The going rate for dealership mechanics

[big fella]

It's a long time since I worked on the floor in a dealership. Back then the pay was terrible compared to my electrician and builder mates.

Anyone know what your typical dealer mechanics hourly rate is now?

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[Bossxr8]

Mid 20's from what I hear.

[davenl5l]

Mid 20's plus bonuses for early completion,efficiency and upselling

[Interceptor]

Depends on how desperate the dealer is for "technicians"..... one of the guys in my workshop was getting paid award wage.... now working on a mine site for almost triple that.....

[93EB_SXR6]

If its in the 20s, that's pretty sad... Its easy to walk into a warehousing job and make more $

[jmack]

Originally Posted by 93EB_SXR6

If its in the 20s, that's pretty sad... Its easy to walk into a warehousing job and make more $

i wouldnt even get out of bed for that

[.:4:.]

Mid 20s sounds about right for a fresh mechanic, and yeah thats a bit rough. With experience it goes up but not like other trades. When i started my electrical apprenship in 2006 i was on a meager $9.50 an hour which wasnt bad back then for a 1st year and my mate landed an apprenticeship at a porsche dealer as a mechanic for the base $5.70 per hour. He hasnt really made it per say even though he progressed in to a more specialised sector doing higher end cars, still porsches but more race car stuff. So yeah he worked hard and owns a unit. But i also work hard but own a house and my toy is my boat. So the wage disparity between is pretty black and white. Its clearly not the case accross the board but im talking about 2 blokes who finished highschool and 1 is qualified and i dont even have my licence but am better off.

[11ford11]

it is sad so lets not go there thanks.

[Franco Cozzo]

It was crap when I started out as an apprentice in a dealer in 2010, the qualifieds were on sub $20/hour and the workshop manager was on $25/hour. I had $3500 worth of tools and was driving 600km a week to get to and from work that was paying me $7.05/hour which was about $270/week - what a joke, I was working weekends at 15 years old getting $17.50/hour labouring

The award wage was $19.64/hour in 2015 last time I bothered looking.

I'm an auto electrician by trade, LV mechanical and auto electrical isn't worth a pinch of goat **** fellas, you work your *** off, exposed to carcinogens, hurt yourself physically and then you have to supply your own tools for your mid $20/hour.

The only mechanical trade area worth some spondoolies is heavy vehicle - forget light vehicle.

You'll get paid more working spare parts, I sit in a climate controlled office, my only tools are a pen, a phone, a book and a PC and I get paid more now doing this then when I was a qualified auto electrician working on emergency vehicles and all I do is talk to people on the phone, over the counter and send emails and drink coffee all day

Surprise surprise there are 'skills shortages' for auto electricians and mechanics:

https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/file...toelectaus.pdf

https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/file...chanicsvic.pdf

Probably because you get paid more working at IGA stacking the shelf - they started importing heaps of mechanics on visas around Melbourne

One of my customers came in sooking about not being able to find an auto electrician for his mechanical business - had $1000/week on the job before tax, $25/hour get paid more warehousing

The wages around Melbourne for LV mechanics and auto electricians suck which is why there are bulk imports on visas.

[You Yangs]

Wow!!! Mid 20's, I would of thought at least mid 30's.
That is really eye opening and sad for someone who is a trained professional.

[xisled]

So someone who does 4 years worth of school and working on apprenticeship wages becomes qualified and still only earns mids $20's and hour. No wonder there is a shortage.

Why would anyone want to go through so much just to be on 50k a year.

Compare that to the company I work for. A 18 year old with minimal customer service training/experience can start in the call centre in a nice modern building, aircon, pretty relaxed environment and they get just over $25.00 an hour from day 1.

[RANGEREST]

I'm not a mechanic, but I charge $60 per hr and pay my guys $35, plus all the crap that goes with it.
Dealers charge $120ish? and the mechanics get mid $20s, seems fair - NOT.

[Bossxr8]

You'd think wages would go up due to the skills shortages of trained mechanics.

How do they expect to entice new ones with such garbage pay rates.

[big fella]

If I'm being honest, that pay rate helps me. My question was loaded. The company I work for sells and services civil construction and mining machinery. We can't find mechanics qualified in our stream. I want to pitch a proposal to management to poach LV guys and retrain them. I was worried there'd be no carrot to dangle, but at that rate, there is.

