Better Pay for Better Work Washington DC

While many shop owners say it's not good business to pay more money to a less productive tech, I say stop thinking of it as paying more for less - and start thinking of it as paying more for better.

By Paul Bailey
12/1/2001

When the labor rate in my area was $20 per hour, most shops either paid their techs $10 per hour on flat rate or 50 percent commission. A few years later when the door rates had risen to $24 and $26 per hour, most shops hired techs at $10.50 per hour on flat rate while the few shops that still paid commission were down to 40 percent. More recently, shops began getting $32 per hour while trying to hire techs at $12 per hour. Notice I said trying. When that amount didn't work, a few shops in my area offered $12.50 or even $13, but only because no one responded to their previous offer.

Over the years, the labor rate has increased by 50 percent while technician compensation has risen by only 25 percent. In those same years, I've seen a drastic reduction in the number of technicians beating down the front doors of body shops to get to the "great pay and benefits" advertised in Sunday's paper. (Obviously, there's a connection.) I've heard valid explanations for the lack of increase in technician pay, but no one seems to be able to give me - or the thousands of other technicians in this industry - the gut feeling that something's being done to remedy the situation. And from our perspective, that's a big problem.

Let's face it. It's diffic...