Technician Wages

[Shadow1]

Depends on your region, but I would say good tech with good experience should be around $20/hr - That's underpaid IMHO, but seems to be what the industry is willing to pay in this economy. I'm thinking "Go To Guy/Gal" should be more on the line of $25/$30, but that's my opinion, and technicians have always been underpaid/undervalued...

[Shadow1]

I think they have too much going on.

I think Ricoh has decided to focus on counting the beans, and forgotten that if they don't keep their customers happy there won't be any beans to count.

The IKON deal was a "Can't afford not to" situation, so I don't blame Ricoh for buying them, but IKON should have been absorbed into Ricoh instead of the other way around. There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON but for some stupid reason Ricoh seems to be transitioning to IKON's systems.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I think Ricoh has decided to focus on counting the beans, and forgotten that if they don't keep their customers happy there won't be any beans to count.

The IKON deal was a "Can't afford not to" situation, so I don't blame Ricoh for buying them, but IKON should have been absorbed into Ricoh instead of the other way around. There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON but for some stupid reason Ricoh seems to be transitioning to IKON's systems.

I agree. They should have just bought the customer base and gotten rid of Ikon culture.

[fixthecopier]

Depends on your region, but I would say good tech with good experience should be around $20/hr - That's underpaid IMHO, but seems to be what the industry is willing to pay in this economy. I'm thinking "Go To Guy/Gal" should be more on the line of $25/$30, but that's my opinion, and technicians have always been underpaid/undervalued...

I also am underpaid, however I have got a raise every year. Slowly but surely I will get there. In my company no one is supposed to know what every body else makes, because not everybody gets a raise. I think you should encourage people and pay accordingly. When I started my company gave the techs an extra $50 if they did 70 calls completed a month. Another $50 for 80 calls and so on in increments of 10. I hit the ground running and was doing 100 to 130 a month. Well there was no way that they were going to pay me that kind of bonus every month. They came up with a great idea... If i had the time to pick up paid calls after doing all my contract stuff, my bonus would be 10% of the profit I made. So I have to do a lot more work than everybody else and make less money. Well the bonuses for the other techs is long gone, but I still get profit sharing. I let it ride all year and collect between 2 and 3 thousand dollars right before Christmas. Because of this incentive I hustle up work. I will walk into rooms where I see people fighting a printer jam and hand them my card. Other small things count. I may could find more money elsewhere but the boss there may not bring in breakfast every Friday for everyone, or they may not throw a small party in the break room on your birthday. Little things can count more than money. You gotta like driving to work every morning.

[Shadow1]

Yeah, there are other factors than money that influence how happy I am with my job.

I've liked where I am fairly well for years... problem is my company just announced they will not be replacing our service vehicles when the lease expires at least for the next year - they expect us to go back to the old half assed system that they acknowledge only reimburses 70% of the (deflated) cost of the vehicle. Then on top of that they give us this ridiculous new dispatch system that serves no purpose other than to crawl up our butt with a microscope and gather information they can use to nickle and dime us to death.

I've seen companies go this route - the people who are good enough that they can find a job elsewhere do, and the company is left with the people who need the kind of babysitting they're imposing on us. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I've also started hearing bad news from my customers - things like "I just bought a new machine and I didn't even call you because my billing has stayed so screwed up for the last 2 years... It doesn't matter how good your service is at this point, I can't waste my time with your billing department."

That I find really troublesome - I don't care who signs my paycheck, my customers pay it. If the company isn't taking care of them I'm not going to have a very long career with them regardless of how well - or not - they take care of me, and if they can't keep customers its no wonder they're trying to nickle and dime the techs.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

Yeah, there are other factors than money that influence how happy I am with my job.

I've liked where I am fairly well for years... problem is my company just announced they will not be replacing our service vehicles when the lease expires at least for the next year - they expect us to go back to the old half assed system that they acknowledge only reimburses 70% of the (deflated) cost of the vehicle. Then on top of that they give us this ridiculous new dispatch system that serves no purpose other than to crawl up our butt with a microscope and gather information they can use to nickle and dime us to death.

I've seen companies go this route - the people who are good enough that they can find a job elsewhere do, and the company is left with the people who need the kind of babysitting they're imposing on us. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I've also started hearing bad news from my customers - things like "I just bought a new machine and I didn't even call you because my billing has stayed so screwed up for the last 2 years... It doesn't matter how good your service is at this point, I can't waste my time with your billing department."

That I find really troublesome - I don't care who signs my paycheck, my customers pay it. If the company isn't taking care of them I'm not going to have a very long career with them regardless of how well - or not - they take care of me, and if they can't keep customers its no wonder they're trying to nickle and dime the techs.

I read an article where this one dealership has each tech equipped with a gps tracking device so they know where you are at all times. The theory is that they can see which tech is the closest to a service call that comes in...I see this as only a half-truth. I wouldn't like anyone knowing where I am every second of the day.

[KMnyafayce]

By the way is 14.00 an hour good for 15 years of experience??

I have been in the business for about 4 years now and i make about 13 an hour in Chattanooga, the cheapest place on earth to live. You get paid in dirt my friend, you are in the same boat as everyone else on this board =(

[tech07]

North Carolina $ 21.00 hr...full line trained...

