$97 per hour (US)

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Friday, August 12. 2011

Picked up my car from service today. They charged me $97/per hour for labor. I remember when auto repair was $17/hour, 20/hr if you watched, 25/hour if you helped.

Well, my gunsmith charges $150/hr, and my local electronics repair joint charges $200 now. There definitely is an economic case for learning how to do something that people need.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 13:29 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yeah, labor rates have really skyrocketed! Of course, that's part of the reason why so many things aren't worth fixing.

Interesting thing I found - civil airplane mechanics get the same rate as car mechanics. A friend of mine was certified in just about everything - airframe, engines, etc. and he said he couldn't get any more than a car mechanic! It was the big carriers that paid the money. Of course, they're all unionized.

#1 mudbug on 2011-08-12 13:35 (Reply)

Electronics repair?

I can't think of anything that doesn't get thrown out or, in the case of computers, saved in case some part or other can be scrounged in the future.

#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-08-12 14:22 (Reply)

I own an auto repair shop here in Raleigh, NC; my rate is $102/hr. Whenever a customer comments, I make comparison with a plumber's rate. $125.00 down here, and they don't have to learn anew, each new model year, the innards of the 40+ different species of beastie we practice upon. In spite of my exorbitant rate, a competent mechanic can always repair or maintain a car at a far lower aggregate cost compared with replacement. A car is very rarely an investment. I advise my customers to consider it a transportation service. As long as the monthly repair cost averaged over a period of years is less than that loan payment or lease (plus repair, maintenance, higher insurance costs which come with the new car smell), the only requirement for replacement is emotional. As a transplanted Yankee, I find emotion a frivolous expense.

#3 Matt on 2011-08-12 14:24 (Reply)

After reading that gunsmiths make $150 per hour I googled "gunsmith salaries". You know what? They are starving! Not making any where near what you describe. I imagine there are some people making that amount, but from what I read on a simple search most were making far less than that. This is the kind of thing that irritates me about Maggies. Effete yankees.

#4 Mick (Link) on 2011-08-12 15:41 (Reply)

Not effete, please. It's just what they charge in New England.

#4.1 Bird Dog on 2011-08-12 15:47 (Reply)

I was just going to say, the gunsmith who re-chambered and rebarrled my .308 to .325 charged $175/hr.

#4.1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-08-12 16:20 (Reply)

If you can remember as far back as 1960 (or if you had a car then) today's $97 would have been $12.88. I was pumping gas then, but can't remember what the boss was getting for labor - I'd bet it was somewhere in that neighborhood, and he didn't have nearly as much expensive diagnostic equipment as a new shop has to have. I was making just under a buck an hour (good wages for a gas jockey then) which comes to just under $7.50 today.

#5 David Smith on 2011-08-12 16:19 (Reply)

Average salary for gunsmith per Salarylist.com is $36,267. Just sayin.

#6 Mick (Link) on 2011-08-12 16:36 (Reply)

Salary and bill rate are not the same things. Car mechanics do not get $97 or $102 or whatever per hour. They may get half of that - probably less (at least in wages).

#6.1 mudbug on 2011-08-12 17:05 (Reply)

There are two or three different systems that repair shops use to charge - there is a shop rate which is, say, $60/hr. Each assigned task has an completion time attached to it. So say, on an outboard engine, it takes an hour to replace a starter (its a Yamaha or Mercury - Evinrude engines don't need repairs) that's $60 plus shop supplies (and the cost of the part - if you can get the part because Yamaha's are notorious for parts shortages - unlike Evinrude which gets you your part next day). If the mechanic does the job in 38 minutes, thats 22 minutes of profit. Of that, the mechanic get his hourly rate plus 50% of the overage or $11 - the shop gets the rest. So if the mechanic is getting $20/hr, he just made $31 in that hour.

There are other variations on this same theme, but that's how it usually works.

With respect to gunsmiths, that national average also includes those who work at manufacturers. Even down here in SC, the gunsmith who worked on my .44 Magnum revolver last week was $90/hr. Admittedly she's a great gunsmith and highly recommended, but still... :>)

PS: Evinrude rules!!!

#6.1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-08-12 17:54 (Reply)

I stop looking at gunsmithing after reading some interviews with the Brownells who has an incentive for more gunsmiths. He said it was a tough business. Most sells guns and other things on the side. the liability is the hardest part. Nobody is going to pay $175 an hour to have someone work on a Remington 870 or Winchester, maybe one of those fancy 1911's or doubles. Depending on where you live $40,000 a year for being your own boss may not be too bad.

#6.1.2 grant1863 on 2011-08-12 19:03 (Reply)

Also salary does not always equal employee compensation. Employees look at salary or maybe take home pay. Employers look at employee cost which inlcludes benefits, additional payroll taxes and paid time off. In my case the difference was 34% -- so my cost to the boss was, 134% of my salary. (nice benefits) Add in the cost of work space, supplies, transportation and you begin to get close to the labor charge or bill rate. Blick

#7 JP Blickenstaff on 2011-08-12 19:08 (Reply)

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Friday, August 12. 2011

$97 per hour (US)