Auto repair shop prepares for the worst as nationwide shortage of automotive technicians continues 

*They are now so desperate for Technicians they have began offering ... **_"Minimum Wage."_*

Overworked and underpaid.

My local McDonalds pays better than the local dealership... I wonder what the issue could be?

There's not a shortage of techs. There's a shortage of pay with an overabundance of greedy shop owners. That's the reality!

The pay for mechanics is trash. And now cars today are coming with all this extra bs or complex repairs. Nobody wants to deal with that.

The sale of the repair is rewarded more than the actual repair.

After being a certified mechanic for many years, I realized that I have an engineer-level knowledge, but I was getting fast-food pay. So I quit and went to college to become an engineer. I shouldn't have needed to do that.

On top of low pay, you mean people have buy their own tools instead of the company providing them? That's like driving for UPS and you have to pay for the gas to deliver the packages.

flat rate, poor pay, poor management and ridiculous cost of tools... yeah the auto industry brought this upon themselves!

I’m happy for the shortage. I’m a tech of 21 years. This will help the current techs get the pay and appreciation we deserve. I have well 60k invested in tools scanners and oscilloscopes.

This is the direct result of all the wage fixing and gate keeping that’s been happening in all trades the past 2-3 decades . Wages for labor froze 20 yrs ago while the door rates of shops, and cost of licensed contractors have went up over 50%. Anyone who’s smart enough to work a skilled trade, is smart enough to do simple math. Who’s going to invest in tools, work in hazardous conditions, and risk personal injury for $30k-$50k a yr when other low risk jobs pay that much and more with vacation and benefits? Good luck when the last of the boomers retire, you did this to yourselves.

Schadenfreude is the word of the day. I feel no sympathy for the industry, as a tech who spent 12 years at the top of the industry with the likes of Mercedes Benz and Ferrari. We are the absolute bottom of the barrel to our customers and our bosses, they see us as servants that they can berate and slander as if we are their property. Well F that, we're taking our skills and going elsewhere. I'm out of the industry altogether and in college to become a physicist. I'm too damn good at what I do to continue doing it in this industry, it can rot and collapse without me, I'll just keep enjoying videos like this. Seeing the dumbfounded look on shop managers' faces when interviewed about it is entertaining to me. You all did this to yourselves, now eat your sh*t sandwich.

I love cars. I have full certs and BMW training. I make MORE as a school teacher. If the industry will stop STEALING from techs and customers I'll go back. Otherwise go broke.

No shortage just technicians not willing to work for minimal wages ,litte or no health care. 112+% in a sweat shop in summer little heat in winter.we had to fire up the paint shop bake oven every morning cause cheap shop owners tuning the heat down every nite Paint and other components need hours and days to cure...in proper temperatures.

Any tech not making $150,000 working full time with benifits should quit now... 15years ago I was making $100,000 ayear with benifits. If the stealership not paying a living wage, wheel your box to one that will !!!!! (thats why your tool box has wheels). Thats what i did.. Was a auto tech for 35 years ,now retired !!

There's not a tech shortage, there's a pay shortage and has been for decades

You have a worker shortage because your pay is shit. You want techs to be commission. Then you want to cut commission times. This for both shop owners and the vehicle manufacturing companies who do not want to pay for fixing their broken shit vehicles under warranty. You want to make money as a technician, start your own shop. Screw working for other people.

Omg I love the lies as an ex mechanic who left the auto industry in 2019 the shortage 2 words NO MONEY!

The wounds that the auto industry suffered are all self-inflected.

I’m a current tech for Honda making $30,000/year because “that’s all I’m worth” yet I make the company thousands and when I asked for a raise was told no room for budget but then hired 2 inexperienced techs a week later….

Who is stupid enough to start buying 60k worth of tools to fix other peoples problems ! With that tool payment you are making half of your pay ! Remember you can't right off tools anymore on your taxes !

Thats what you get when you treat techs like shit.

It’s a real shocker that no one wants to enter an industry that doesn’t pay well.

NADA is the dealers union which keeps wages low

Why should I? I make more money clicking buttons on my MacBook and no stupid boss to deal with. Cheers.

When u see Auto Technicians Driving Ferrari or Lamborghini to work, then there will be a surplus of automotive technicians.

This is the result of the greed of car service owners. Excessively high prices for customers, minimum wage for those who do all the work. Put your family to work if you don't want to pay your employees right and treat them with respect!

Next year will be worse, this will take 10 years to correct, it took 30 to get here.

Pay sucks for hard work for not a lot of hours and having to pay for your OWN tools. Like why would I pay to enter a career after spending money on education and training just to be paid 55-60k a year starting.

