What do you think???

I just read Gun Gurus post below about having some stumps burried and saw all of the comments about the price. That got me to thinking about the way things are nowdays and I'm curious as to what ya'll think.
Ok, first many of you know I am a self employeed heavy equipment mechanic and I tend to work on anything from lawnmowers to cranes and everything in beteen. With times as tight as they are all of my core customers have slowed way down and some have even downsized or are no longer in business. For many of them, although they have equipment needing major work and I'll get it when the time comes, they simply don't have enough work to bring in the extra money to do anything. All of this has left me high and nearly dry for the past 9 months or so. As such I have been posting on CL, etc just to drum up enough work to keep my bills somewhat up to date.
I have always tried to be fair with people on my rates and tend to charge not so much by the hour on small stuff as just by the job. That said I had a guy brought me his pickup the other morning needing a muffler hanger welded on. He had the part and it took me maybe 10 minutes ((and material wise maybe .25 in gas and MIG wire for the two 3/4 welds)) with him standing there watching. No more than I did I only charged the guy $10. He about flipped that it wasn't MORE. Now to me $10 was more than fair for what I had done (approx $1 a minute or $60 per hour) and it really made me wonder what he had paid the last guy that did any work for him. In the end he actually gave me the $10 and another $5 tip for getting it done right away and I was definately more than happy with that but I still wondered what someone else would have charged him.

On the other hand with times being so slow I had applied at Home Depot looking for something steady to make sure things got paid. They were looking for someone in the rental department to repair all of the equipment as, from what I was told, the guys they curently had weren't even capable of changing parts, to make one machine out of two, to keep a machine in service until replacement parts could be ordered. The job, I was told was from 5AM to 2PM and would usually be 5 to 6 days a week. Basically they wanted someone with the experience to repair anything from the electrical equipment to the engines and hydraulics on the other equipment (they had trenchers, chippers, pluggers, etc)and were only looking to pay $11.30 an hour for the position. Granted I was told they have good benefits when you go full time but nothing for the first three months, and no uniforms beyond the orange apron. Benefits aside, to me the wage they were offering is a slap in the face to anyone with the experience they were looking for. When I asked why so little pay the reply was that, " someone would do it for that" to which I repied that in the end they would 'get what they paid for'. To be honest I almost became that someone and had done the drug test, etc and was supposed to start training last week but couldn't bring myself to do it and had to quit before I started. Heck to start with I would have had to buy a wardrobe of collared 'polo' shirts and good jeans just to wear to work as that is their dress code and I might have had to work on the floor at some point in time. Even though my main job would have been as a mechanic I would have to have 'good' cloths to work in and figure out hiw to keep them clean enough for their policies without having to constantly replace them with new stuff. Then by the time taxes were taken out and I covered gas back and forth every week my check would have been been less than I am getting by on right now. Basically though the more I thought about it the madder I got about the way these big companies treat their employees when it comes to what they pay. If they had to take their equipment to a typical repair shop they would be paying at least three times what they were offering to get the work done, and most of the guys in those shops would be making closer to $16 to $18 an hour (based on what I have been able to find out by asking around. Heck if they offered me $16 an hour I might have taken the job for awhile just to have a 'steady' income but your looking at a difference of something like $600 plus a month which is a huge difference. Granted the benefits add to their overhead cost when it comes to what they are able to pay for the wage but when you need skilled labor the pay should reflect that fact. Heck I was making more than that doing nothing but MIG welding nearly 20 years ago.
I guess the main thing is that fortunately I didn't take the job as I ran up on one opportunity that I wouldn't have otherwise had and made out on it pretty good and then got several calls last week that will work out to several weeks work at my usual rate, or more than I would have made at HD in several months of busting my a-- for next to nothing. Hopefully given what I am seeing and hearing things will have picked up for at least one of my customers that needs alot of work and I'll be back to working at least 'full time' for myself by the end of the summer.....
OK, sorry, I got log winded there and maybe the question isn't all that obvious, but what I am trying to ask is what do ya'll all think is a fair wage and how do you determine it? I mean I know I'll never get rich because I can't sleep at night knowing I cheated someone by giving them a huge bill for little to no work. At the same time these big corporations can pay little to nothing for any position they want, skilled or not, and then more than double prices on items overnight yet people flock through their doors to looking for jobs and wanting to buy their overpriced goods. What do ya'll think????

