How much do you pay your techs?

[Majestic]

For those of you that run your own business (or those of you that work as a tech and want to share)?

How much do you pay them / how much do you get paid (if not a business owner)?


I am curious to see what a good tech earns. If your willing to offer up information please note the general area you are from. Cost of living makes a difference.

Seems like these days, in my area anyhow, business owners want top notch service / performance out of an employee but they don't want to pay anything. I don't understand how a local shop would think it ok to pay a tech $10-$15 an hour when they easily earn you five times that amount or more.

I pay my techs $25 - $35 an hour but they are not full time, only on projects. My business is 90 percent on site and I don't have a shop.

If I bring In a senior tech then they get $50 / hr.

A 3 1/2 apartment here (1 bedroom) is about $750 in a good area and a 4 1/2 (2 bedrooms) is $900 plus. In less desirable areas probably $450 and $650 something like that.

The way I see it is people you pay well will want to stick around and do a good job.

Majestic.

 

[brandonkick]

Wow... lots of responses about a lot of different things. I guess we will start at the top.

1) Cost of living (in general and where I live ((western PA)) )

Around here the average apartment rent is $350 and the average house closer to $500 a month. This is with a range of some having a lot of the utilities included to some having almost none or none.

Water bill with sewerage is an average of $75 here.

Gas is 3.80 a gallon.

Electric is around 10 cents per Killowatt hour (average bill probably $100)

Garbage is available for $15 a month.

Car insurance on my 99 monte carlo with 166K miles on it that I drive less then 10K miles per year is $50 a month.

My student loans are $400 a month, but only because I cannot afford the full repayment of closer to $700 a month. That 300 a month I save will cost me tens of thousands of dollars and years of being in debt.

I guess my point is... yes you CAN make it for 20K a year. But I didn't spend five years working my ass off, and 60,000 dollars towards an education so I can live penny to penny and "make it". I think that the effort, time and money invested should mean something and that I should be able to earn a good living and have nice things. It shouldn't see to it that I'm in debt up to my ass for the next thirty years of my life.

Anyways...

10K a month in operational expenses is crazy. I don't understand it but it's not really the point.

The point is that for an average repair of $100, a tech should be able to crank out on average 5 machines a day.With a proper work station setup, the most time consuming part of a repair is waiting for a virus tool / windows update to finish or otherwise events that I like to call "unattended" for the most part. While I'm waiting for a machine to finish updating, I can start cleaning / diagnosing another machine. It shouldn't be hard to pay such a tech $18 or more an hour.

It really shocks me to see what some tecs are working for, especially in some of these areas. I know 20K a year will pay the bills, but there is little to nothing left if your car breaks and forget about going out to enjoy yourself every now and then.

 

[EvolutionElectronics]

Wow where I live its about $900 a month for a one bedroom apartment, thats New Jersey for ya lol

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

public filllllllllllllllerrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Wow where I live its about $900 a month for a one bedroom apartment, thats New Jersey for ya lol

My friend on Staten Island says he only charges about what I do ($120) but he has a 2 hr minimum where we do 1 hr here so his net effective rate is probably more like $150

 

[drnick5]

We just hired our first tech for $10 an hour. My shop is in Rhode Island. Keep in mind that the cost of an employee goes WELL beyond the hourly wage. Between payroll taxes, social security, TDI, unemployment insurance, We also pay 50% of health insurance as well.

For comparison sake, I know someone who works for Staples as an "Easy Tech" making $8.50 an hour, he has been there for 4 years and gotten a few raises too... so it could be worse. I don't know what a Geek squad tech makes but I imagine its in the $10-$12 range.

 

[angry_geek]

You all know this thread is NOT in "tech eyes only", right?