Average pay for a mechanic in NY is $52K. Average nationwide is about $49K. Average nationwide salary by some estimates is $59,428. Plus, it's a job that isn't considered "cool" or "attractive" to anyone but teenage boys.
Yet somehow we still get articles like this that are basically saying "wow, the top 1% of a mediocre-paying field gets 6 figs, why oh why are people not clamoring to work?
The US median income is 31,133 USD. So these mechanics are making ~2x average income. Furthermore, the growth over recent years has been significant 12-15% over the last couple years. Yes, it's attention-grabbing to focus on the top few percent, but it's equally low-effort to dismiss the the core message of the article.
And you also have to consider the amount of money they put into their tools too. Mechanics need to be holding tens of thousands of dollars in tools, they aren't given tools by their employer to use. And if they work for more than a few years in that job there are health issues that arise. My mechanic father for example needed both shoulders replaced, has nerve damage from tool vibration, and his hands are basically permenant claws that can still pull a wrench but prevent him from opening a jar or bottle of pop without a tool to help grip it.
> And you also have to consider the amount of money they put into their tools too.
And training. One of the smartest people I know spent $50K to get trained as a certified Ford mechanic, then another $50K on tools. He became a general contractor because working on houses used the exact same principles but everything is way easier because it's at a far larger scale.
And sorry about your dad. A lot of these guys sacrifice their knees as well.
> He became a general contractor because working on houses used the exact same principles but everything is way easier because it's at a far larger scale.
There's way more lifting and carrying of heavy things when dealing with houses. Apartments without elevators are the worst, since you need to carry the heavy stuff up and down the stairs.
I'm not sure what aspect of this conversation is "low intelligence", but automotive technician salary data doesn't often match reality where techs can (and often do) make close to double their "official" salary in side jobs. I'm a full-time engineering manager at a startup in LA, and I do repair gigs in my garage during the evenings and on weekends--all word-of-mouth referrals from former and returning customers. I've made a shade over $30k after expenses this year doing 2-3 jobs a week. Most are catalytic converter replacements that I charge a flat $500 for on $145 in parts; takes me an hour per. I've done everything from rear main seals to fuel pump replacements to in-and-out oil/filter changes.
What your comment and sentiment misses, I think, is that a significant percentage of mechanics do shade-tree jobs that won't ever be accounted for in official reports. Dealers and shops have become extremely hit-and-miss, part quality fell dramatically during the pandemic (ask me how I know), and thrifty consumers are more inclined to spend money on independent mechanics that work out of a small shop; there's a ton of money not being accounted for in the process. Maybe not "cool" or "attractive" to you, but I'd love to never have to touch a keyboard again and spend my time working on cars, boats, and fabrication.
I install replacements for friends and their referrals who've had them stolen; it's a serious and unfortunately common problem in LA. Roughly 80% are off of Priuses (Prii?) and most local Toyota dealerships are backordered for months. The OEM replacement part itself is one of the most expensive at around $2300 due to the higher level of precious metals in the catalyst matrix. The replacements I install aren't CARB compliant (which is why they're $125 or so on eBay), but it resolves the exhaust leak/fuel smell and noise at the expense of passing emissions.
I think you misinterpreted my point. Of course mechanics are doing side jobs, that doesn’t account for the fact that their primary job pay is low. I have my ASE certs, I also get paid to fix auto and heavy machinery on the side.
Cool to hear about your side gig. I've been looking to start doing something similar and have been curious about licensing/insurance specifics. Do you have resources or recommendations on where I could learn more?
It would do more than "cut into profits", it would inflate repair and maintenance bills for your average person dramatically. For automobile servicing, labor costs are about 50% of the bill. Double salaries from $52k national average to $100k and everyone is now everyone is getting hit with 25% higher costs at the mechanic. That money has got to come from somewhere.
And for all the owner-operated mechanic garages out there, which is probably the majority of them, their profit IS the labor bill. "cutting into profits" while raising salary are literally opposite concepts.
