Anyone here work as a mechanic?

[Stewart G Griffin]

So, do techs get paid hourly or on salary?

[Displaced_Txn]

Will either be hourly or flat rate.

[travisr1988]

depends on what kind of tech you are. Typically beginning techs or "general service techs" are paid hourly. Junior techs are sometimes paid salary, but usually they get the same as the full blown techs which is flag hours. Flag hours are great if you are a good and fast tech, for example; The front end rebuild on my old s10 blazer I had flagged 6 hours total with everything we were doing, my dad (with little help from me as he is much faster than myself) finished it in less than 3 hours. On average my dad earns 60+ flag hours in a 40-50 hour work week. If a tranny swap flags 4 hours on the national average then he gets paid for 4 hours, if he's slow or is working with a tranny he knows nothing about and it takes 8 hours he still only gets paid 4 hours, however, if he is working on a tranny he knows and has worked on before such as the common 700r4 and finishes it in 2 hours he still gets paid the full 4 hours.

Good + Fast = great pay
Slow = not so great pay
So if you're not fast and experienced flag hours can be a bad thing. If you are fast and experienced then flag hours are a blessing.

[Irish_Alley]

so what about if your not good and fast ;-).  but it all depends on the mechanic you got to have the heart and honest to be a good one. that being said kind of leads back to my moms experience with a mechanic that was supposed to clean the egr ports on her van. the flag time for it requires you to take the tb off but this mechanic wanted to make some fast cash, so he didnt do that he tried to clean it with a "tool" a pipe cleaner of some sort. but all he did was loosen the egr and slide it in. he never got close to touching the egr ports on the throttle body. all because he wanted to be fast and thought he could do a shortcut.

[greasemonkey54]

Flat rate is a blessing and a curse. For example a few weeks ago I turned in 83 hours in one week. Then last week I turned in 16. If "good" work comes in and enough work is there its a great way to get paid. But if you get a problem vehicle, no work or alot of warranty it hurts. General any car mechanic gets flat rate or flag pay here. Medium and Heavy mechanics normally get salary or hourly pay. Being at a dealership helps being flat rate due to the repetition of one make of car.