The average automotive Tech owns and or pays on $30,000 and up on tools. Many dealerships pay the techs Flat rate. $17.00 to $21.00 and hour. Experience that are certified get $21-$32.00 and hour flat rate. Dealers and shop are charging $120-and up per hour. To perform a regular oil service takes the tech around 45 minutes. They only get paid .3-.5 tenths of an hour. Customers don't understand that it takes time to drive the vehicle on a lift and set up the lift. The tech has to go to parts for the oil service and wait on parts. Drain the oil,remove the old filter and many the tech has to remove splash guards to remove the filter. So the average tech may make 35-45 hours per week. For the same amount he or she can work at a fast food or store and make almost as much and no experience or have to pay for expensive tools. Many dealers also only pay for the lowest cost health insurance. So now many new tech's are leaving the automotive business!!

They won’t pay us for shit

Retired ASE Certified Master Tech with Smog License, Brake and Lamp certified along with an Air Brake Cert. Did auto and truck repair for 40 years and made good money doing it. Now-a-days... no way...I'd go back to my construction beginning and get certified as an electrician or plumber with my own business. I still do side jobs in my retirement and my old customers still are seeking me out. Repairing in today's climate is nothing more than holding onto a laptop and swapping out parts until it fixes the problem. I actually had a shop call me because they had a car come in for a tune-up that they could not perform b'cuz it had points in it and they didn't know how to adjust them or what dwell meant. AND that 60k mentioned for tools, yeah that is way off...try an additional 60k unless you're specializing in one make of car.

ASE Master tech here, Rolled my box out of a shop years ago and work for a public utility now. I will teach my sons everything I can, but will never let them become mechanics ever.

The flat rate system killed it for me. I quit and moved onto working on computers.

Thank NADA for all of this. funny how no "reporters" will ever report on this org

These owners are the problem they should look at themselves in the mirror. They are their own problem

Dealerships exploit mechanics, independent mechanics then exploit clients, people try independent mechanics to not deal with the scam that are dealers, people get new cars to not deal with mechanics at all... They have destroyed themselves.

Don't do it. The pay is shit, it's one of the most technical trades, yet the worst paid. The dealers and shops make money hand over fist, they don't have a care for their techs don't waste your time. Tons of better trades. Not only is the pay bad, but that doesn't even account for all the unpaid labour that will be expected of you.

Here is a perfect example. In 1999 I was a master truck mechanic. I was lead mechanic and foreman for a major Pepsi shop in Atlanta. I was making $18 an hour, but you could come in a be a driver starting at $21. I had the best education, over $100k in tools, plus a cdl. Three of the mechanics in our shop finally threw their hands up and switched over to the driver side. It is the only job I know of that weekly you are spending between $20 to $100 a week on tools and constantly updating your skill set, but your wage isn't reflecting it. That is why I left the business.

Aircraft technicians are paid better than Auto tech's I'm grateful for these auto dealers by ripping me and others off went back to school got my A$P LICENSE working for a major airline making good money now 👍

28 years experience with JLR,Mercedes/Maybac/AMG,BMW and Audi. Use to make to 160-180k now down to 100k, only way is small niche independent shop

There have been shortages of people that work for free and cheap since the dawn of time.Not enough technicians or too many car crooks trying to collect 87% gross profit margins on auto service labor?Omfg!

This shortage is a myth, if it was true wages and working conditions would have improved a long time ago.

Automotive service technicians have been the lowest paid skilled workers since forever and then factor in all the tools needed to do the work its really not worth it

A nationwide survey by Carlisle & Co. recently found that technicians are miserable - so miserable that almost a quarter of them left their dealerships last year. Another 25 percent left the industry altogether. Unstable pay and feeling undervalued were major reasons. MIT labor economist Tom Kochan says there’s one way to change that."

The whole industry is screwed up, I get so many customers trying to make their cars and trucks last way too long because they can't afford new, and used is a big gamble. Remember when tires were $100 or less? Try buying a set today for some cars. So many scams, do we really need so many tire sizes, oil filter numbers etc etc. Its all designed to make you spend money.

It's really simple, the job is too hard and it doesn't pay enough. For instance, plumbing is far simpler and pays on average double for the experienced tradesmen.

The main deterrent is paying a fresh out of school tech minimum wage after spending $40,000 on an education when he can make the same money as someone who works at McDonald’s. It’s a huge rip off being a mechanic now a days

This isn’t an automotive problem people. This is ALL INDUSTRIES. Nobody wants to work for minimum wage for a job that requires a specific skill tech

Well yeah, you don't pay well and get treated poorly, so no new people want to get into the field. Duh.

