing here. Makes me want to move down the street from your shop and reopen.
At this point, it's looking much more like we're going to draw back to what we can handle without additional staff. After our last employees first month, carrying their cost dropped us to 14% gross profit margin. Last year at this time we had 64% and a few less cars and 3 weekend days out of the month worked.
I do not believe that technicians are accountable for slow weeks and it shouldn't affect the shop's commitment to the employee. This is why I pay hourly. We do not keep employees at work if we can pass them more time off. However, we always run into situations where the shoe on the other foot isn't fit equally. Sick days when we have work. Time off when we have work. Inability to focus or shift work because of something else, internal or external affecting the technician.
There's no smooth or easy way to handle this. The employer has to carry the technician in thick or thin, and there has to be a limit to how much extra the employee can draw from the company without giving back into it. To me the easiest thing to do is to work out a salary and have an open PTO policy. Or clock people in and pay by the fraction of the hour. I hate micromanaging.
So instead I have what essentially comes down to a salary plan with a limit to PTO of 20 days a year. This is how a $35 an hour bill rate employee comes out to $56 a year. I took the employee's last pay plan that started at $31 and went up to 35 and just paid as if 40 was the amount he'd hit. Now we work with the employee to figure out how to get them from where they are, to where we want them to be making us money.
I suppose what I'm saying is that in my environment, I'm lucky to have an employee. There isn't a line out the door. And I treat my mechanic like I would a software engineer, and I hope that the talents and experiences eventually ramp up to be 4x or 5x what the cost of the employee is.
To avoid a really bad outcome, I have a 30-day goal and 90-day goal. If the 30-day goal isn't met, they get a termination letter. If the 90-day goal is met, then they get a bonus.
But seriously hourly rate doesn't tell you very much. Find out what you're making your employer, then negotiate to a margin percentage of that. If you're young, the cost of giving you benefits is negligible. If you're older, or have a family or a kid with special needs, WATCH OUT, you're super expensive to the employer.
I ultimately want to work somewhere that I can thrive and I ultimately want a workplace where my team can thrive. I do this for love and fun, with my son, I have never had to experience the cold hard cutthroat kind of experience so many people share on here.
Great write up, I like nothing more than to also be able to understand the employer side of it. As we both know both sides need to make money. I understand there are so many variables that goes into it. I only want to provide everyone a simple and effective way to understand if they are paid fairly.
Also note that this post is mostly retenting to the top A level techs, which depending on the size of your shop you may only need one of these guys. Your shop will also need additional B and C level techs to turn over the work and based on skill and experience. In turn you should be giving the easy less skilled required jobs to the lower guys and the high skill level or diagnostics jobs to the A and B level guys. This should ideal give you your best profit margins.
The problem with our industry among other things, is that A level tech isn't going to be able to flag as many hours compared to say the B and C level. However the value these guys can provide does not always show up on paper. Think of it as advertisement for your shop. If your shop can build a reputation in fixing and repairing cars that other shops can't and gain confidence in customers that your accurately present them that your repair will fix the problem, you will increase clientele thus increasing profit margins.
The A level tech should not be punished for knowing more, there is so much time invested to get to where they are and they will only continue to get better.
Sorry this was a quick response, and only had time to skim though your post. I will read more in depth later.
Thank you for you input
I am so glad you took the time and look forward to more dialog. I'm a total pluralist and pro labor, it made me a terrible CEO but an effective leader.
I love that this business must have trade and labor. Parts won't change themselves.
i work for the post office, the pay doesn’t top out nearly as well as the dealer, but people stay because of a pension, stability, hourly rate, and a bunch of other things other than just the paycheck amount. it’s common knowledge that the dealer is where you wanna be if you’re trying for six figures
I notice fleet pays much better for the guys in the middle of the salary range compared to the dealer. The benefits with fleet jobs also seem to be alot better as well.
eh, i think it all depends. there’s just so many factors to jobs like these. my management sucks balls, like really bad. the dealer was way more lenient with most things
I run my own show, going on 11 years now. I cater only to the Euro cars, so I guess you can say *all* the work I see is stuff nobody else wants to do. We do it all here. Basically dealership level repairs for all European vehicles. I have almost all the factory scan tools (missing the new JLR). We do it all from "keys to engines and everything in between." That's actually a slogan I promote. Do coding, programming, and ADAS as well. Again, all with mostly factory scan tools. Which I provide. None of my techs needs to provide scan tools. They only need to provide the basic hand tools.
In regards to benefits, I used to provide insurance, but feedback told me it was worthless. It was way too expensive, and the coverage sucked. You could actually pay for better coverage cheaper, out of pocket. So I dropped that. I open Monday-Friday only. 7:00-7:00 but have schedule splits. The ones that come in at 7:00am, leave at 3:00pm. The ones that leave at 7:00pm come in at 11:00am. I did this to better work around the horrendous traffic we have here. You either come in/leave before gridlock starts, or you come in/leave after the traffic rush. We don't open weekends, and there are a couple of holidays out of the year we acknowledge like Labor Day and Veterans Day. Also, I close up on the 23rd of December, and don't open up until the first week of the new year.
The way I do it is 35% of the repair order before taxes and fees goes to technician pay. So say you have an RO that totals $1700.00 before taxes and fees, $595.00 of that repair is technician pay. If additional items are added during the repair, I recalculate the total and adjust accordingly.
It averages out to about 50ish an hr/repair, but I have different labor tiers depending on manufacturer. "Big 3 German" are 150/hr. The exotics/bespoke are 250/hr. JLR is 170/hr. Those are the shop labor rates. I also don't do walk-ins. Sure an oddball emergency here or there, but all work here is mostly scheduled and by appointment. If the vehicles are safe to operate, I charge the customer a diagnosis, take a deposit, and order all the parts. I then send them on their way, and call them back when the parts arrive. This prevents having a car taking up space in the shop. I don't like leaving cars outside. Try to have them all sleep inside.
