What expert electronics technician hour rate is normal ?

[r2d2]

hi

just to talk a bit about
what expert electronics technician hour rate is normal

a bit curious after have witnessed a little discussion between a customer and a technician
in a  famous brands authorized  electronics instruments service center
about a repair cost

and also to compare it to the cost  of a painter…...
cheers

 

[iampoor1]

~80$ an hour

 

[r2d2]

~80$ an hour

with or less "ticket" ?

 

[iampoor1]

with or less "ticket" ?

I'm not sure what you mean? What's the "ticket"?

 

[r2d2]

I'm not sure what you mean? What's the "ticket"?

possible it mean invoice ?  :

 

[ruffrecords]

I would say £50 and hour which is basically less than £100K a year. Out of that you have to pay his wages, his overheads (accommodation, heating lighting, insurance etc),  and a contribution towards his test equipment, continued training and his existing knowledge

Cheers

Ian

 

[iampoor1]

possible it mean invoice ?  :

I guess I just don't understand the qu3stion then. It depends on how the shop is run. Some people charge actual hours, some just quote you a price. Either is acceptable as long as the customer knows upfront

 

[mjrippe]

In New York the norm is about $75-125/hr depending on the job and experience level.

 

[pucho812]

in l.a. we average 100 an hour as a tech

 

[Tubetec]

Going through a music shop for repairs typically doubled the bill at  the customers end , not to mention the crossed wires, miscommunications and  F-ups etc  .
Going to the front desk of a retail premesis and expecting them to communicate an intricate amp or instrument setup to a third person is fraught with ambiguity ,at best it slows progress right down ,at worst the Sh!t hits the fan . My guess is you'll probably get better value going to someone affiliated too but not under the same roof as a music store , a smaller operation also means most likely you'll be face to face with the tech who will deal with your repair , he wont have to rely on scribbled instructions from someone at the desk , you wont end up in a situation where your barking down the phone at someone in retail who hasnt a clue what happened your repair .

Around the 50 euros an hour mark seems to be about right for here but at times  for the sake of continuity of service and custom a 50 buck amps get fixed for 30 and it takes an hour ,your 20 down ,but the only other option is to scrap it and loose any goodwill you might have got in return . You kind of have to balance off the odd job thats doesnt end up very profitable against better paying jobs too  keep the ball rolling .

 

[Tubetec]

100$ per hour average , wowser

So is that the rate you get self employed with your own premesis etc ,  or working as a tech within a studio , or retail outfit?

 

[PRR]

1977-2005 I was paid as an Electronics Technician $7 to $20 per hour with excellent benefits (vacation, US health, retirement). I did get tired of living in sorta-poverty.

> compare it to the cost  of a painter…...

Outside painters have to charge more when they do work because they can't work in the cold or in the rain. Yes the painters I know do other stuff too, but their investment in ladders truck etc dents their income.

Auto mechanic "may" be a different sort of comparable. They work rain or shine. They do need a lot more tools than most ETs own. Any shop with a Brand Name outside wants mechanics with training and certification in several specialties. ASE has many certificates.

In US broadcasting, "ticket" was the FCC license to operate certain classes of transmitters. Every radio station had to have one or more FCC-blessed technicians to be sure the station stayed within the rules. (This is now done with robots: automated monitoring and far-away engineers who review technical logs for hundreds of transmitters and sign-off for compliance.)

Tiring of an ET's pay, I got my job re-described as Network Admin, $24. Like grease-monkeys, in this field there are LOTS of "tickets". Novell certified, Microsoft certified, Oracle certified, you can paper your walls with certificates at $500-$15,000 each.

 

[iampoor1]

100$ per hour average , wowser

So is that the rate you get self employed with your own premesis etc ,  or working as a tech within a studio , or retail outfit?

That's a pretty average shop rate in California (I'm on the lower end and generally bill at 80$ an hour). I work with the s imiliar setup that you outlined in your other post...i get recommendations from local music stores but am not directly affiliated.

I think if your working for a shop, you would expect to be paid around 20-25$ an hour.

 

[iampoor1]

1977-2005 I was paid as an Electronics Technician $7 to $20 per hour with excellent benefits (vacation, US health, retirement). I did get tired of living in sorta-poverty.

> compare it to the cost  of a painter…...

Outside painters have to charge more when they do work because they can't work in the cold or in the rain. Yes the painters I know do other stuff too, but their investment in ladders truck etc dents their income.

Auto mechanic "may" be a different sort of comparable. They work rain or shine. They do need a lot more tools than most ETs own. Any shop with a Brand Name outside wants mechanics with training and certification in several specialties. ASE has many certificates.

In US broadcasting, "ticket" was the FCC license to operate certain classes of transmitters. Every radio station had to have one or more FCC-blessed technicians to be sure the station stayed within the rules. (This is now done with robots: automated monitoring and far-away engineers who review technical logs for hundreds of transmitters and sign-off for compliance.)

Tiring of an ET's pay, I got my job re-described as Network Admin, $24. Like grease-monkeys, in this field there are LOTS of "tickets". Novell certified, Microsoft certified, Oracle certified, you can paper your walls with certificates at $500-$15,000 each.