Mechanics rates are over 100$ at even the cheapest shop. The overhead rate is over 60% which is kind of the problem. At dealers the overhead rate is probably close to 80-90%. There just isn’t enough pass through for folks doing the work
If we consider the 'profit margin' to include all the white collar make-work jobs that aren't performing the actual work, then pretty damn high. Last time I was at a stealership there was a whole line of people just sitting at desks pretending to be shop techs but actually just doing customer management. Never mind the entire behind-the-scenes management structure.
Or you call a plumber for a simple repair and there goes one kilodollar, while the guy doing the work gets a few hundred of it. The rest is all going to the overhead of phone answerer, scheduler, manager, business entity owner, franchiser, etc. I suspect the majority of "cost disease" is going to such intermediaries, and the thing about intermediaries is they know their main job is maintaining their position.
> suspect the majority of "cost disease" is going to such intermediaries
The trades are relatively efficient at forming new entrants. Most of the plumbers, painters, carpenters, et cetera I've worked with ran their own businesses. That didn't make them cheaper.
My second example there was Roto Rooter [0], so along with the stealership [1] these aren't examples of vibrant competition allowing for new entrants. But the fact they can have this outsized overhead and yet still have customers demonstrates something, even if not universal about the entire market.
I think this somewhat ties into business discovery getting harder. There was a period where the Internet was making this better, but has now been seemingly completely locked down by web spammers and the surveillance-adtech industry making it into a pay to play game (aka more overhead). I'm halfheartedly in the market for contractors myself, and it seems like the best way to find leads is to sit down for lunch at a restaurant next to a main road, and write down the phone numbers on the trucks going by. At least that only requires people to spring for the fancy truck wrap, rather than the fancy website and surveillance-based advertising.
[0] My aunt's drain was slow and I was too swamped to look at it, so that's who her helper ended up calling (sigh). If I had known the bill was going to come to $1200 for installing 12 feet of PVC pipe, I would have made the time.
It was in free space in the basement, next to a wall. Something like a slip joint (the under sink plumbing wasn't touched), a few feet of vertical pipe, a PVC trap with a few elbows, six to eight feet of lateral pipe, a 45 plus a few more feet of pipe, and a threaded adapter into the cast iron stack. It was close enough to the stack (or "grandfathered") that there wasn't even a vent involved. Care to revise your judgement?
Where are you getting your numbers from? I trenched a 60' PVC run last weekend and 2" sch40 was $1.60/ft. A 12' pipe trench a couple hours work tops, if done manually.
I think I largely agree that there is a lot of theoretically unproductive overhead in larger businesses, but that doesnt mean it can be removed.
If you start a shop, you will quickly find that many customers want mints on their pillows and telephone sanitizers - Even if as an owner, you would prefer to fire the lot of them and take an buy a new vacation home.
"Using a bare-bones overlapping generations model, we examine an occupation facing obsolescence. We show that workers must be compensated to enter the occupation–receiving what we dub obsolescence rents–with fewer and older workers remaining in the occupation. We investigate the market for teamsters at the dawn of the automotive truck as an á propos parallel to truckers themselves, as self-driving trucks crest the horizon. As widespread adoption of trucks drew nearer, the number of teamsters fell, the occupation became ‘grayer’, and teamster wages rose, as predicted by the model." [1]
ICE vehicles aren't going away. But as they're replaced, the willingness (and ability) to pay for repairs will go down.
Employers say 'we cant find anyone and we are offering $XYZ' where $XYZ is some astronomical amount.
And yet the experience of applicants is often very different. They apply and never hear back. Or they never receive offers that match.
So what's the discrepancy? Either one side is lying, or there is something being miscommunicated.
My guess is that often what employers mean is 'we cant find anyone with these specific skills at this price point'.
You have to realize there is a finite number of people with X years experience in Y. If you want to know how many people have 10 years experience doing Y, it's upper bounded by the number of people who were employed in Y 10 years ago.
