brother

Scary isn't it! I've 25 years experience but on a work permit so it's put up and shut up for the moment.

fledermaus

He's a time served and very good mechanic. He sorted out the brakes on my car today. It's a family business and I know that they don't rake in huge profits. He gets benefits on top of that. Their labour charge is $64 an hour I think.

$12 an hour is a common rate of pay in the area. Peterborough Ontario $14 is good money. The average pay scales look good for the area as there is a large hospital and several government offices. Those employees earn nice sums.

Lord Vader

Median means half earn more, half earn less. You can check out a lot of places in the country by changing the location.
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/cens...EF=&GID=837998

fledermaus

I know this.

I said an average wage for an ordinary mortal, not someone employed by the hospital or the government where $80K salaries are not uncommon. I also said that a large number of people are employed by the hospital and govt. Hence your median wage still doesn't indicate the real salaries for others.

The median household income for one family is $65322. The median income for one person is $25874

printer

That's not a good wage at all, my son complains about earning $11 an hour and he is a first year apprentice in automotive service.
However the labour charge sounds good at $64 per hour, i think that is minimum $90 an hour over here.

fledermaus

That labour charge is not the lowest in the area. We go there because they are very good mechanics.

Wages are low in this area. I keep saying this on here and usually get shot down by people who do earn more who refuse to believe me. Of course houses are cheaper than out in BC, but it's still hard to live on that money.

Security guards earn minimum wage. A friend who worked as a cashier at BMO was on $14/hour. Chambermaids are on minimum wage. Many maintenance jobs are $12 hour. Janitors at the school board are on $15 hour- that's casual work usually in the evenings. No guarantee of any hours. Assistants in major shops $9 hour.

Lord Vader

The median household income is not a wage at all. It simply means that half of all households earn more and half less. This could mean a single wage earner in the household or seniors or student households. Its important not to confuse average and median.

$12 for a mechanic is not much of a wage and the mechanics I know earn much more. But I suppose it does depend on who one is working for, self employed people or folks working for a family business generally pay and claim less income. I would also wager that many more are employed in the private sector than in the hospital or by the government.

Piff Poff

I believe the going rate around here for a journeyman tech is $20+ per hour.

printer

I can fully understand the low wage bit, we have the same here, some refer to it as the "sunshine tax" as the average wage for anything non specialized are anywhere from $11 to $15 per hour. Generally skilled workers such as red seal tradesmen/women would fare much better at $22 and beyond.

iaink

I'm fairly nearby. We start people on $11 and change an hour, and after 6 months the min jumps to $14.20 + benefits. The max hourly is about $20 for supervisors etc. Including the overhead it costs us over $60 an hour to operate.

No rocket scientists, just average people.

squargle

I have been working in a flat rate shop for a couple of years now and am aware of the seasonal nature of the auto service industry. I am an experienced tradesman, red seal qualified and would have appraised my abilities as above average by UK standards (which admittedly are low ) in the last 12 months my gross pay was approximately $30,000 and I am payed a flat rate hourly wage of $22.50 ,allowing for 10 days vacation time this equates to 26.66 hours paid work a week averaged over the year .This means that my true hourly rate is about $15 .
There have been occassions when the right jobs have come into the shop and the work has gone well and I have completed 60+ hours paid work in a week which makes me realise that I am not inept and incompetent . unfortunately this seems to rarely happen which has certainly had an effect on my morale. When you go to work for 40 hours to earn maybe as little as 15 hours pay you start to doubt your self worth and that coupled with the stresses of moving to a new country can be a difficult thing to deal with.
I am glad that all the other advantages of life here in Canada are enough to outway the flaws of this employment.
The moral of this tale is that if you are considering this trade do not believe what a potential employer may tell you about you projected earnings and that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
These are are own personal experiences and views and may not be true for everyone working flat rate, indeed I would love to read of someone this system works well for

Piff Poff

WOW! Our immigration story would be very different if the was my OH's annual income. I do consider ourselves to be very lucky.

ntitto

I've been offered an auto tech job near Barrie (not too far from Peterborough) at $23/hr (salary - not flat rate). As far as I can see the flat rate system only benefits the employer. Book times are sometimes optimistic, particularly when a car is a few years old and components are seized etc. It puts all the financial risk on the employee. This is OK if the employee stands to gain a great deal - but at an auto tech's salary this is unlikely.

rufus2000

also the other problem with flat rate is the golden boys the brown noses of the workshop who may have been there years will get the cream jobs the good money earners jobs. and new boys get the crap which take longer time and makes your hours fall behind

brother

Bravo, and if it's seized and rusted parts you want, then Canada with it's salty roads is the place for them.