you did right, i think the problem is these store "managers" cant think outside the box, their told to hire idiots, pay them next to nothing and hope that somewhere sometime theyve actually picked up some kind of usable job skills, the "manager"[ appointed because he's the only employee who has been there more than a year] cant see that if they hired you,and payed a decent wage, you could not only keep their stuff in top running order, but could probably with very little effort, make that store the go to place for all kinds of rental equipment, thus getting him recognition too, since he can only think in 1 demention at a time, though in afraid your just out of luck, also he may have not have run into a guy that can actually do something before lol

Wages haven't gone up in 10 years. Why should they pay decent wages when there are 10 illegals waiting for your job.

Well I don't think their goods are overpriced and I don't expect much in the way of brainiacs in a box store.Any competent licensed mechanic should be able to make way more than $11.something an hour.
Have you tried advertising or are you 100% word of mouth,cash only type?

Home depot is owned by stockholders and the managers of the stores think of all the employees at "expendible". When "all" employees are regarded as just a body that takes up space and breathes air and goes to the bathroom then those employees are treated like schitt.

Any respectable place will pay a skilled guy with several years experience with his own tools at least $15/hour. You and I think of it as.....A skilled guy is worth 3 times as much as an unskilled guy, but should get double the pay of the unskilled guy...Right!

Retail stores dont pay squat unless you are the manager.....maybe. I would guess that a store manager of the HD here in Michigan would get $50k plus bonuses in HD stock. (I am guessing on the $50k figure)

Home depot doesnt deserve you or anyone that can weld, repair equipment etc.

One other point that I forgot to bring up.

If you can weld and cut steel then you may want to make farm implements. I would like to have a custom driveway gate made, the wife doesnt like the ones at TSC, so I will have to make one or have one made.

There is work out there you just have to find it.
Go to the higher priced home communities and offer your skills at a welder, dont look like a bum in biboveralls though. Look like a cleancut decently dressed fella that can supply a product that they need.

It's like they told you,they'll find somebody to do the job for that. When my wife lost her nursing job a year ago last March,she was about going crazy for the first few weeks looking for another job. A local doctors office had a job posted for $14 an hour. She has lots of years of experience and wouldn't even consider working for that. After a few weeks of nothing,she started to think better of it,but the job was taken,like you said,by somebody who would do it for that. There hasn't been a nursing job posted within a reasonable driving distance of here since. If she'd jumped at it,she would have probably had a raise or two by now and insurance. Guess the more desperate you get,the less you're willing to work for.

Wayne, I've discovered that the people who post on these forums have a "unique" way of thinking about wages. If THEY are the ones getting $15 an hour or more, then it's a fair wage. But if it's someone else making that wage, then it's the one and only reason all our jobs are being outsourced and sent overseas.

Funny how that works.

If you ask about someone making $30,000 a year, they generally call that a reasonable annual pay rate. But if you mention the $15 an hour it takes to get to $30,000 a year, then you hear about how it's greedy [probably union] SOB's like that who are ruining our economy. Never mind your training, experience, and the investment you have in tools and equipment, $30,000 a year is A-OK with these folks, but you better be working 80-100 hours a week to get it.

That's right. The whole idea of the big picture (NAFTA) is to shift the balance of the dollar. Make more money, and pay out less. The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer. Yet, the cost of living continues to rise. The big paycheck people who were able to retire with big severance checks will be running out of money within a couple years of retirement. They will take that $11.00 per hour job to suppliment thier small retirement check. Yet, will not complain because they are retired. They will tell everyone they are retired, and are working because they are board, and want to make a little pocket money. In reallity, they are back to working every day.