I got liscenced as an auto mechanic in Canada 30-35 years ago. DON'T DO IT!! Let them fix their own cars or take the bus.

the only thing that matters to consumers: can I connect my phone? does it have a screen? does it get 40 mpg? all the money goes into those 3 things.. everything new is a pile of junk.. I love fixing cars but the automotive industry has lost its mind..

Most collision technicians never knew their labor is tied to a decree, which you can't use in court when a issue arises between the shop, insurance company, an appraiser, parts or flat rate labor surfaces. "The 1963 consent decree" is owned and operated by the US Justice Department. Know your rights before you spend years working in a trade that really doesn't have a business model.

Terrible trade, would never steer anybody towards it.

More and more I see affirmation like this that assures me I did the right thing in learning to work on my own vehicles and invest in older vehicles that can still be worked on and parts had for relatively cheap.

People are waking up. I quit working as a mechanic and started working for a medical company. Get paid more and work less and no physically hard work. The pressure dealers put on people is a nightmare.

Along with the other talent here, the industry has done it to itself as we get recruited outside the industry for great steady pay and no entitled customers and dealerships. Enjoy the wait while we progress somewhere else…it’s a good thing we know how to fix our own stuff while customers can start taking the bus! And yes, there is bitterness for a reason because we used to be passionate about our techs jobs until we realized how crappy humans can be in management and in helping ungrateful people that thank the wrong people for the work we did.

Pay your workers more and treat them better!

I'm a licensed mechanic - I won't work at it anymore. Only thing I've done worse than that industry was when I started off being an aircraft tech.

Ya dont blame them for leaving and no one wanting to get back in it

Same wages as 20 years ago except they have doubled the shop rates so now it's twice as hard to make any hours.THAT BUSINESS HAS BEEN FRIED OUT BY CROOKS!

I don’t like the flat rate idea. When I was in trade school, I was slow and steady and thorough which got me into bigger projects. But I learned you get paid x hours no matter if it takes you double the hours or half for each job. If it were hourly I’d be more free to take time and care on peoples cars and in turn would for sure make a tech less stressed, and mitigate small mistakes, which makes a person trust you with their car.

No sir you do have people to hire and train, the problem is they are not experts after 2 weeks of training so you only want 10+ year experienced techs but don't want to pay for that experience.

Mechanics want pay equivalent to the health risks and dangers of working on cars/trucks.

Techs are required to purchase their own tools to prevent pilfering. It's the same in aviation, and it's the same for technicians in other fields. They'll steal from the company, but not from each other. Experience shows that when the employer provides tools, the tools gradually disappear.

As a collision tech, I can say that the pay for quality techs is well below that of a mechanic. The tech shortage whether mechanical or collision, is only going to get worse in the next 5-10 years. The collision industry is really going to suffer so long as insurance companies dictate how we repair cars, what it costs to repair, and the equipment that is needed to repair. Currently I’m working on an SUV that 10 years ago would have paid almost 100 hours, the time to repair it now is only about 55 hours. I’m only being paid 2.2 hours to remove and install the rear end of a 4 wheel drive vehicle. It’s not even mechanical labor. They have it under “body” labor which pays less. The larger MSOs are terrible at negotiating with insurance companies for fear of loosing business. Essentially, the insurance companies use extortion tactics to save themselves into a profit.

Just retired after 45 years. Started in 1979 in unit repair shop at import dealership in Miami. Modern auto repair is a vastly different field than it was then. Manufacturers and their engineers will continue to produce vehicles of great complexity to feed consumers what they think they want. No regard or concern will be demonstrated beyond initial sale and certainly no concern about the technicians who are expected to save the day. A modern vehicle is like a stupid iPhone; built in obsolescence. I made an okay living in repair and service and worked with some great people but would not recommend for a moment this field to anyone. The problems are too big to imagine any timely changes. I agree there are better choices available to persons who otherwise have the potential.

Comes down to 3 things. 1. EPA has made emissions so crucial that cars are over engineered, making repairs ridiculous and longer to diagnose 2. Low pay 3. You have to buy your own tools. Could you imagine any kther profession expected to buy 60k worth of tools to make between $10 to $20 an hour. I was a self-employed mechanic for 7 years. Had my own shop, and my first set of tools (Matco) cost me 16k. That was just enough to get started on the professional level.

they'll loose every technician and still refuse to admit that the pay sucks and how you get treated is even worse. Every time i see these videos its ALWAYS management that's getting interviewed and NEVER asking the technicians of why they think their co workers are leaving. Leaving this trade was the best decision I made.