[Lotec]

I have to agree with verderacer. Initially unions seem to support the membership, but after a short while they become interested only in perpetuating themselves. Let's say the union gets you $25 per hour at your particular specialty. Well in return they want $5 of it for all the hard work they do. And then where are you? Back where you started, and another somebody reaching into your pocket. And when the company decides they can't support the union wages, what then? They dump the whole lot and start from scratch. This doesn't sound like anything I'm interested in. Less job security than I already have. =^..^=

You seems to have strange unions in the US... thinking Sopranos here

In Norway I make about 325 000 Nok = 53500 us dollar.
If I was joining a union I would have to pay 1,5% of my gross salary = about 780 dollars
My pay would probably increase by several thousand as my pay is considered low in Norway. But I'm not sure if it would be popular by my employer. But I'm considering it.

I have 3 years of electronics education, and could fairly easy find a job that paid close to 70 000 dollars. But they usually include travelling away a few days - and my wife don't like that.
I make about 27 - 28 dollars an hour now.

If I had worked at McDonalds I would have made about 18 dollars an hour.

I could also start working as a teacher as I have been a few years on a university. I would then make about 70 000 dollars.
But I kind of like the job, moving around. Fixing stuff. Listening to audio books in the car. Can be nice, if the work pressure is not too high.
I have nice coworkers too, and we travel once or twice a year on a company tour, to another country. Just to get liquered up and eat some good food.
We also have a nice christmas party.

I'm supposed to work 37,5 hours a week. We have 5 weeks paid vacation a year.
Right now, I work about 70 hours a week - but are only getting paid overtime for a fraction of that time.

Don't need no health insurance as the government/state pays for hospitals, medicine, doctors and stuff like that (education, and some of the kindergaten expences and so on). We are covered agains accidents at work and the company also pays for en extra pension. A regular pension is about 66% of what I have earned, and it is index regulated. With the extra pension I will get about 72-75% of my income.

Women that get pregnant will have 1 year with full pay. All medical expences for the mother and child is covered. The state pays (not the company).
We get paid about 160 dollars for every child every month until they are 18. It is to ensure that every child get their basic needs covered.
If the woman choose to stay home to take care of the child longer than the first year - the family will get about 6400 dollars for each child a year - until they are 23 month old.
The children have free dental care until they are 18 years old. From 18 to about 20 years old they have to pay 25% of the dental costs. When they are 20 - 25 years old they have to pay 50%. After that you have to pay everything yourself - unless you have been a victim of violence. Then the state will cover the expences.

Education is free, including university. Even if I want to study in the US/Australia/another European country. When you are 18 years old, and you don't live at home - or your parents don't make more than a certain amount of money, the state will give you some money when you study.
If you fail your class, you will have to pay the money back. Or you can take (and pass) the exam again, and the loan becomes a gift again.
You can also loan money from the state when you study - but after you get a job you will have to pay back the money with interest.

I have a company car - but I can not use it as my private car. I can drive to and from work. That's it. If I want to use it as my private car too - my wage will for tax purposes be considered about 12-14 000 dollars higher, and I have to pay the tax of that amount.
If I drive a lot, it will be OK for me - but if I don't use the car a lot, I will loose money on that deal.
Cars are really expensive in Norway. The taxes are heavy on cars with big engines and that weighs a lot. If you buy a very small car - the tax is lower. There are no taxes on electric cars. I liter of diesel cost me just under 2 dollars. Hence my next car will drive 30km pr liter of diesel. You will not see many cars in Norway with a V8 engine (unless it is a Scania truck ). Seems like all the V8s I see are in TransAms, Corvettes and so on from 1972-78. After that there was not sold many american cars here because of the taxes.
That's why I drive a really old, cheap car (1994) VW Caravell
VW Caravelle-eja-PSPT-04.jpg
If I want to buy a new VW Caravell the starting price is: 106 000 dollars.
That is with the smallest engine and no extras.
The version I would like to have would cost me 140 000 dollars.
And there is no way in H*** I would pay that much for a car. I'd rather use a bike before I do that. That's why I drive a really old car. You do tend to become a good mechanic if you don't make a lot of money


- END of class for today -

[Lotec]

I read an article where this one dealership has each tech equipped with a gps tracking device so they know where you are at all times. The theory is that they can see which tech is the closest to a service call that comes in...I see this as only a half-truth. I wouldn't like anyone knowing where I am every second of the day.

I worked in Spain in a tourist destination for a while. That company used a car with GPS tracking, and an automated system that gave the job to the tech that was near by. We had never more than 1 job on our worklist.
The system was automated, but I'm sure they could go in manually and pinpoint the cars location.

But they had a cool thing. A small bar code scanner pen that we could dock to a PC in the car after the job was done.
I scanned the barcode of the machine when I came to the customer. I then scanned all the parts I replaced and I scanned the machine once again when I left.
When I docked it to the USB in the laptop, the information was sent to the office. They knew exectly how much time I had used and what parts that I had changed. They knew the true service cost of all the brands/models and adjusted the machines they sold according to that info.
Also, when I parked the car at the office in the evening - the logistics guys made the car ready for the nexy day.
The next morning, the parts had been replaced, the car was washed inside and outside, it had a full tank of gas and the oil had been checked. Yeah.. the company was run by a German. Got to love the control.
It was as close to a stress free job at a tech can get. Everything was in order.
The pay was low though.. about 1000 euros a month... thats about 1300 dollars. I got a bonus every month... about 100 euros.
But it was cheap to live there, to go out and eat and drink. And the weather was nice. And I knew it was only for 6 month.
Learned a few extra words in spanish as well