auto mechanic salary

An auto mechanic salary is determined in a rather unique way. Mechanics typically don’t make a guaranteed amount per year. They are paid according to the work they do, but it isn’t quite the same as the commission earned by, say, a car salesman. They are paid by the hour, but not necessarily by the amount of hours they work. The field of auto repair can be exciting, and your career as a mechanic a lucrative one, but before you jump in with both feet you should know exactly what goes in to that paycheck you hope to bringing home from the garage.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Your earnings as an Auto Mechanic project as

Salesmen are paid on commission. Factory workers are paid by the hour. The method by which an auto mechanic earns his money is similar to and distinct from both of these methods. The payment structure that determines the auto mechanic salary is unique to that industry, and one of the reasons automotive repair is such an attractive and rewarding field for car lovers and those who just want a comfortable and reliable source of income.

The modern automobile is one of the most complex machines ever invented. From its humble beginnings as essentially a motorized wagon in the late 19th century the automobile has evolved through the decades to the fuel efficient, computer controlled, carefully designed and engineered, mass produced cars and trucks of today. And no one knows more about today’s cars and trucks and their ever-increasing complexity than an auto mechanic.

Automobiles are designed and assembled systematically. Every feature, every component has a name, a number and very exact specifications. Every part of your car or truck has a proper function and well established parameters within which it must carry out that function. Every conceivable problem that could arise from the malfunctioning of those parts has been identified and clearly defined. And every repair for those problems has been described in detail and assigned an appropriate amount of time in which it should be completed.

It’s that last part that matters most to a mechanic. Look at an itemized car repair invoice and what do you see? Charges for parts. Charges for shop expenses. Charges for labor, which are often the most expensive section. How does the garage determine how much you should be charged for your mechanic’s labor?

A mechanic’s boss pays him a certain number of dollars per hour, similar to any other job with an hourly wage. But unlike a job at a factory or a warehouse, the mechanic isn’t paid for hours worked, but for hours billed. Each possible repair has been described and timed, remember, and each of those times is listed in a book, a version of which you will find at most any repair garage. The book is known as a price book, or a flat rate book, and this practice is known as flat rate billing. It is standard practice in determining the auto mechanic salary across most of the auto repair industry.

Once the problem with the car has been identified, the mechanic determines which repair or repairs will be necessary to fix it. Then he consults his shop’s flat rate book, a bit of research made all the easier in recent years, with most garage’s now maintaining computerized versions of their flat rate books, allowing the mechanic to look up the necessary repairs with a few quick keystrokes. The flat rate book will tell the mechanic how many hours the repair should take. This is the number of billable hours for the given job. This is the number of hours the customer will have to pay for.

Most experienced mechanics are sufficiently skilled and clever to complete their repairs in less than the number of billable hours. A repair listed as taking 2.5 hours in the flat rate book (repairs are timed to the tenth of the hour) might only take a particular mechanic half an hour of actual work to complete. In this way a mechanic can be paid for far more work than he actually has to do during the work day. You can see why an auto mechanic salary can be so attractive, and why auto repair is such a thriving industry!