Exactly. So while I understand a quality tech having the potential risk to earn less than the actual hours he/works, asking customers to pay by the hour vs the job can incentivize slower work and reward techs who are less than competent/efficient. It's hard to strike a balance.
Of course, the tech isn't paying for the physical shop, overhead, and all the indirect labor that supports the process. It might suck at first glance, but it's just math in the end.
No...they are paid annually, at least at the Mayo Clinic, but in any case, their compensation allows them to take the time to do the job right. Paid a fixed rate per job can cause the tech (or surgeon) to cut corners.
Eh, this isn't true completely. 99% are still flat rate. We ARE however guaranteed 2x the minimum wage here no matter how many hours we turn. That's currently a bit over 32$ an hour out here. I generally flag 60-70 hours a week here, so I've never had to fall into that guarantee but it's notice knowing if something crazy happens and the shop is dead I'd still get a decent pay check. There are some techs who just aren't efficient and consider that guarantee their actual paycheck as an hourly technician, but most shop managers don't like that.
An experienced, well tooled tech would pass on this job. You don't make a paycheck by taking horrendous warranty jobs. Just because you work there doesn't mean you have to take every job that comes into the shop. Generally low paying jobs like these we give to an hourly guy who learns how do them and just does them all. We've got someone like that at my shop for the Pacifica hybrid transmissions which also pay like piss and take nearly two full days to complete. Some shops are slow and have no choice but to take it, but some shops are booked 4+ months out at a time and can afford to refuse jobs like these. A lot of skilled guys don't understand their worth, in most cases they're unfireable these days unless they're playing bumper cars in the parking lot. You fire a tech and that bay could easily remain empty for the next 12 months. My shop had a level 3 tech leave over a year ago and he moved back this month. His stall never got filled so he slotted right back where he was before he left. It's really hard to find people these days.
Some of the older guys at my shop said the shop used to split the labor 50/50 with the technician. Those days are long behind us, unfortunately. If you're a highly skilled technician you could swing maybe ~25% of the door rate these days.
Thankfully, you make considerably more now. Overhead costs have skyrocketed since the times of the old men. That doesn’t justify a 300k salary.
Do what myself warranty work?
Depends where u go, some hourly but most dealers pay by whatever shop labor rate manual they are using. If "their" manual says the job should take 4 hrs then it would be 4 hours times what ever hourly rate that particular tech gets. When I worked that way at a car dealer some years ago I got a % of the shops hourly rate.
^^^^