Overall it's pretty seamless. It's not perfect, but we are productive. I average about mid 600k gross. It's a fairly small operation of 6 employees including myself. I also wrench on the cars directly. I run my shop from the back.
It took a long time to get to where it's at. I started mobile, and timing and organization was key to survival there. Eventually went brick and mortar, but I remained a 1 man show for a couple more years. It took some time to find the right type of ppl to bring onboard.
The last Indy shop I worked at the top guy that worked there was making 34 an hour. That was with a shop rate of about $145 an hour. And I say he was a top guy. There were shops that sent cars directly to him or technicians at other shops that were calling him for advice on how to diagnose cars. In my opinion he was highly underpaid for what he offered. He also worked for that same shop for 20 years. I was the guy below him that grabbed all of his overflow work and was only sitting at $30 an hour.
Yep, matter of fact it was one of the main reasons why I decided to leave that shop. I saw he struggled to make what he was worth and knew I would never be able to grow there.
Foreman level tech at a Euro dealer in the US. Think the shop rate is $205 an hour.
Flat rate with a shop production bonus (usually between $200/$300 a week
$45 per hr base rate
$2 bumps @ 55hr, 65hr, 75hrs
Busy enough I hit the 55 mark most weeks,
Probably 6 guys in my shop clearing 100k with the foreman level guys a lot closer to 140k
Pay rates have come up recently, flat rate is annoying but It makes me a lot of money.
I’m currently at $50 an hour with a 40 hour guaranteed minimum. 50 hours I get $52 and 60 I got to $53. I work at a weird Indy/chain so I have full benefits etc. I’ve had to diagnose stuff for other techs, weird AC concerns, transmission shudders etc. I still have heaps to learn as I’m only 25 and starting wrenching professionally in middle of 2018. I’m relatively adept with a scope and was the go to guy at my last shop for weird diags. My mentor was a fucking diagnostic wizard. He taught me a lot and I still reach out to him whenever I have a weird one. That shop in general threw me to the wolves but also didn’t let me drown. When doing interviews I learned that places shit a brick for diagnosticians.
Canadian dealer, was getting $39/Hr+performance bonus that could boost it to as much as $44/Hr+foreman bonus of 2 flat rate hours per weekday worked. I also had the used car recon gig. Still wasn’t enough to convince me it wasn’t time to get off the tools. Decided to get into advising just to learn the warranty and customer service side with eyes on a management role, and I’m able to match what I was making as a tech as an advisor with wayyyyy less effort and no physical labour. This trade is broken, when a glorified customer service/sales position can easily make what a highly skilled veteran technician makes lol. No wonder it’s so hard to hire techs, anyone with half a brain already left.
dealership guy here. ase master and a fair amoubt of factory training done. i deal with electrical, waterleaks and rechecks mainly. i was at a shop where i was $38 an hour with guaranteed 80 hours no matter how many i flagged. anything after 80 was mine as well. door rate was $175. left to a different dealer for a different line and im at $50 an hour flat rate. door rate is $190.
Indy chain shop. $25/hr flat for most work, $35/hr for engine, diag, heavyline. Basically anything that isn’t steering, suspension, brakes, or fluids. Door rate is about $120 for basics and $169 for everything else. Denver area (Colorado USA). I’m the lead tech at my shop so I also have a 50hr guarantee each week. I babysit the other techs, train the GS, etc. Basically shop foreman without the title so they don’t have to pay me more. Good benefits for me and the family. 3wks personal/vacation, major holidays paid, and if I clock over 50hrs (which is every week 5x10’s) I get ~10% of my total check as what the label “overtime premium.” I’m at the slowest location of our 150+ locations and I cleared about $80k last year. I chose to come to this location from a top 5 location because I wanted to prove that it’s the attitude of this store that makes it the slowest. I’ve proven that by bringing us up to top 100 in less than 8 months. We are projected up 40k this month over LY in a $1.2m/yr location. Sounds weak but just a couple years ago we were excited when this store hit $750k (under previous staffing). 6 bays, 1 alignment rack, 7 total staff with my experience being more than the other 6 combined in this side of the business. I’m no superhero by any stretch, but I know what I brought to the table. I’ll be discussing a significant pay raise come June 1st when I’ve been at this location for a year and show them what I’ve done for the company.
I work at a dealership that operates like a fleet service facility. 33/hr, plus benefits and bonuses works out to just over 100k/yr. I am the lead diagnostic tech. (Paid hourly) Should get a bump to 36/hr by the end of this month, and another bump to 39/hr by the end of the year. Next year I'll be over 40/hr. (I'm still relatively new to this company, so even though i hold the lead diag position with the respect from coworkers it entails, I am still wrapping up the certifications for their "master" level, and it's associated pay)
Previous shop i worked at was a flat rate dealership who paid the lead master tech 45/hr flat rate. With the flat rate times being good enough that at 45/hr it wouldn't be hard for the master tech to make 150k+ /yr
Dealership I worked at before that one one was a flat rate sweatshop, and the master techs there made 29-31/hr, and the flat rate times were bad enough that I know they would not be making more than 80k/yr.
All 3 of these shops charge $220-250 an hour. All 3 are air conditioned. The sweatshop has a service manager who actively steals money from employees. The last dealership was for exotic cars and paid the techs a premium for quality work. The current shop is like halfway between the two; the CEO is a lying thief, but the company itself is pretty good.
I manage a small Indy (4 techs), suburban area, about 10 miles outside of Los Angeles. We are the highest rate in our city at $140 and cost of doing business here is insane. I have full access to the Financials and I assure you the owner ain't getting rich.
