For technicians
Flat Rate vs Hourly: What Would You Actually Earn?
A $40 flag rate sounds better than $30 an hour — until a slow week. Put in your real numbers: what you flag in a normal week, what you flag in a slow one, and whether there's a guarantee.
Hourly job
Hours over 40 counted at 1.5×.
Flat-rate job
Hourly
$1,200/wk
$60,000/yr
Flat rate
$1,200/wk
$60,000/yr
Same money this week. To match the hourly check you'd need to flag 40 hours at $30 — every week, slow weeks included.
Gross pay, before taxes and deductions.
How to use it honestly
Run it twice: once with a normal week's flag hours, once with your slowest month. The gap between those two is the risk flat rate puts on you instead of the shop.
What this leaves out: flat-rate overtime (shops calculate it differently — ask how yours does it), benefits, PTO, tool costs and bonuses. It's a comparison, not a paycheck and not an offer.
Questions worth asking any shop before you move:
- What did your techs actually flag, week by week, over the last three months?
- Is there a guarantee, and does it reset if you have a slow week?
- Who decides which tech gets which job?
- How much of the work is warranty, and what does warranty pay?
- Which tools does the shop supply?
Nick's Tire & Auto pays automotive technicians $30.00–$37.50/hr, hourly — not flat rate. Euclid Ave, Cleveland.