I have been self employed for almost 25 years now . Good times , bad times ,up s n downs . I have had part time jobs to help fill in the gaps . Worked for ABX air ,,,was good gravy part time job . 15 hr , didn't really do much other than check over ground equipment . When things broke ,had to be fixed ASAP . Unbelievable what happens when air freight is delayed ! lol Job went belly up , miss it lots, it was fun , something different . I have a customer that owns small engine repair shop . He has trouble keeping mechanics. From time to time I will work a few nights for him to get caught up . Now,,my shop ,,my shop rate is 87.50 hr . His shop rate is 60 or so . He asks me to come help him out and offers to pay me $12 hr . I laugh , tell him it is kind of insulting to offer that . He says thats what he pays his guys . Good lord ! I tell him $20 hr ,he balks, but agrees . I go there , 6- 10 ,4 hr a night for i week and knock out more units than his other 3 guys combined . He wants to hired me full time ,, i chuckle ,and say you can't afford me . If he would pay a decent wage , he would get a decent tech . This guy has 200 mowers ,tillers, saws, etc backed up most of the summer . Can't make him understand that a good tech making $20-24 hr , will make him more money than paying 3 guys 12 hr . oh well,,,my rant .

I go out the door every day to make as much as I can. I don't expect anyone else to approach life any different. Some do, some don't. I also follow a concept my dad taught me years ago.

"It's not what you make, it's what you KEEP".

I'm not giving anyone a nickel more than I have to. I don't reasonably expect anyone else to give me any more than they have to for my services. However, if they want ME to do a job for THEM, they'll pay me MY price, or they get someone else. I can break even sitting on the back porch. I WILL NOT do someone elses work just for the sake of staying busy. I'm in it for the money.

Some people seem to like the concept of socialism/communism (Both mean the same in my eyes) these days. Everyone gets equal pay for UNequal work. Myself? I'm all about capitalism. If I do a better job, I command more money. If I complete more jobs in the same time, I make more money. If I'm better at marketing myself than my competitors, I earn more money than they do.

Finally, and in my eyes, more importantly, if I'm not satisfied with my income, I'm the one responsible. It's up to ME, and NO ONE ELSE, to pound the pavement and find work that suits my needs. Keep searching until I find what I want, even when I find something that's "good enough", keep looking for better.

Bottom line, I don't hold any ill will against anyone for charging a high price for their services. By the same token, I hope they don't harbor any ill will against me for looking for a better price.

Well, I don't know. My Social Security is 14.88 an hour based on a 40 hour week. I don't think I'd be temped to get out of bed for 11.30. I must admit thought the last year I worked was 2002 and I made more than 190 thousand that year. Needless to say I wasn't a welder but have hired hundreds of them. Reasonable pay for a certified welder to me is 23+ per hour. A rig welder should get 50+.
Your obligation is to give a good days work for a good days pay. Many people are willing to take the pay but are non-producers. The bottom line is you have to decide for yourself what you need and what you are welling to work for.

Wayne, you made a wise move passing that job by. I guess they would expect you to furnish your own tools, also. If they are such tightwads, I bet they would expect everything fixed without spending any money on parts, too..

what gets me is how a meckanic shop can charge 75-95 dollars an hour and then they stick a scaner on for 5 min. and nail you an extra 65 bucks.(they say they have to pay for there machine). Is'nt that wat the 85 bucks an hour is for. costom hay cutting with a 130000 dollar rig is 90 bucks an hour and the haybine is shot after 4 years.( guys wont get you to cut if it's older) they think you break down to much. Every 3 years another haybine for around$32000 way more over head than a meckanic.

You need to find a new shop to go to if they are dinging you extra to hook up scanner. Diagnostic charge should include any and all tools required as well as technical information to diagnois the problem . Now,,there are certain cases where a special tool or information subscription not normally used may be required , this I can see as an add on charge . I have never tacked on a "Scanner fee" Same thing with shop supplies listed seperately , i hate that. Customers hate it . Raise labor rates accordingly to include shop supplies .

I think what you did in helping the man out was good. Times are hard for everyone and helping people out will pay off in the long run.
I moved into this town with no job and having to go on disability. Did some work for a few people at a cheap price. But did not skip on the quality of my work. Told them I do it correctly or I don't do it.
Now I have more work than I need. Also I have the respect of people that know I will not rip them off. And unlike my last job. I don't have to explain what I did to a bunch of managers that have no idea what I am doing.
Most people just tell me it's broke fix it.