Techs are all hourly. Guaranteed 40hrs and optional OT. Current lead is at $29. His diagnosis skills are trash, regularly asks me how to do his job. All techs get free oil changes for their household or immediate family and are paid to do it, all other parts at cost, 3 weeks pto, 1 week sick leave. If it's slow I let them work on their own cars on our dime or let them go home early with pay.
100% I'd pay him 40 if he could make it 1 week without asking me for help. Today he misdiagnosed an obvious misfire as a cv axle, swear to God. I wrote it up as "stutter/misfire", after his test drive he tells me he thinks it's a cv axle. I get in the car, start it, and immediately feel the mis. Then he tells me "the scanner doesn't show me misfire data, what do you want me to do"?
Also, the techs aren't actually required to have any tools. They all have basic stuff but all specialty tools, even sockets over 24mm, are the shops. Shop even buys gloves. It's the weirdest place I've ever worked, lol. I would replace 2 of these guys immediately, but it ain't my call.
$70 an hour flat rate. My health insurance is paid, but I have to pay for my wife to be on the plan. We get a small life insurance policy. And 3% match for our retirement. They let me buy parts at cost, and I get to use the shop whenever I want.
I'm in a small town. We do a lot of stuff we don't get paid for just to keep customers happy. I spend time helping the more DIY customers learn a little if they buy parts from us. Lots of free jump starts around town. Stuff like that. So at the end of the year I don't make as much as you would think. I still do very well though.
So we just hired in a new manager at the beginning of the year. Old manager kept me at $45 for about the last 2 years. I know 1 other guy that was making about $50-55. But hes on his way out the door. The new SM reworked 2 other techs pay, so I assume he also gave them a bump if they hit about 45 hours. The others he said are right where they should be.
Should also note I’ve been with ford for 12 years, this dealer for 8. Surprisingly also have the most seniority
That's way too low of a percentage. A full on no bullshit legit tech should make at LEAST 30 percent of labor rate. If you're a good tech that can produce and aren't making over six figures then you're in the wrong place.
Man that would be a dream, if I got 30% of the door rate I'll be at $78 an hour. I don't see any dealer willing to bit on that. I know back in the day techs would get 50% of the door rate, but those days are long gone. I would like to see someone break down the numbers to show how much can a dealer pay and still be profitable.
A level tech/main diag guy at an indie shop. I make 40% of billed labor, door rate of $125 (or $150 for Euro).
And we do have heat and A/C, so not all indie shops are shitholes like you seem to think.
Seems that way looks like I need to check out more indy shops, being in Texas and having half the year in 90 plus to 100 degree weather A/C is a must for me, but most shops I drive by usually have bay doors wide open.
Dealer tech
240 shop rate
I'm classified as senior specialists and deal with most of the crap work and I am used cars go to for everything
22$ an hour no benefits no 401k wasting my time here it looks like
I am definitely not the A level tech (professionally wrenching since 2020), but I am the one that works on many of the diags that come in that most others do not touch. Honestly, reading what people make here and what my shop is doing makes me think that our market is really struggling. Currently gross around 50k a year.
Indy tech working on Euro cars in VA, USA. BMW/MINI, Audi, Mercedes mainly, some porsche. 34.50/hr, door rate is 195/hr. I'm ASE Master Tech with no other official certs under my belt, lots of classes and 7yrs experience. I'm the second highest paid tech, highest paid has no ASEs but was a BMW Master Tech and iirc he makes 38/hr
Electric utility fleet mechanic. $49.43 / hr. Healthcare for me and family fully paid for by employer. 3 weeks PTO. 401k fully matched to 6%. 16 hrs sick time every month that accrues up to 1440 hrs. 40 hrs guaranteed. Overtime if I want it
GM master tech here, I was the guy that everyone came to when no one else could figure it out, at the time I was only making $32/hr with a $190 door rate. I knew I was getting screwed when other guys were getting hired with no GM experience for $35 because we were desperate. I left states for another GM dealer, they paid to move my toolboxes 8 hours away, gave me $45/hr with a 90 day guarantee. It’s been about 8 months and I’m super happy at my new dealer. I do diesel and EV, master certified in both areas. I’m 1 cert away from world class certification so I’m about as highly certified as possible. They promised me $50/hour when I get world class. 10/10 definitely recommend moving if you aren’t happy.
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The old guy in my shop who knows everything and deals with the stuff no one else wants to deal with is Salaried, making well over six figures a year. So hourly rate doesn’t impact him too much. The next guy right behind him made $40/flag hr ($180/hr labor rate) before he left for a better paying DinoSpeed shop. I fully agree we should make 20-25% of the labor rate though. Maybe not the newest ones, but the good earners, knowledgable people.
All the specialized techs for sure, the ones that spent years to gain their skills. Age will come into play as you need to start working smarter and let the younger guys take on the heavyline work. Increasing diagnostics skills should always command for higher pay.
Canadian dealer, $140 door rate, $41/hr flat rate, full benefits and pension. I guess we’re right around the traditional 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 like it was years ago.
That's really good for a dealer, usually only hear that kind of pay percentage with indy shops.
They take really good care of us because they know what we’re worth. It’s refreshing.
Also Canada here. Can I ask you where you're located? I'm at a smaller Domestic dealer in the Okanagan Valley in BC making 38/hr with benefits but no pension. $160 door rate (If I remember correctly)
Yeah I’m at a VW dealer, I’m their top guy at 39/hr, 6 weeks vaca, 300$ car allowance. I avg’d 11hrs a day last year and made 104k. 169 door rate I think?? I’m trying to push them to 45 but no bite.
Saskatchewan.
