Quote Originally Posted by greghall View Post
girl you summed it up people just don't understand how we get paid! Its been worse these past couple of months because of the economy ive done it foe 20 years now,your boyfreind is 24 he's still young to get out i can't ,I make good money but have 3 kids a wife & a $2300 a month morgage,also all the benifits i can pay for,i live in maryland to & there is alot of good dealerships you can make some $$ i made 75k last year but this year looks like im going to be down by 8k.I never have i made less money in 20 years every year has been better,this is a indicator of the bad times to come we are the first to be affected,you don't have to spend money on your car so its gets neclected or not done.also one poor soul in my shop got stuck with a warrenty job that he spent all week 40 hours on & only made around 12 hours this week !! So when you look at your auto tech just know he's only getting paid when he's turning a wrench!
Good to hear from a few other mechanics!
Evil Mechanic: You are EXTREMELY lucky to get paid that way. Jealousy ten-fold.

Greghall:

It took me a while to get back to this thread b/c we JUST moved to MD from CT- him 3 weeks ago to start work and my son and I followed just last Friday.

We moved to MD b/c of the the mechanic situation in CT. He's a Ford mechanic, and was working for a dealership that was going downhill fast. He was there for 5 years, and very loyal. However, he was PAYING to get to work via gas and not bringing home money in the end. The job he once loved was making him miserable, and there seemed to be no end and no way to pull ourselves together to make a life in CT. We picked up our whole lives (both of us still living with our parents) and moved to a whole different state to start our lives where opportunity seemed to be greater. And now, he is watching the whole process start in his new shop all over again - the frustration, anger and panic from the employees that arent getting their paychecks.
After only 3 weeks of making this incredible change for the chance at a life together, he woke up at 6:30am and came home at 6pm every day last week and came home with a $101 paycheck.

Im wondering if now would be the time to fight for a change. My boyfriend is 24yo, and COULD get out now ... but he was born to work on cars, loves to work on cars. It's still years and years of learning he has done to surpass many of his fellow employees in knowledge and tricks of the trade .... he is talented, and should get paid what he is worth and to do what he loves to do. It's just not fair that my friend can make nearly all of his weekly paycheck in one night of tips at Friendly's. I might just have to see how well Mr. President Elect actually listens to his people.