Head mechanic salary
 

I've been offered the position as head mechanic at a bike shop in california

I'm a ubi graduate and worked on bikes for over 10 years

from the mechanics I've talked to the lead mechanic position should pay anywhere from $17-20 an hour

Is this reasonable?

Just looking for some insight

I know it's kind of a personal question but any feedback would be appreciated

How much should a head mechanic expect to make in a bike shop?

It may be a really expensive place to live, a lot of California is, so that $17 an hour wont go far ,

but to get anyone, they have to up the base pay...

Bike Shops in college towns Manager's spouse was on the Faculty to bring in the better money.

Adjunct part time teaching contracts even make those jobs not pay well..


Want to make more? learn to work on Cars In Dealerships..




...

I would assume wages would vary wildly from city to city.
San Francisco, Redding etc.

I was the "head foreman" once and got $5 an hour, titles don't mean much. A lot would depend on what city you are located in and the kind of volume the bike shop does. Hit em reasonably high and negotiate from there.

Salary/hourly rate is very dependent on the cost of living in your area, the pool of possible employees and the demand for the work. These factors change from location to season to boss to customer.


Here in Rochester $15/hour is about the max. This is about the same in Cleveland and in Raleigh. When I lived in Santa Cruz the rate was maybe 20% more.




Bmfoster- Are you highly regarded in your current bike shop job? By both the public as well as your peers? If so why would you consider leaving your current position? If not why would the job offer be for a head mechanic (and not a lesser position)? If you're not currently employed in a shop why are you the one being offered a lead position at this shop? Why would a shop want an inexperienced (and I mean in the working of a shop/managing other mechanics, not your own mechanical skills) employee? I would do some hard thinking about what this shop is, how the boss runs his business, what you're getting into WRT a working/relationship environment and reputation wise. I have had the offer like this a few times, over my 45 years of doing this stuff, that the best thing for me was to decline the offer. Promised money is less a value then peace of mind. Andy.

In San Jose; the average 1 bedroom apartment rents for just under $2400 per month. At $17- per hour AFTER taxes (not gross), you have to work almost four full time weeks just to pay rent - forget about food, clothing, hobby, transport, savings, anything else at all.

All of the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, LA, San Diego have similar cost of living. Average starting salaries at bigger companies in the Bay Area for ME, EE and Computer Science kids right out of school with a BS is around $100K per year ($50- per hour).

CA is a great place to be if you have the $$$$$$.

It's getting pretty scary over there. Starting to resemble 3rd world countries where there are fewer and fewer in between great wealth and poverty. I read an article several years ago that described how the middle class is becoming CA's greatest export.

As Andy noted, the big question is, what are your responsibilities? Managing other mechanics, inventory, workflow, and customer retention demands much higher pay than simply being the "#1" mechanic in the shop.

The other big part of the situation: if you have already interviewed, and they've said they want to hire you, you are now negotiating your salary. Do not be afraid to do so, and do not sell yourself up the river for fear of them saying "no". A hard lesson to learn, and often one that many do not learn until much later.

I think you should discuss the salary you deserve. If you are a good specialist in this field, then you will definitely go to the meeting.

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...I moved to Sacramento in 1985. Every time I see a house price here in my neighborhood, for a recent sale, it upsets me to discover I couldn't afford to buy my house now.:( And we are currently getting a huge influx of people from the Bay Area, looking for a cheaper housing market and a slightly more livable environment. this has been one result of the whole pandemic remote working thing.

So it's been three and a half years since the OP posed his one and only question to BF. Since he has never responded to the thread, either he's declined the job offer, taken it at a salary well above what he was imagining, or he doesn't really care about the advice that was offered.

I am a jazz guitarist and I can tell you a long time ago that I need to find a profession. I hate to break this but you need to do something else and simply know that you can always work on your own bike. The pay is crazy where you live and in some places it might keep you eating only.

I work in a bike shop for fun to get me out of the house. They pay me pretty well, but I wouldn't want to have to live on it.

...guy's probably homeless by now, so no computer. :(

Posted just after Trump was elected in 2016... he's probably not missing anything.

Good job on post #1...miss by over 3 years.

I just checked, and the average price of a 3 bedroom house in Calif if $440,000, which is of course insane.

Check the San Francisco bay area price. It's insane. The east bay is getting hit by those leaving SF. There has been an average increase of 25 percent here in west Contra Costa in the last 6 months.

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...higher home prices keeps out the riffraff. Too late for me, though. :) I bought in '86.

Prop 13 fist bump.

in the back of my head...am thinking that if I retire ever (may have no choice as my company was aquired) I could be the "ask the old guy it's and old bike" guy in the corner of a bike shop

people are paying over a million in good neighborhoods, to tear down and build new..... for a 6000 sq foot lot......

It is about 3X or more in the greater Bay area.

Yep, the average home price in Marin is now $1.38M. Marin includes Tiburon, Belvedere, Sausalito, and Mill Valley. It's the north end of the GG Bridge, so very close to SF. I make quite a bit more than $35k/year, but I'll never be able to buy a house here. Not a chance.