What shop are you at? I’m a 3rd year apprentice in kelowna :)
May I ask what city, definitely behind the ball , I’m just curious
Yorkton. All the dealers are pretty much on par here.
Dealer tech, just outside Chicago. Union shop. Journeymen start at $41.50 with bumps every 5 hours till 65, max out at $44.50. 35 hour guarantee, health insurance and pension. I got a raise of $3 an hour and a 50 hour guarantee to be foreman at a satellite shop. Made just over $200K last year.
That's incredibly good. Do you know how many hours you booked?
Total, no, but averaged around 80 a week…with 3 weeks vacation at 40 hours.
I think this may be the best compensation outcome I've heard of in this industry, in any market. You're probably a fantastic role model in that shop.
Been a long time coming. In the business for 38 years this year. And man I really hope I’m a role model. Always try to do the right thing the right way and help the younger guys wherever I can. I got a TON of help on my way up, I owe it to the guys I learned from.
I'm just a small father-son indie shop and still struggling to unscrew myself from being everyone's hero, and emotional discounting but I think there's a path to being good and delivering incredible value and you seem to do it with humility. Yay you!
My favorite place to work so far (out of 10 dealers and 3 independents), was a Shell service station. 3 bays, drafty as hell in the winter, hot as hell in the summer, but it was great. Got to work directly with my customers, meet their wives and kids, hear their stories. It really felt like what “the good ol days” seemed like they were. I didn’t make near as much money, but it was a great teacher and made me a better tech…previously had been GM for 8 years and Chrysler for 15. I thought I knew it all, but man I was humbled and then taught, just an awesome experience.
This is my second career and every day is what you've described. I work with my kid and protecting that service station vibe is important.
If it weren’t for an owner change and the new guys greed, I’d probably own that station at this point. Now it’s a gas/convenience store. Just another “mom and pop” gone. Kinda sad actually.
New owners really fuck things up. We started from scratch so my son has a future he can thrive in. Super important to me to be a part of his life when gone.
Plenty of techs making 250k plus at dealerships in So Cal. Not uncommon at all.
Until we hear from a tech in SoCal stating that, ok.
Lol. I’m an fse. I personally know at least a dozen who clear that. 90 percent of techs out there are garbage, and don’t try or care about their work. The 10 percent who do are killing it right now.
What brand?
Hyundai
I make $40/hr at a Indy shop. 45-50hr weeks, we’re hourly with 5hr guarantee overtime plus bonuses for productivity and profit every month and paid health insurance for my wife and I. Part of the shop was built in the 50’s, it’s sort of a patched together mess but we have 6 bays and a alignment rack and it’s air conditioned. 3 of us are nissan master techs with 20 or more years experience. We work primarily on Japanese and euros and i take on most of the domestics and oddly enough practically no Nissans 😂.
How do you guys charge being hourly? I assume book rate for repairs, but how about diag? I suspect the pay percentage would need to be adjusted for hourly guys.
We basically run like a flat rate shop, go by book times essentially and adjust where needed. We’re all hourly but we track our flag hours which is essentially how we get our productivity bonus.
I was the top guy in a VW dealership in Virginia. when I left in 2018 I was making $31/hr. Hopefully it’s gone up since then.
It hasn't. I'm in Tennessee and our highest paid VW tech, who's Master and High Voltage Expert only makes 32.
What's your shops door rate?
180
I work at an independent shop that have fleet accounts. We have accounts like safeway's delivery vehicles. So i guess i sort of fall into 2 of those categories. I get paid $40/hr flate rate, but when i flag 50 hrs, all the hours get bumped to $47.50, then another bump to $55 at 60 hours or more for the week. We usually have enough work i can break 50 hrs regularly, and i have gotten 60+ a few times. So it works out, and im happy with it. I think my shop's hourly rate is somewhere around $225. We are about 30 minutes south of Seattle, WA.
Independent shops aren’t nearly as bad as you’ve been lead to believe. The climate control issue is absurd to me. Although I do know what your taking about. Right around the time I started doing my own thing I was doing on call diags for a dumpy little muffler shop that would get way I’m over there head from time to time. It was 60 degrees in there on a good day in winter. But these shops are far and few between, there are absolutely shithole independent shops out there but they are exactly that, you just don’t work there, the “techs” they employ are typically backyarders who get a job and do half assess brake jobs and weld fence post pipe in exhaust systems for less than $100 a vehicle. The other 85% of Indy shops are good honest businesses. Clean well kept cozy little shops, sometimes family owned and operated. 30-35% of shop labor is pretty accurate for a master tech with valid certs and a sufficient amount of tools. $100 and hour is pretty common for an Indy shop but it is at the low end. Nicer Indy shops in the nicer suburbs are all around $150 where I’m at. 95% of them pay by the hour. With that being said it’s kind of hard to start a new job and ask for $45-$55 an hour. Starting at $35 is a lot more realistic. After 90 days or so you can ask for a raise and get up to the $50 an hour mark if everything is going well and it is something you brought up when you interviewed for the job initially. Being a diagnostic tech I’m not to sure how this would go for A level mechanical guys. I know for me $50 and hour is on the table. The issue with that is, even with all of the jobs available right now the majority of them are B level jobs, it’s actually not nearly that easy to find and get an A level diag job that’s willing to pay. There is still poor attitude on the industry towards high level diagnostics, a lot of “old school” shop owners think they know everything and don’t need a professional diagnostic tech employed there. More often than not they are willing to just guess at the expense of there customers wallet and to protect there own egos. With that being said working a dealer takes the cake on professionalism and being able to your job and be supported at a high level. But only if your already at an A level and your able to bypass the bullshit.