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[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

It was crap when I started out as an apprentice in a dealer in 2010, the qualifieds were on sub $20/hour and the workshop manager was on $25/hour. I had $3500 worth of tools and was driving 600km a week to get to and from work that was paying me $7.05/hour which was about $270/week - what a joke, I was working weekends at 15 years old getting $17.50/hour labouring

The award wage was $19.64/hour in 2015 last time I bothered looking.

I'm an auto electrician by trade, LV mechanical and auto electrical isn't worth a pinch of goat **** fellas, you work your *** off, exposed to carcinogens, hurt yourself physically and then you have to supply your own tools for your mid $20/hour.

The only mechanical trade area worth some spondoolies is heavy vehicle - forget light vehicle.

You'll get paid more working spare parts, I sit in a climate controlled office, my only tools are a pen, a phone, a book and a PC and I get paid more now doing this then when I was a qualified auto electrician working on emergency vehicles and all I do is talk to people on the phone, over the counter and send emails and drink coffee all day

Surprise surprise there are 'skills shortages' for auto electricians and mechanics:

https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/file...toelectaus.pdf

https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/file...chanicsvic.pdf

Probably because you get paid more working at IGA stacking the shelf - they started importing heaps of mechanics on visas around Melbourne

One of my customers came in sooking about not being able to find an auto electrician for his mechanical business - had $1000/week on the job before tax, $25/hour get paid more warehousing

The wages around Melbourne for LV mechanics and auto electricians suck which is why there are bulk imports on visas.

Agree^^^^^^^^^


Any tradie that works for a company/boss gets ripped off unless you work for yourself, I walked away from the trade 25 years ago with no regrets and earn more money with less working hours as when I was a sparky.


Cheers.

[Papa Smurf]

The 2017 Minimum wage in Australia was $694.10 pr week and as of July 2018 the rate went to $719.20 so, I am guessing that Mechanics are doing better than that???

The average salary for an Automotive Technician is $64,775 per year in Sydney, NSW, which is 10% above the national average. Salary estimates are based on 14 salaries submitted anonymously to Indeed by Automotive Technician employees, users, and collected from past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months. The typical tenure for an Automotive Technician is 1-3 years.

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

You'll get paid more working spare parts.

Exactly what I do.....

Originally Posted by Papa Smurf

The 2017 Minimum wage in Australia was $694.10 pr week and as of July 2018 the rate went to $719.20 so, I am guessing that Mechanics are doing better than that???

Given the skills and equipment a mechanic needs to do his job, it'd be nice to think they'd earn a little more than the minimum wage

[TICKFORD220]

Unless you absolutely love working on cars you'd be mad to be a mechanic.

[Tassie f100]

Originally Posted by RANGEREST

I'm not a mechanic, but I charge $60 per hr and pay my guys $35, plus all the crap that goes with it.
Dealers charge $120ish? and the mechanics get mid $20s, seems fair - NOT.

I reckon you are sailing pretty close to the wind on those figures.If you factor in a few sickdays and 4 weks annual leave,plus the fact that you only get at best 7 hours paid work per day,you aren,t leaving much for your self.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

You'd think wages would go up due to the skills shortages of trained mechanics.

How do they expect to entice new ones with such garbage pay rates.

Imports on skilled work visas - get em in, treat em like crap and pay them SFA.

Auto industry aren't regulated trades - a lot of the imports we had at the dealership had no qualifications they were 'trade assistants'

[GTLEGEND]

Originally Posted by big fella

If I'm being honest, that pay rate helps me. My question was loaded. The company I work for sells and services civil construction and mining machinery. We can't find mechanics qualified in our stream. I want to pitch a proposal to management to poach LV guys and retrain them. I was worried there'd be no carrot to dangle, but at that rate, there is.

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Yep a reason a lot have left to go to the mines as well..

[Giant Cranium]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Imports on skilled work visas - get em in, treat em like crap and pay them SFA.

