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Trying to find out what your A tech get paid on an hourly basis, commisions and bonus plus any spiffs

Also for the b and c techs.

Our owner is telling us that our Techs make to much money and we are tyring to figure out how that is possible?

Thanks

Toyotaguy:

I am not trying to discourage people from replying but Technicians Pay is really a local issue. If you are in a major metro area then you are probably going to have to pay more than a dealership in a rural area. There are some crazy national averages floating around out there. In the current issue of a marine trade magazine there is an article about the shortage of boat mechanics. They quote a 2001 US Department of Labor statistic that says that the average mean wage of auto mechanics is $31,870. Now where they came up with this number is beyond me. This survey was certainly not done in any metro Washington, DC or Baltimore dealerships.

My point is that you have to compete with the other dealerships in your area. It does not really matter what people are paying on the other side of the country. You are doing business and competing for talent in your area. I think you need to get on the phone to your fellow service managers and do a survey. Ask them not only the per hour number but what the high and low man made last year. Then write up the results and present them to your dealer. I doubt there is any other way to convince him and you will probably learn a lot just conducting the survey.


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Frank Burrows ABS
fburrows@absdata.com

So much depends on the local market. I still stick to the percentage method and suggest targeting B techs to 25% of your effective labor rate. A's are 5%+ above and C's are 5%+ below.

But even that overly simplistic rule can get dilluted depending on your staffing levels. If your whole shop consists of A techs it might not be that your paying them too much individually but that you are paying to much for your labor as a whole.

Here's a quick example (assuming all book 40 hours, if not you'd have to add an efficiency percentage in here) for two shops with ten techs at $75/hour.



In this case, shop 1 would have an average tech pay of $18.75, while shop 2 would be at $20.25.

The other suggestion I have is to look at your bonus plans (like productivity) and see if techs are hitting them every week. You might need to raise the bar in some areas.

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** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[This message has been edited by robc (edited 07-09-2003).]

I suspect what the owner is really saying is he is not making enough money. If everything is in order on your labor pricing and your percentage retained on labor sales is proper how can your techs make to much money? The survey of what the other dealers in your area are doing is your first step in determining where you are at then look at other pricing and discounting, menu pricing etc.

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