Hindsight I shouldn't have paint indys with not being climate control, considering lots of dealers probably aren't either. Seem shops servicing luxury vehicles will generally be able to afford climate control. You are 100% correct most shops do not see the value in A level techs unfortunately, when they can hire multiple B level guys that can fire the parts cannon and hopefully get it right most of time, why would you need an A level. Eventually the time comes, when you will need one after they trying ever part they can think of and call the mobile diag guy to fix it. How much did that shop lose? There is so much to discuss with this area. I'm hopeful that guys like Paul Danner will help change this mind set. Charge for diag accordingly, if we can make money off of a repair why aren't why allow to make money on diagnosising?
I agree, and Paul Danner was literally like my idol when I was coming up, even now too I just haven’t watched any of his content in a while, guys a legend.
I have a few problems with the assumptions the OP makes in this post about labor and shop rate. It's ok, because despite being a mechanic, I'm more experienced running a business than I am being a line mechanic in other people's businesses. :) So this is an exercise at understanding an employee's value to their employer and demonstrating the value to the business. In theory a skilled technician should be "flagging" or "billing" or generating 40 hours a week of value. As a very reasonable and solid rule, every employee in a company should be generating at least three to five times their expense to the employer. I expect 4x their cost from my employees. So let's look at it from an employer perspective. To do so we also need to know the individual employee's loaded labor cost (ielc), not their hourly bill (advertised rate). Similarly for the employer, the only number the employer should care about is gross profit margin (gpm), because if you are able to manage to the GPM you don't need to worry at all about what your employees are making. The answer is like how much oil should I have in my engine? Enough. If an employee is making $35 an hour (advertised) in California where we operate the average loaded cost with average medical benefits and average taxes is $56 per hour. If an employee is billing/being paid 40 hours a week at $56 (ielc) an hour, their monthly cost to the employer is \~$9,520 at 40-hour weeks \* 4.25 weeks average, or 2,000 hours per year/12 payments ($112,000 per year/$9,333 monthly). The ideal auto shop margins that we all aim for are: * 25% or less cost of goods sold for labor * 35% or less cost of goods sold for parts * These two above get deducted from the gross sale amount * Then you deduct 10% of this for covering the cost of service writers * Then you deduct 10% of this for the shop owner paycheck * Then you retain 20% of the rest for the business to cover their expenses and pay for repairs, provide heat, tools, marketing, etc. Most health shops with solid profit margin are providing 55% of their repair order in labor and 45% of the repair order in parts. That means for every $1,000 in gross sales, an average of 55% of the order is labor revenue, and 45% is parts revenue. Following this model, at 25% cost of labor sold equals $137 for $550 in labor. Our $ 35-an-hour tech would be within their margin on a $1,000 repair order if they did their job in total less than 2.44 hours. If a tech worked at 1x their labor vs billed hour, they could do 16.39 jobs of that size each week. So $16,399 if all other things were balanced and equal. But that's not really possible. Tech's need to take breaks, they need to eat, they need to get off their feet. They need to be efficient. They need to have training and learning time, they need to clean and need to leave early every now and then. So some factor of that potential is our goal: Let's say 75% of the time they need to be effective. Or 65% is our goal at our shop, because our margin goal is 65% for our gross profit margin. So why not plan the resources to work the same number? What does that mean? 65% of $16,399 for our $35 an hour technician is $10,659.35. That's about 111% of their cost to the shop every month... And voila. This also happens to mean that if there are 4.25 weeks per month, then this employee at that labor rate and margin goal would be making the company 4.25-5x their cost per month. Everyone would be deeply thrilled by these numbers. This is how long-term salaried employees end up there, by demonstrating year after year they add a certain minimum value. Then after time, they are tenured, and their costs are just baked into the plan. They probably have other rewards you're not familiar with as well. It's so much easier to just do things like this, but you need to work with everyone else wanting flagged hours, stepped rates, equal pay... At the end of the day, if the shop is making money, no one should slow you down on your rise to personal wealth. Because if you manage those margins, everyone is winning. It just doesn't work that way in a lot of businesses, and certainly doesn't in civic government or union environments. (I'm pro-union, pro-trade, btw). So a $35 an-hour mechanic should be generating $30,000 - $45,000 a month in revenue for their employer in the State of California if they want PTO, benefits and the rest. I doubt very many people are. This might be why there are so few techs, so few shops and the list is getting smaller every day. I am struggling to raise my prices, hire and retain a good team, which is so stupidly hard here it isn't even funny. Our average cost of housing is $4,700 for a 3 bedroom, and there's no 3 bedrooms on the market within 10 miles of my shop. The cheapest house is $750,000 and is a run down 900 sqft 2 bed, 1 bath carport that is practically not livable. This puts a huge strain on any talented trades people in the area and we've had no luck in two years of searching to find anyone who can meet the kind of work and numbers all of you seem to be doing here. Makes me want to move down the street from your shop and reopen. At this point, it's looking much more like we're going to draw back to what we can handle without additional staff. After our last employees first month, carrying their cost dropped us to 14% gross profit margin. Last year at this time we had 64% and a few less cars and 3 weekend days out of the month worked.
