Unfortunately, ASEs do not equate to technician productivity. I have 2 ASEs (17 a flag hour) and run circles around the master tech with all seven ASEs who makes 26 a flag hour and only flags 30 a week. Due to the pay structure though I still only flag an average of 30-35 hours a week, touching 2200+ cars a year. I work 50+ hours a week and try to be honest to the customer. I produced a total of 175,000+ dollars parts and labor. $100,000+ of that was labor dollars. I only made $32,000 last year and even though my flat rate was $17, in acuality I only get paid around 9.50 an hour based on how long I stay here. We have steady work. To install 4 tires on ANY vehilce they pay us .6 of our hourly rate which for me is about $9. Back breaking work. .8 for front brakes to turn rotors and slap pads. I know that is the aftermarket average but Firestone carries their own pads. They could afford to pay the techs 1.2 at least for front brakes. Flushes are a .7. Some of the big ticket items like dash removals only pay half of what the dealer would pay. Why would they pay the tech .4 for a tire rotation..... But a .6 for 4 tires!? Its highway robbery and the mechanics are the ones getting screwed. The guys that are flagging 60-70 hours at super busy stores should be making 100+. Unless you do alignments, easy diagnostics and flat repairs all day long along with other gravy stuff then you won't ever hit your 50 hours.
Thank god my last day is next week.
