[HN Gopher] Mechanic shortage means longer waits, $100k salaries...
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Mechanic shortage means longer waits, $100k salaries for some
technicians
Author : pg_1234
Score : 19 points
Date : 2023-12-01 18:48 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newsday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newsday.com)
| robcohen wrote:
| 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?
|
| So tired of this low-intelligence conversation.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> So tired of this low-intelligence conversation._
|
| It's more like propaganda to attract more people into the
| field.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| 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.
| robcohen wrote:
| https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html
|
| It's not that low, it's higher according to many sources.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| "Average wage index" sounds like it's measuring mean, not
| median.
| AngryData wrote:
| 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.
| tomcam wrote:
| > 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.
| csteubs wrote:
| 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.
| gumballindie wrote:
| > consumers are more inclined to spend money on independent
| mechanics that work out of a small shop;
|
| I'd love to have this option in the UK. Everything being over
| regulated the type of service is all but extinct.
| DaveExeter wrote:
| I bet if it was $100k salaries for ALL technicians there would be
| no shortage.
|
| Of course this would cut into profits.
| missedthecue wrote:
| 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.
| rat9988 wrote:
| if it's owner operated then the owner isn't concerned by this
| salary discussion.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| What do your think the profit margin is for mechanic shops and
| most service businesses?
| mindslight wrote:
| 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.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _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.
| mindslight wrote:
| My second example there was _Roto Rooter_ [0], so along
| with the stealership [1] these aren 't instances of
| vibrant competition that allows 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.
|
| [1] Warranty recall.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| 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.
| rasz wrote:
| Fixing cars is already expensive to the point minor damage
| requiring skilled labor is considered full write-off sending
| vehicle to a salvage auction.
| yumraj wrote:
| > I bet if it was $100k salaries for ALL technicians there
| would be no shortage.
|
| 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.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| Related economist article:
| https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/11/30/a-new-age-of-th...
|
| Blue collar workers are performing pretty over recent years.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| "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 a 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.
|
| [1]
| https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31743/w317...
| Dudester230602 wrote:
| I guess if mechanics were not people, private equity would buy
| them all.
| Gunax wrote:
| 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.
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