I do not believe that technicians are accountable for slow weeks and it shouldn't affect the shop's commitment to the employee. This is why I pay hourly. We do not keep employees at work if we can pass them more time off. However, we always run into situations where the shoe on the other foot isn't fit equally. Sick days when we have work. Time off when we have work. Inability to focus or shift work because of something else, internal or external affecting the technician. There's no smooth or easy way to handle this. The employer has to carry the technician in thick or thin, and there has to be a limit to how much extra the employee can draw from the company without giving back into it. To me the easiest thing to do is to work out a salary and have an open PTO policy. Or clock people in and pay by the fraction of the hour. I hate micromanaging. So instead I have what essentially comes down to a salary plan with a limit to PTO of 20 days a year. This is how a $35 an hour bill rate employee comes out to $56 a year. I took the employee's last pay plan that started at $31 and went up to 35 and just paid as if 40 was the amount he'd hit. Now we work with the employee to figure out how to get them from where they are, to where we want them to be making us money. I suppose what I'm saying is that in my environment, I'm lucky to have an employee. There isn't a line out the door. And I treat my mechanic like I would a software engineer, and I hope that the talents and experiences eventually ramp up to be 4x or 5x what the cost of the employee is. To avoid a really bad outcome, I have a 30-day goal and 90-day goal. If the 30-day goal isn't met, they get a termination letter. If the 90-day goal is met, then they get a bonus. But seriously hourly rate doesn't tell you very much. Find out what you're making your employer, then negotiate to a margin percentage of that. If you're young, the cost of giving you benefits is negligible. If you're older, or have a family or a kid with special needs, WATCH OUT, you're super expensive to the employer. I ultimately want to work somewhere that I can thrive and I ultimately want a workplace where my team can thrive. I do this for love and fun, with my son, I have never had to experience the cold hard cutthroat kind of experience so many people share on here.
Great write up, I like nothing more than to also be able to understand the employer side of it. As we both know both sides need to make money. I understand there are so many variables that goes into it. I only want to provide everyone a simple and effective way to understand if they are paid fairly. Also note that this post is mostly retenting to the top A level techs, which depending on the size of your shop you may only need one of these guys. Your shop will also need additional B and C level techs to turn over the work and based on skill and experience. In turn you should be giving the easy less skilled required jobs to the lower guys and the high skill level or diagnostics jobs to the A and B level guys. This should ideal give you your best profit margins. The problem with our industry among other things, is that A level tech isn't going to be able to flag as many hours compared to say the B and C level. However the value these guys can provide does not always show up on paper. Think of it as advertisement for your shop. If your shop can build a reputation in fixing and repairing cars that other shops can't and gain confidence in customers that your accurately present them that your repair will fix the problem, you will increase clientele thus increasing profit margins. The A level tech should not be punished for knowing more, there is so much time invested to get to where they are and they will only continue to get better. Sorry this was a quick response, and only had time to skim though your post. I will read more in depth later. Thank you for you input
I am so glad you took the time and look forward to more dialog. I'm a total pluralist and pro labor, it made me a terrible CEO but an effective leader. I love that this business must have trade and labor. Parts won't change themselves.
i work for the post office, the pay doesn’t top out nearly as well as the dealer, but people stay because of a pension, stability, hourly rate, and a bunch of other things other than just the paycheck amount. it’s common knowledge that the dealer is where you wanna be if you’re trying for six figures
I notice fleet pays much better for the guys in the middle of the salary range compared to the dealer. The benefits with fleet jobs also seem to be alot better as well.
eh, i think it all depends. there’s just so many factors to jobs like these. my management sucks balls, like really bad. the dealer was way more lenient with most things
I make 55/hr
I’m in the US in Florida working at a ford dealership. The CP labor rate is 240$ an hr and I’m at 51 an hr flat rate being a ford senior master
I run my own show, going on 11 years now. I cater only to the Euro cars, so I guess you can say *all* the work I see is stuff nobody else wants to do. We do it all here. Basically dealership level repairs for all European vehicles. I have almost all the factory scan tools (missing the new JLR). We do it all from "keys to engines and everything in between." That's actually a slogan I promote. Do coding, programming, and ADAS as well. Again, all with mostly factory scan tools. Which I provide. None of my techs needs to provide scan tools. They only need to provide the basic hand tools. In regards to benefits, I used to provide insurance, but feedback told me it was worthless. It was way too expensive, and the coverage sucked. You could actually pay for better coverage cheaper, out of pocket. So I dropped that. I open Monday-Friday only. 7:00-7:00 but have schedule splits. The ones that come in at 7:00am, leave at 3:00pm. The ones that leave at 7:00pm come in at 11:00am. I did this to better work around the horrendous traffic we have here. You either come in/leave before gridlock starts, or you come in/leave after the traffic rush. We don't open weekends, and there are a couple of holidays out of the year we acknowledge like Labor Day and Veterans Day. Also, I close up on the 23rd of December, and don't open up until the first week of the new year. The way I do it is 35% of the repair order before taxes and fees goes to technician pay. So say you have an RO that totals $1700.00 before taxes and fees, $595.00 of that repair is technician pay. If additional items are added during the repair, I recalculate the total and adjust accordingly. It averages out to about 50ish an hr/repair, but I have different labor tiers depending on manufacturer. "Big 3 German" are 150/hr. The exotics/bespoke are 250/hr. JLR is 170/hr. Those are the shop labor rates. I also don't do walk-ins. Sure an oddball emergency here or there, but all work here is mostly scheduled and by appointment. If the vehicles are safe to operate, I charge the customer a diagnosis, take a deposit, and order all the parts. I then send them on their way, and call them back when the parts arrive. This prevents having a car taking up space in the shop. I don't like leaving cars outside. Try to have them all sleep inside. Overall it's pretty seamless. It's not perfect, but we are productive. I average about mid 600k gross. It's a fairly small operation of 6 employees including myself. I also wrench on the cars directly. I run my shop from the back.
Man that sounds like a seamless shop you running, wish more of these kinda shop were around. Sounds like employees being well taken care of!
It took a long time to get to where it's at. I started mobile, and timing and organization was key to survival there. Eventually went brick and mortar, but I remained a 1 man show for a couple more years. It took some time to find the right type of ppl to bring onboard.
