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What kind of earnings can a mechanic expect to earn?
I am doing a mid-career change and am tired of working in the white collar world. I am going to go to night school to learn to become an mechanic as I love to work on cars. I have done some research, but wanted to hear some real life answers to what kind of earnings a mechanic can expect. Thanks.
Public Comments
- My dad is a mechanic.....he has set his rates to $60 per hour! and thats a deicent rate! The rate all depends on where you live....we live in Greenville, SC. Some people have rates of 85 bucks an hour. Best of luck in your work!
- DON'T DO IT!!! I was a dealer service tech for 9 years, and never made over 35k. Especially just starting out, you don't have the experience and knowledge to get cars diagnosed and repaired quickly. I still have nightmares about working back at the dealer. ARGH! I don't care if they pay you $60 an hour, if you work on comission, or flat rate as they refer to it, if no one comes in to get their car fixed, you make no money. One dealer offered me $19 an hour flat rate and at the time I was only making like $14 so I thought it was a great opportunity. Well, there wasn't always a steady flow of work to keep busy. No cars = no paycheck. Sure, by law they are required to pay you 40 hours of min wage. But even if you turn 10 hours at $20 an hour that's way more than min wage. I have a friend who I used to work with at the dealer, he opened up his own shop. he was constantly calling me with troubled cars he couldn't figure out. Now he moved to N.C. to work at another shop and he still calls me about trouble cars. Growing up I was all about working on cars. My grandmother wanted me to go to college and get a real job. I wish I would have. Fortunately and luckily for me, I had a very decent paying job fall in my lap. Still working with cars, just not repairing them all day. My advice to you is find a different career to go into. Working on cars is fun at home, but not for a living.
- It really depends on your attitude toward your job and what are you trying to do. If you get lots of liscence for different things, you will earn a lot. There are several kinds of mechanics. Cars, Planes, etc. but my neighbor is a mechanic who works in Navy. He fixes and maintains ships that are used in Navy. Goverment payments for mechanics are pretty good
- Depending where you live and the your expertize, $25k to $200k. This is before taxes and paying for your tools as needed.
- ASE techs make a whollllllllllllllllllllllllle lot of money. but be careful of the non-ase guys when you get the job, you're actually getting their wages.