I think the mechanic is a fair analogy...with the noteable exception that many audio related repair jiobs may take an hour max (Retube, rebias, input jack replacement, speaker replacement etc). I would imagine that the average mechanic job takes atleast a few hours (brakes etc). But then again I have never had a mechanic do any of that work on my car....so maybe Im just slow.  ;D

 

[CJ]

depends on the location and situation.

we can not charge a lot for amp repairs because all the musician's are broke,

if i am lucky, i can fix an amp a day, we charge 40 bucks plus parts, i get half,  so i  make about 100 a week if i am lucky. one product took me 3 weeks so i got 40 bucks for 3 weeks, no benies vacation or sick time, i am there 7 days a week as it is fun to be at the music shop, holidays really piss me off,  my transformer hobby helps pick up the slack,  rent is tiny compared to the big city, bizzness is word of mouth,  it is one of the best jobs i have had as i get to try out thousands of different amps and stomp boxes, meet cool people and play guitar a lot (somebody has to test those amps) such is life at the brick and mortar shop, 


had the 25 an hour job in the big city,  full bennies, lots of traffic, high rent, large amounts spent on drugs and alcohol to keep the rat race from getting on my nerves,  it did stock up the retirement account which has yet to be tapped,

 

[ruffrecords]

100$ per hour average , wowser

So is that the rate you get self employed with your own premesis etc ,  or working as a tech within a studio , or retail outfit?

That would be the self employed rate. Working as a tech in a studio or retail outfit you would probably get half that because your employer pays all the overheads.

Cheers

Ian

 

[iampoor1]

That would be the self employed rate. Working as a tech in a studio or retail outfit you would probably get half that because your employer pays all the overheads.

Cheers

Ian

Exactly.

Probablly closer to a quarter of that. Of course, you actually get paid for 8-10 hours a day, where as the self employed guy might only bill a few hours per day, so neither is really that much better off.  ;D

depends on the location and situation.

we can not charge a lot for amp repairs because all the musician's are broke,

if i am lucky, i can fix an amp a day, we charge 40 bucks plus parts, i get half,  so i  make about 100 a week if i am lucky. one product took me 3 weeks so i got 40 bucks for 3 weeks, no benies vacation or sick time, i am there 7 days a week as it is fun to be at the music shop, holidays really piss me off,  my transformer hobby helps pick up the slack,  rent is tiny compared to the big city, bizzness is word of mouth,  it is one of the best jobs i have had as i get to try out thousands of different amps and stomp boxes, meet cool people and play guitar a lot (somebody has to test those amps) such is life at the brick and mortar shop, 


had the 25 an hour job in the big city,  full bennies, lots of traffic, high rent, large amounts spent on drugs and alcohol to keep the rat race from getting on my nerves,  it did stock up the retirement account which has yet to be tapped,

Wow, much lower than I would expect. Are you located in a small town music shop in California? I dont know of any repair guys that wll even look at anything for less than 40$ in central California, much less do the entire repair!

 

[cyrano]

Our techs get a monthly netto wage of around 2000-2500 €. Extra's are a car, petrol, phone, laptop, holiday allowance and a 13th month.

We charge our clients 75 to 90 € per on-site intervention. Some of these interventions could be as simple as plugging in the mains or changing a fuse. Others involve a full installation, taking about 2 hours, including explaining the system to the end-user if needed. Worst case jobs might take several days.

This is the tariff for clients that generate from 50-100 jobs a month. Some others pay a lot more, but maybe have a couple of jobs a month.

A tech needs to average 6 jobs a day to be profitable. With traffic and parking sores in cities, that can mean long days. So we have a few techs that take on the hard cases and the bad locations. These average about one job per day, but that is for cases where several other techs have tried to fix it and it fails again every time. Or cases where the client is the problem.

When we hire external expertise, we pay 75 € for inspection/diagnose. We get an offer for repair. If we take that offer, the 75 € is deducted. That's not for onsite repair, it's carry-in.

We mainly do telecom and network jobs, but also general industrial work, like automation. Large installs get billed, 400 € per person per day.

All excl. VAT, of course. And we charge some for maintaining a stock of parts for the client.

To be profitable we need a lot of techs, to distribute geographically, and steady input of jobs. If we go without work for two months, the company will go bankrupt. Our main problem is acquisition of new jobs. And sometimes, new techs...

 

[pucho812]

100$ per hour average , wowser

So is that the rate you get self employed with your own premesis etc ,  or working as a tech within a studio , or retail outfit?

that is what  is charged for tech service. if you are self employed,  you are keeping all of it.  if you are at a shop you get part of it.  while the shop will have you there 40 hours a week working, self employment and you may not be 40 hours a week so it will balance out.  most shop guys combo shop and freelance.

 

[boji]

Extra's are a car, petrol, phone, laptop, holiday allowance and a 13th month.
We charge our clients 75 to 90 € per on-site intervention. Some of these interventions could be as simple as plugging in the mains or changing a fuse. Others involve a full installation, taking about 2 hours, including explaining the system to the end-user if needed. Worst case jobs might take several days

I'd describe IT field work the same way...minus the extras.