Well, this may be a little un-PC. I didn't post this on the mechanic section because the posts are usually about actual repairs.
What is your LBS hourly mechanic's rate?

Here in the Upper Valley I am told it is 50+ dollars/hour. That is more than RNs make.

How does this compare to your area? Just wondering?

Thanks,

How much do you make?

There's a big difference between shop rate and mechanics wages, just as there's a big difference between what hospitals charge and RN wages.

If shops paid mechanics everything they charged you, they'd go out of business in a month. Just as if hospitals paid everything they charge to their RNs, they too would go broke.

You can't compare billing rates on one side with wages paid on the other. It's like thinking migrant laborers get the full benefit of that 59¢ a can you pay for tomatoes at the store. Hell, if I got paid 59¢ a can to pick tomatoes, I'd quit my job with the city in a heartbeat.

For the record, shop rate around here, Land of Taxes, is $65 to $70. Starting mechanics make about $10-$12.

No idea. I do 99% of the work myself. If a new tool is required, it more than pays for itself in cost savings. Plus I get the satisfaction of learning. A few very specialized jobs such as facing and chasing are not worth buying tools, and the shops I deal with seem to have set rates for the work, rather than hourly rates.

I haven't needed any serious repairs. My LBS charges $60 for a "basic tune-up" (lubing everything up, adjusting cables, etc.) and $75 for three years of unlimited basic tune-ups.

Make? Charge? Are you comparing apples to oranges? I am pretty sure the local hospital charges/bills FAR MORE than $50 an hour for a RN's attention. The local automotive shop charges $140 an hour (I believe) for someone to do normal car repairs.

I usually bring in roughly £1 million / year in research funds to my university. That's direct money assigned for me to spend.

If one also considers tuition paid by students in the programme divided by the total number of faculty (that's another £200,000).

So, I bring in £1.2 million / year to the university and will bring that every year until I retire (roughly £50 million or so over my career). Hopefully more, but maybe not.

I don't make £1 million / year in salary.

I don't even make 10% of that.

My son is an RN.
I just called him to ask, so that I know for sure.
He doesn't pay anything on the building payment or maintenance or phone bill, or equipment that he uses, or upfront for inventory..............

$1 per minute. No minimum. They are fast and they know what they are doing. Since they are so friendly, reasonable, and efficient I always bring some booze as a thank you tip. They enjoy it, they deserve it, and they are happy to see me any time. They invite me to great events and they take very good care of my bikes. It's also 2 blocks from my office. I'm lucky.

$60/hr in Albany and corvallis oregon but that's just the base rate. All the services are fixed price. I also tip in booze, i get better service that way😄

More comparable laterally, for Bike shop overhead comparison is what does it cost per hour to run the Hospital , Whole operating costs: FICA ,
Lease payment, insurance, salaries , bank loan payments, electric, Heat , advertising (yellow pages and electronic) etc.

if comparing a RN's pay use what the individual Mechanic is Paid (it's more like $10, near OR Minimum)

what is the Dealer Shop rate to repair Your Car?

There is a general business rule that you charge three times the rate you pay your worker. Bike shops typically charge $60 per hour, but I believe they pay less than $20 per hour to mechanics. I wish they paid their mechanics more, but I also know they are not raking in big bucks. Margins in the bike biz overall are surprisingly thin, in case you don't know.

I pay my mechanic in cigarettes and booze. Find the quality of work is much better.

[MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] has the right of it. Labor rate and salary are often far apart. In a bike shop, where the true costs of running the place are hidden from you, God only knows what goes into the rate they charge you, except trying to be competitive in the market. You can ask the dude what his salary is. If he's the owner it might be negative.

That's an old guideline, and those who used it usually compared it not to the salary, but to the cost of labor, including taxes and benefits. Tese days the ratio of overhead to labor is higher than it used to be, so shops might tweak the multiplier accordingly.

OTOH- an hourly rate is a meaningless concept to the consumer because there's no industry standard "flat rate chart" that shows the hours needed for each job. As the buyer, your concern isn't what somebody makes, but what they charge YOU for the job. A skilled, fast mechanic who charges more per hour can be far less expensive than a slow, less skilled mechanic with a low hourly rate. If the faster mechanic can do a better job at a lower net cost to you, it doesn't matter how much he or the shop are making.

[MENTION=158672]FBinNY[/MENTION], that's right. As my former plumber said, why should I charge by the hour if I can get the work done faster than the others do? He charged by the job. He's my former plumber because he's in NJ, and we're not there any more.

I actually think bike shops generally under-charge for their work.

I cannot think of any skilled professional services that require tips in cigarettes and booze the customer or the boss to encourage the professional to do the job properly.
No wonder the pay for bike mechanics is so low.

In accounting they call this the "effective labor multiplier"... 3.0 is a little high for a job that has minimum benefits and not too much overhead, but since the mechanics probably aren't billing anywhere near the number of hours they're on the clock that means the ELM for the projects they do work on has to be higher.

compared to law firms and auto mechs ... very much ... those guys need to bring in the billable hours ... 48 billable hours per day ... at least!

So he works in a field, with no heating, air conditioning, telephone, electricity, drugs, etc.?

If he works in a normal hospital, office, etc., the entity that pays him bills 2.5-3X what he sees in his paycheck (before deductions). And it's heated, lighted, etc.

we call that overhead.

My employer charges $125/hr for my graphic art services.
That's almost $100/hr less than what I get paid.

??

I thought bike mechanics were into healthy living. . . .Oh wait, what kind of cigarettes are you using as a tip?

Just reiterating the point that what is charged by an LBS does not equate to what they pay their mechanics. Just like what a hospital charges per hour does not equate to what they pay their RNs.