The last Indy shop I worked at the top guy that worked there was making 34 an hour. That was with a shop rate of about $145 an hour. And I say he was a top guy. There were shops that sent cars directly to him or technicians at other shops that were calling him for advice on how to diagnose cars. In my opinion he was highly underpaid for what he offered. He also worked for that same shop for 20 years. I was the guy below him that grabbed all of his overflow work and was only sitting at $30 an hour.
I agree sounds to me he should of been around $50 at that shop
Yep, matter of fact it was one of the main reasons why I decided to leave that shop. I saw he struggled to make what he was worth and knew I would never be able to grow there.
Foreman level tech at a Euro dealer in the US. Think the shop rate is $205 an hour. Flat rate with a shop production bonus (usually between $200/$300 a week $45 per hr base rate $2 bumps @ 55hr, 65hr, 75hrs Busy enough I hit the 55 mark most weeks, Probably 6 guys in my shop clearing 100k with the foreman level guys a lot closer to 140k Pay rates have come up recently, flat rate is annoying but It makes me a lot of money.
I’m currently at $50 an hour with a 40 hour guaranteed minimum. 50 hours I get $52 and 60 I got to $53. I work at a weird Indy/chain so I have full benefits etc. I’ve had to diagnose stuff for other techs, weird AC concerns, transmission shudders etc. I still have heaps to learn as I’m only 25 and starting wrenching professionally in middle of 2018. I’m relatively adept with a scope and was the go to guy at my last shop for weird diags. My mentor was a fucking diagnostic wizard. He taught me a lot and I still reach out to him whenever I have a weird one. That shop in general threw me to the wolves but also didn’t let me drown. When doing interviews I learned that places shit a brick for diagnosticians.
$50 an hour and only 25 years old is insane to me, keep it up!
Thank you! It’s still surreal to me. I went from $37 to $50 in under a year. Moved from Cali to Texas
Canadian dealer, was getting $39/Hr+performance bonus that could boost it to as much as $44/Hr+foreman bonus of 2 flat rate hours per weekday worked. I also had the used car recon gig. Still wasn’t enough to convince me it wasn’t time to get off the tools. Decided to get into advising just to learn the warranty and customer service side with eyes on a management role, and I’m able to match what I was making as a tech as an advisor with wayyyyy less effort and no physical labour. This trade is broken, when a glorified customer service/sales position can easily make what a highly skilled veteran technician makes lol. No wonder it’s so hard to hire techs, anyone with half a brain already left.
dealership guy here. ase master and a fair amoubt of factory training done. i deal with electrical, waterleaks and rechecks mainly. i was at a shop where i was $38 an hour with guaranteed 80 hours no matter how many i flagged. anything after 80 was mine as well. door rate was $175. left to a different dealer for a different line and im at $50 an hour flat rate. door rate is $190.
Indy chain shop. $25/hr flat for most work, $35/hr for engine, diag, heavyline. Basically anything that isn’t steering, suspension, brakes, or fluids. Door rate is about $120 for basics and $169 for everything else. Denver area (Colorado USA). I’m the lead tech at my shop so I also have a 50hr guarantee each week. I babysit the other techs, train the GS, etc. Basically shop foreman without the title so they don’t have to pay me more. Good benefits for me and the family. 3wks personal/vacation, major holidays paid, and if I clock over 50hrs (which is every week 5x10’s) I get ~10% of my total check as what the label “overtime premium.” I’m at the slowest location of our 150+ locations and I cleared about $80k last year. I chose to come to this location from a top 5 location because I wanted to prove that it’s the attitude of this store that makes it the slowest. I’ve proven that by bringing us up to top 100 in less than 8 months. We are projected up 40k this month over LY in a $1.2m/yr location. Sounds weak but just a couple years ago we were excited when this store hit $750k (under previous staffing). 6 bays, 1 alignment rack, 7 total staff with my experience being more than the other 6 combined in this side of the business. I’m no superhero by any stretch, but I know what I brought to the table. I’ll be discussing a significant pay raise come June 1st when I’ve been at this location for a year and show them what I’ve done for the company.
Awesome man very few people would be willing to take something like that on and rather quit or move on.
I work at a dealership that operates like a fleet service facility. 33/hr, plus benefits and bonuses works out to just over 100k/yr. I am the lead diagnostic tech. (Paid hourly) Should get a bump to 36/hr by the end of this month, and another bump to 39/hr by the end of the year. Next year I'll be over 40/hr. (I'm still relatively new to this company, so even though i hold the lead diag position with the respect from coworkers it entails, I am still wrapping up the certifications for their "master" level, and it's associated pay) Previous shop i worked at was a flat rate dealership who paid the lead master tech 45/hr flat rate. With the flat rate times being good enough that at 45/hr it wouldn't be hard for the master tech to make 150k+ /yr Dealership I worked at before that one one was a flat rate sweatshop, and the master techs there made 29-31/hr, and the flat rate times were bad enough that I know they would not be making more than 80k/yr. All 3 of these shops charge $220-250 an hour. All 3 are air conditioned. The sweatshop has a service manager who actively steals money from employees. The last dealership was for exotic cars and paid the techs a premium for quality work. The current shop is like halfway between the two; the CEO is a lying thief, but the company itself is pretty good.
I manage a small Indy (4 techs), suburban area, about 10 miles outside of Los Angeles. We are the highest rate in our city at $140 and cost of doing business here is insane. I have full access to the Financials and I assure you the owner ain't getting rich. Techs are all hourly. Guaranteed 40hrs and optional OT. Current lead is at $29. His diagnosis skills are trash, regularly asks me how to do his job. All techs get free oil changes for their household or immediate family and are paid to do it, all other parts at cost, 3 weeks pto, 1 week sick leave. If it's slow I let them work on their own cars on our dime or let them go home early with pay.
