labor rates, what are you seeing out there?

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John@Outfront

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what labor rates are you seeing for automotive repair industry?  non dealer

dealer rates?

off road rates?

I ask because i had a local auto repair shop raise their rates to $160 per hour.  an adjuster came to their shop and told them there previous rate was too low.  he said the average (including dealerships) for South OC and San Diego Counties

 
My off road Fab guy is still $65.00 an hour but he is an independent one man show.

 
John@Outfront said:
what labor rates are you seeing for automotive repair industry?  non dealer

dealer rates?

off road rates?

I ask because i had a local auto repair shop raise their rates to $160 per hour.  an adjuster came to their shop and told them there previous rate was too low.  he said the average (including dealerships) for South OC and San Diego Counties
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An insurance adjuster? As in a representative of companies that pay automotive shops came in and said you haven't been charging us enough?

 
AlpineFunco said:
An insurance adjuster? As in a representative of companies that pay automotive shops came in and said you haven't been charging us enough?
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they told him his labor rate was way low compared to the industry so he raised his shop rate to $160 per hour, im like wow!

 
i have been $110 but going to $120 at the new year,  i still think im low for my area, thats why i was asking  $160 sounds crazy

 
Not related to automotive, but my fab rates used to be $85 per and we raised to $100 per during 2020.  I'm still thinking it's to cheap,  but I want to make sure the work keeps flowing. 

 
My automotive mechanic charges $90/hr, Weller Racing charges $100/hr both here in Arizona.

 
Fab shop in AZ is at $110 an hour. Was $95 2 years ago. 

 
$160 seems high, I get the overhead down there but I send out a guy in a half million $ piece of equipment that gets 3.9 MPG and bill about that rate. 

 
While searching for a shop to do the LS swap on my brothers C-10 I was kinda surprised to find the shops had relatively low rates, under $100.  This was at full custom hot rod type shops.  Didn't matter whether it was fab or mechanical.  I had some work done to my TBSS recently in PHX and Vegas, they were both around $100/hr.

 
Recently I have seen 90 - 120 for shop rates and I have seen 55-65 for private one man show rates.

I have no problem paying 90/120 or even 160 an hour for quality but another thing I have seen with the lack of employment is a

15 dollar an hour kid performing the work at 120 shop rate. That has been a bit of an issue around here. 

 
For those who are employed, you need to be asking for a 7.5% raise. Inflation was 5.6% over the last year (and that's the government's phony calculated rate). So if you got a 2% raise, you actually took a 3-5% pay cut.

If they pass this $3.5 Trillion dollar spending bill, I think true inflation will be 7-10%.

Not good. Buy assets.

abc

PS. I really don't mind paying a higher rate. I just want the service done RIGHT! Every time I drop off an off-road vehicle, I print out a sheet, give it to the dude and tape one to the dash that lists everything I want done. Seems to work well.

 
Our rate is 150$/hr minimum. And $200/hr for specialized welding (aircraft industry)  right now i have 3 months worth of 200$/hr work in the shop waiting for me. 

We don’t have a 15/hr employee. They dont exist. The ones we have had do a minimum 25/hr damage. When any $hithead with a pulse can get a 20-25/hr job holding a sign at a construction site, imagine how effin worthless the 15/hr crowd is. Not to mention benefits, vacation, sick, disability (covid pay). Ontop of that our material costs have doubled since january, consumables are up about 50%, shipping is WAAAAAY up. 

All i gotta say is keep voting left and keep shopping on amazon. But stop bitching about local jobs or costs. Amazon makes EVERYTHING more expensive for everyone. Us small folk pay for their free shipping. Our rate goes up theirs goes down. 

 
I work for a GM dealer in the middle of Kansas and we're at $125/hr.

 
I know I'm raising mine to 115 per hour this year. Cost for insane. My wholesale cost on systems increased 30 to  50% on some of them. Used to be a day shift time . I've been waiting months for some of it now . My cost from one manufacturer is now what I used to sell them for 2 years ago

 
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Here in San Diego, new car dealerships were getting close to $200/hr a couple months ago. I'm sure they're right there by now. Highly qualified general service independent shops (not specialty shops) that offer great warranties and employ expert technicians are $150+/hr., and you can't get an appointment for days.  VERY few clients balk at these rates if the shop provides the customer service to earn it. In fact, it's extremely rare that a customer will even ask your hourly rate if the shop provides the right customer experience.

You guys that own or run shops should really make the customer service improvements necessary to charge these premium rates. Your clientele will love you as well as your bank account.   

 
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