How much do you think car mechanics earn?

[AnnaQuayInTheUk]

My son is a car mechanic. He qualified last year. I was talking to a friend about his starting salary and she was surprised at it. So what would you expect a newly qualified mechanic to earn?

Whatever he earns, it is not enough - to do what they do is physically draining, the work is often filthy, uncomfortable. When he is older, the impact on his health will show itself. So, whatever he earns, it is not enough.

Yeah I am surprised how many people have said around £25k, I expected £35k minimum really.

You know mechanics are skilled right, why would yoy think minimum wage?

So slightly less than average full time wage, with a bonus potentially taking him up to 15% over average wage. Sounds about right. If it was minimum wage why would you even bother?

@MiddleAgedDread he's completed a 3 year apprenticeship and has worked really hard to get through it. Our other son did a degree and is now in a graduate role and earns about the same amount.

I'm interested as to why people think skilled trades people would only earn minimum wage

I know roughly because my good friend is a vehicle technician and I know there is a lot of variance. There is also a severe shortage of qualified and experienced staff out there and he told me that a premium marque was offering £50K + bonuses to get staff due to the current backlog of work.

As someone who works in insurance, there is a huge shortage of mechanics, paint sprayers and electric vehicle specialists

@UnstableEquilibrium well exactly.

There were over 290 applicants for the apprenticeship and he had to go through 5 rounds of interviews before being offered it.

Well, that person. I think this thread shows that most don’t think that

Mechanics local to me in the North West can earn up to 48k including shift allowance for early starts / late finishes. They get 20% extra for that.

People don’t understand how dealerships work. Dh was motor trade, in his dealership it worked like this.

Tech given a job card for something that should take 3hrs. Customer charged 3hr labour. But the techs experienced and the job takes 2.5hrs. Customer still charged 3hrs and the techs starts another job so they can work for 8hrs a day but charge customers 10-12hrs labour. Plus they’ll get bonus for working late/weekends.

Dd is in Yr 2 of a 3 yr apprenticeship.
She's been told starting salaries once she's level 3 qualified are 34k. She will be 19 when she qualifies.

@PigInAHouse sorry, I phrased that badly. I meant that my friend was really surprised and it made me wonder whether other people also assumed that mechanics don't earn very much - or even don't deserve to earn very much. It's reassuring on here to read that most people see it as a skilled trade that needs to be rewarded appropriately.

My friend’s husband earns £36k at Jaguar/Landrover.

My DH is a mechanic for a main dealer. He's classed as a Master Technician.

He's 41 and has done the job since he qualified after an apprenticeship at 16. So 25 years experience.

Can't go any higher in terms of skill. Much desired. Name known in the industry. He's the one people ask for help. He trains the apprentices, etc.

Still only earns 42k.

In which area?

I would guess £35k. Dh employs technicians with a similar sort of training (college qualifications plus on job training) and they make £30k. This is with a small business though so would expect less than a big corporate scheme.

People with technical/mechanical skills often far outearn people without except in very white collar professional roles. I have a very prestigious sort of career with a PhD. Dh, who does have an undergraduate degree but wouldn’t need one to do the technical aspects of his work, outearns me by several multiples. Things I wish I knew 25 years ago!

@invisiblebark that's not great. I know the Master Tech at DS's firm earns a base salary of £55k.

Just for comparison:

Newly qualified nurse starts at £29,969
Newly qualified teacher starts at £31,650
Newly qualified police officer can be as low as £25,000 depending on location
Newly qualified soldier in British Army £25,200

Dh was on 20 to 25k at a ' back street garages' he now owns his own business he's the only mechanic, he takes home 50k at the moment . However parts are around 10k pcm. Plus insurances and whatnot . He has a lot of overheads but hes slowly building up his business going into year 4 now.

When he was working for other garages they wanted blood out of a stone. If a job for example says 2.5 hours they would go mad if it went over that. They didn't account for ceased bolts or wrong delivered parts . Employee turnover was high.

What does the bonus scheme involve. Upselling tyres, failing passable parts for MOT? It's concerning.

I would guess 23-25K, but I would also expect it to rise exponentionally over the next few years as he gets more experience under his belt

Good that qualified people earn well.

I think DS has lucked out with the manager where he works. There are other garages within the dealership where the managers are much tougher.

Such a ridiculous and untrue comment.