Auto industry aren't regulated trades - a lot of the imports we had at the dealership had no qualifications they were 'trade assistants'

and to think the going rate for a trades assistant for a carpenter in sydney is $36 an hour. mechanics are being screwed over

[falconhell74]

Originally Posted by big fella

If I'm being honest, that pay rate helps me. My question was loaded. The company I work for sells and services civil construction and mining machinery. We can't find mechanics qualified in our stream. I want to pitch a proposal to management to poach LV guys and retrain them. I was worried there'd be no carrot to dangle, but at that rate, there is.

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Defiantly worth doing mate I'm a LV mechanic got sick of the crap $$$ about 15 years ago.
I got an opportunity to get in to the hire industry EWP's at first then forklifts generators ,light towers , excavators, loaders etc etc .
I've worked my way up the chain in various companies , I now run a "satellite" branch FIFO on a mine site doing everything from customer relations , hire requests to service breakdowns and repairs .
I now earn close to triple what i would be on at a local dealer / work shop
So the incentive is there for both the employer and employee .
A LV mechanic with diesel knowledge will be able to do the job no dramas at all.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by falconhell74

Defiantly worth doing mate I'm a LV mechanic got sick of the crap $$$ about 15 years ago.
I got an opportunity to get in to the hire industry EWP's at first then forklifts generators ,light towers , excavators, loaders etc etc .
I've worked my way up the chain in various companies , I now run a "satellite" branch FIFO on a mine site doing everything from customer relations , hire requests to service breakdowns and repairs .
I now earn close to triple what i would be on at a local dealer / work shop
So the incentive is there for both the employer and employee .
A LV mechanic with diesel knowledge will be able to do the job no dramas at all.

Thats sort of the direction my cousin took and now he is off the tools and doing well for himself but still in the industry. He moved from cars to forklifts and for a while was mobile attending breakdowns until he got moved up to management. So it was sort of a stepping stone in an industry he loves. He tools about on his own stuff in his personal time but has the knowledge to do so.

[prydey]

I think mining and trade rates (plumbing, electrical etc) have skewed people's perceptions on wages.

I'm a printer. Been here for 24 years. 4 year apprenticeship and running multi million dollar printing presses. Mid 20's is the standard for this industry in Adelaide. East coast may be slightly higher. Wages haven't moved in over 10 years. Many industries are the same.

It's all well and good to bad mouth the dealerships but on top of wages there is super that has to be paid. Then there's the cost of running a bricks and mortar establishment. Electricity alone would make some people's eyes water. Water, gas, suppliers, maintenance, council rates etc etc. Then there is the continual schooling required to keep up with the ever changing technologies etc.

Wages and inflation are going in opposite directions and somethings got to give.

[.:4:.]

A lot of the guys i work with complain about our pay rate. I get paid the same but dont whinge. The difference is they train it in and their only perk is the work phone. I get paid the same, but if you factor in i get a ute with a fuel card for private use and work pays for interweb and all costs associated with the ute, i am on a much better deal. As annoying as it can sometimes be, having the work car i can field the afterhours callouts which often are 2 minute jobs, and i get paid a minimum 4 hours double time and if it takes longer then that i get paid double time door to door. So factoring in conditions means alot.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

and to think the going rate for a trades assistant for a carpenter in sydney is $36 an hour. mechanics are being screwed over

Building trade seems to pay decent spondoolies for tradies - its valued.

Also your overheads are lower if you want to run your own show, you can get around in a ute and a trailer with tools.

Auto workshop is spondoolies plus in equipment, rent, and yearly fees for all sorts of diagnostic equipment.

My cousin landed a gig after being a chef for over a decade - as a labourer on big construction projects in Melbourne, he is a chef and the rest of his entire crew are all ex mechanics

[GASWAGON]

Don't start me!!!

The Heavy Stream Diesel guys are just doing o.k ($35 -$50 per hour depending on experience/quals) which i used to be until my back gave in.

Still get sore feet/ankles/knees doing what i'm doing now.........Forklifts. (not as heavy).

But, the pay is pathetic for what the work and time and effort i put in!!!!

[MITCHAY]

Well if the fact is I don't want to work with cars all day because I just want to enjoy them wasn't enough reason, the salary is enough to put a bullet in any idea of it

[Windsor220]

I'm WA so may not be relevant. It seems to range from mid 20s to low 30s an hour. Bonuses can give you another 5-10k a year. It's one of those jobs that doesn't reward the amount of knowledge that is required of it. If you want to make more money you need your own business.