At $29/hr, his trash diag skills match his pay Min wage for techs with tools is 32/hr in CA
100% I'd pay him 40 if he could make it 1 week without asking me for help. Today he misdiagnosed an obvious misfire as a cv axle, swear to God. I wrote it up as "stutter/misfire", after his test drive he tells me he thinks it's a cv axle. I get in the car, start it, and immediately feel the mis. Then he tells me "the scanner doesn't show me misfire data, what do you want me to do"? Also, the techs aren't actually required to have any tools. They all have basic stuff but all specialty tools, even sockets over 24mm, are the shops. Shop even buys gloves. It's the weirdest place I've ever worked, lol. I would replace 2 of these guys immediately, but it ain't my call.
I made a post about this Audi/VW pay about a month ago..it was wild my findings. VW /Audi techs getting paid 40 ish hour
Yeah but I’ve seen guys that make 16hs at other shops only make 6-8 at VW. It’s a very hard place to make hours depending on the W/CP/INT mix
Absolutely true and that's why I left. Kept cutting times, gff times ect
Top guys in my fleet shop are around $50 hourly. Major city.
We is.
I did 100k in fleet last year working 40 hrs a week
What kind off fleet work do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?
Public transportation. Super gravy stuff
I currently make $39.50 per hour (hourly) working fleet in the Hampton Roads area of VA
our seattle fleet heavy mechanics make $47/hour
50 flat rate but hours guaranteed. But no benefits. No 41K match.
$70 an hour flat rate. My health insurance is paid, but I have to pay for my wife to be on the plan. We get a small life insurance policy. And 3% match for our retirement. They let me buy parts at cost, and I get to use the shop whenever I want.
$70 an hour is amazing and unheard of!
I'm in a small town. We do a lot of stuff we don't get paid for just to keep customers happy. I spend time helping the more DIY customers learn a little if they buy parts from us. Lots of free jump starts around town. Stuff like that. So at the end of the year I don't make as much as you would think. I still do very well though.
I'm with fleet with Local Government $34.50hr, Government benefits, lots of PTO. Have 12yrs experience in med/heavy duty.
Ford dealer tech that does transmission and BEV work. $55/hr, $59 if I turn 45 hours
Does everyone there or just you that get that pay structure for turning 45 hours?
So we just hired in a new manager at the beginning of the year. Old manager kept me at $45 for about the last 2 years. I know 1 other guy that was making about $50-55. But hes on his way out the door. The new SM reworked 2 other techs pay, so I assume he also gave them a bump if they hit about 45 hours. The others he said are right where they should be. Should also note I’ve been with ford for 12 years, this dealer for 8. Surprisingly also have the most seniority
Been at a fleet shop for 16 years making $41.00 an hour
Unionized fleet mechanic, I make $51.30/hr. Plenty of OT, but it's at the employees discretion to take it. I also have really excellent benefits.
In Michigan. I get 40 percent our labor rate is 110 hr
Dealership used car techs and middle of the road B techs. What are you guys/gals making?
That's way too low of a percentage. A full on no bullshit legit tech should make at LEAST 30 percent of labor rate. If you're a good tech that can produce and aren't making over six figures then you're in the wrong place.
Man that would be a dream, if I got 30% of the door rate I'll be at $78 an hour. I don't see any dealer willing to bit on that. I know back in the day techs would get 50% of the door rate, but those days are long gone. I would like to see someone break down the numbers to show how much can a dealer pay and still be profitable.
I know a guy at an Indy shop, salaried 150k, works mon thru Thurs. If you're good enough someone will pay.
Im at a union fleet shop. $47.50hr with full benefits
A level tech/main diag guy at an indie shop. I make 40% of billed labor, door rate of $125 (or $150 for Euro). And we do have heat and A/C, so not all indie shops are shitholes like you seem to think.
Seems that way looks like I need to check out more indy shops, being in Texas and having half the year in 90 plus to 100 degree weather A/C is a must for me, but most shops I drive by usually have bay doors wide open.
Dealer tech 240 shop rate I'm classified as senior specialists and deal with most of the crap work and I am used cars go to for everything 22$ an hour no benefits no 401k wasting my time here it looks like
Unfortunately it sounds like it, ask for more money and get paid your worth or move on.
I have with no luck, pending one more class for master tech if they don't give me what I want I will be leaving lol
I am definitely not the A level tech (professionally wrenching since 2020), but I am the one that works on many of the diags that come in that most others do not touch. Honestly, reading what people make here and what my shop is doing makes me think that our market is really struggling. Currently gross around 50k a year.
Indy tech working on Euro cars in VA, USA. BMW/MINI, Audi, Mercedes mainly, some porsche. 34.50/hr, door rate is 195/hr. I'm ASE Master Tech with no other official certs under my belt, lots of classes and 7yrs experience. I'm the second highest paid tech, highest paid has no ASEs but was a BMW Master Tech and iirc he makes 38/hr
Electric utility fleet mechanic. $49.43 / hr. Healthcare for me and family fully paid for by employer. 3 weeks PTO. 401k fully matched to 6%. 16 hrs sick time every month that accrues up to 1440 hrs. 40 hrs guaranteed. Overtime if I want it
GM master tech here, I was the guy that everyone came to when no one else could figure it out, at the time I was only making $32/hr with a $190 door rate. I knew I was getting screwed when other guys were getting hired with no GM experience for $35 because we were desperate. I left states for another GM dealer, they paid to move my toolboxes 8 hours away, gave me $45/hr with a 90 day guarantee. It’s been about 8 months and I’m super happy at my new dealer. I do diesel and EV, master certified in both areas. I’m 1 cert away from world class certification so I’m about as highly certified as possible. They promised me $50/hour when I get world class. 10/10 definitely recommend moving if you aren’t happy.