Nobody wants to risk raising wages as they have to do it for everyone or risk quitting. Hiring 1 guy at 10% more might cost you the labor cost if 2 people so it’s a big risk for employers
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 95.4 ms ] threadYet somehow we still get articles like this that are basically saying "wow, the top 1% of a mediocre-paying field gets 6 figs, why oh why are people not clamoring to work?
So tired of this low-intelligence conversation.
It's more like propaganda to attract more people into the field.
It’s not that low, it’s higher according to many sources.
And training. One of the smartest people I know spent $50K to get trained as a certified Ford mechanic, then another $50K on tools. He became a general contractor because working on houses used the exact same principles but everything is way easier because it's at a far larger scale.
And sorry about your dad. A lot of these guys sacrifice their knees as well.
There's way more lifting and carrying of heavy things when dealing with houses. Apartments without elevators are the worst, since you need to carry the heavy stuff up and down the stairs.
What your comment and sentiment misses, I think, is that a significant percentage of mechanics do shade-tree jobs that won't ever be accounted for in official reports. Dealers and shops have become extremely hit-and-miss, part quality fell dramatically during the pandemic (ask me how I know), and thrifty consumers are more inclined to spend money on independent mechanics that work out of a small shop; there's a ton of money not being accounted for in the process. Maybe not "cool" or "attractive" to you, but I'd love to never have to touch a keyboard again and spend my time working on cars, boats, and fabrication.
I’d love to have this option in the UK. Everything being over regulated the type of service is all but extinct.
Statements about populations are not refuted by quibbling about exceptions.
Of course this would cut into profits.
And for all the owner-operated mechanic garages out there, which is probably the majority of them, their profit IS the labor bill. "cutting into profits" while raising salary are literally opposite concepts.
Or you call a plumber for a simple repair and there goes one kilodollar, while the guy doing the work gets a few hundred of it. The rest is all going to the overhead of phone answerer, scheduler, manager, business entity owner, franchiser, etc. I suspect the majority of "cost disease" is going to such intermediaries, and the thing about intermediaries is they know their main job is maintaining their position.
The trades are relatively efficient at forming new entrants. Most of the plumbers, painters, carpenters, et cetera I've worked with ran their own businesses. That didn't make them cheaper.
I think this somewhat ties into business discovery getting harder. There was a period where the Internet was making this better, but has now been seemingly completely locked down by web spammers and the surveillance-adtech industry making it into a pay to play game (aka more overhead). I'm halfheartedly in the market for contractors myself, and it seems like the best way to find leads is to sit down for lunch at a restaurant next to a main road, and write down the phone numbers on the trucks going by. At least that only requires people to spring for the fancy truck wrap, rather than the fancy website and surveillance-based advertising.
[0] My aunt's drain was slow and I was too swamped to look at it, so that's who her helper ended up calling (sigh). If I had known the bill was going to come to $1200 for installing 12 feet of PVC pipe, I would have made the time.
[1] Warranty recall.
The good news is, in most towns, you only need to do this once. From there you can rely on referrals.
If you start a shop, you will quickly find that many customers want mints on their pillows and telephone sanitizers - Even if as an owner, you would prefer to fire the lot of them and take an buy a new vacation home.
OTOH, at some point outsourcing will become a viable alternate.
Pack up all the cars that need expensive repair, ship them to Mexico for fixing, ship them back once repaired.
Blue collar workers are performing pretty over recent years.
ICE vehicles aren't going away. But as they're replaced, the willingness (and ability) to pay for repairs will go down.
[1] https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31743/w317...
And yet the experience of applicants is often very different. They apply and never hear back. Or they never receive offers that match.
So what's the discrepancy? Either one side is lying, or there is something being miscommunicated.
My guess is that often what employers mean is 'we cant find anyone with these specific skills at this price point'.
You have to realize there is a finite number of people with X years experience in Y. If you want to know how many people have 10 years experience doing Y, it's upper bounded by the number of people who were employed in Y 10 years ago.