I put my experience, tool's and sweat and I gain nothing

What a pile of B S - the greedy business plan for technicians is flawed - cheap labor is a thing of the past but the management is living in the past - you either pay your techs well or they will move on to other jobs that do..

Gotta pay at least 28/hr, anything over 40 hrs is time and a half, good dental, good medical, matching 401k up to 10000 per year. Then you'll get applicants.

Been a tech for dealers for over 14 years to not even make 100k while my boss sitting on the office makes 200k+ industry is fuck for sure I’m thinking of changing careers because trade sucks and with this priced who the fuck can even buy tools I got lucky I had mine 10 years ago now I can’t even afford health insurance or buy tools

Only a fool plays a fool's game

Hmmmmmm. Not a mention of pay and overall compensation. Just a statement on how much tools cost.

The automotive service industry needs to go to a SERIOUS MAJOR UPGRADE! All this high tech equipment in the automotive world cannot be serviced by an uneducated BUM with a couple of wrenches! It's time for the top tier auto service personnel to become outright TRAINED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS with commensurate pay of $100 an hour MINIMUM with powerful requisite backgrounds in both education and experience. This means a career track as follows: (1) AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE TECHNICIAN at $25 an hour (entry level). (2) AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE TECHNOLOGIST at $50 an hour (intermediate level) (3) AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE ENGINEER at $100 an hour (advanced level)

Shops will do anything but pay a better wage.

It’s the pay scale in the 60’s & 70’s most tech got 40% of the invoice labor then came flat rate which moved more profit to the shop owner. These days the math looks like this tech gets 10/15% of the billed labor. Currently the avg shop rate is 200 an hour tech pay is on avg 27 but they hv to buy all the latest tools for the modern cars on top of that most cases 400/800 to the tool trucks a month. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Anyone remember fixing their own car?

Good. maybe used car market price will go down because nobody can get their cars repaired.

The wine to hell do the workers have to buy their own tools? Shouldn't the business have tools available for them?

Biggest problem this employers want to pay the tech literally minimum wage. And still expect you to buy your own tools. You’re better off opening your own shop.

Start paying techs in line with other skilled trades and the shortage will correct itself-problem solved!!!

I fix my own car. Former bad payed automotive technician with thousands of dollars in my garage. Lol

The number of new cars needing repairs you can thank environmental and cafe standard increases..just going to get worse. I'm going to keep my 03' silverado, and it will be my hearse...

I did autobody for almost 20 years. I walked away. Insurance companies run body shops now. The last car I worked on was a toyota avalon that was basically brand new with less than ten thousand miles. It was hit in the front end. The Insurance company wanted to put rusty junk yard parts on the car. Then the dealer I worked for started paying us twice a month. Not by weekly literally twice a month. If pay was on a weekend or holiday you didn't get payed till Monday or the day after the holiday. Then the owner of the dealer had the hair between his legs to send a letter out. Sorry for the inconvenience but if your pay doesn't fall within the time line of your bills. Call the billing company and see if they can set 6our payment later. Like WTF!

Dealerships have no one to blame but themselves. Ive seen dealerships with 5 service advisors at the counter but only 2 mechanics at the back. Make it make sense.

For what shops and dealers charge for labor, the actual mechanic that performs the work only gets a minimal fraction of that. And now they wonder why mechanics don't want the jobs !

15 dollars an hr for a timing belt change

$60k over a career?! That is the lowest of estimates. I have been in the business for over 30yrs I have well over $180,000 in tools. Would absolutely hate to have to re-but them today at he current prices!

Pay is garbage, bosses are garbage, benefits are garbage.

30 years in the trade . The more you know the less money you will make .

If places wouldn't expect you to have a $10,000 toolbox and tools while paying $14 an hour their wouldnt be a shortage.

Take care of your workers and they’ll take care of you. At least the quality workers.

Then theres problems with paint, sealers, glues, not cured then the tech gets the blame .many insurers guarantee life time warrantees. The factorys who build these vehicles never ever gave lifetime warranty to anyone ever😅

Its not pay. Our hourly rate is 100$ an hour, the tech gets 50$ of that. We still struggle to find qualified help.

I'm a retired auto technician. I know this trend, young kids, Gen X, Z, and millennials, don't like to work on cars. Or don't want to become mechanical inclined. They would rather spend most of their time on phone and push buttons on their social network.

They are smart because I wouldn’t work on this new crap myself either.

There is no shortage. They're not finding help because they're paying minimum wage. No one should go into this field. It has a low barrier to entry and most positions are filled by immigrants.

Yeah, what did you expect when you shot your techs like shit and gives them a stupid warranty work that pays like nothing