What other occupations pay by a flat rate?

[fastfredracing]

I am just used to it, have been paid that way most of my life, but now that I think of it, it is an odd way to compensate somebody, and I honestly cannot think of another industry that pays in this manner. Why should an auto mechanic not be paid for the hours he works instead of what the "book" says the job should take. I have been in this biz for a long time, and honestly , I beat flat rate sometimes, and sometimes I don't. You never know how a job is going to treat you.

[Zeke]

Surgeon?

[Red88Carrera]

Hooker. They never know how long the job will take.

[herr_oberst]

Actor.

[dar636]

Consultant

[wreckersteve]

Fred, when working on a old POS as your other thread discussed, I would never go flat rate. That time is for that car new. With the way the salt gets to stuff around here, I always built sometime in on a car over 5 years old. It is only fair. If you worked in gthe south, it would be different. And i would ask your parts store about some help on the labor. At least give you the rack at cost. Why should they make money when you are loosing?

[Laneco]

Over-the-road truck drivers are paid on a per mile basis, direct routing only or a flat rate per trip.

Too bad if snow delays you three days, or an accident on the freeway, etc. Pays the same. It's sort of a sweatshop on wheels. These people really deserve better treatment...

Of course, so do good mechanics.

angela

[BeyGon]

Carpenters, Dry wallers, lots of construction.

[ckissick]

FWIW At my father's VW dealership, when the mechanics got paid by the hour, and the jobs were billed by the hour, the shop was losing money. Then they switched so that the mechanics got paid by the job, and the customer paid by the job, not by the hour. The shop started making a profit, and the mechanics made more money, too.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by milt

Surgeon?

That's me. Degree of difficulty makes no difference.

Just be glad you don't have to dictate a blow-by-blow account after every procedure you do to be saved forever as a legal record.

[Tobra]

Not only that, but you get to take care of them for free for 90 days after surgery, because follow up is "part of the procedure," even if they did everything you told them not to do.

[RWebb]

Consulting Hooker that Acts like a Surgeon.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by Noah930

That's me. Degree of difficulty makes no difference.

Just be glad you don't have to dictate a blow-by-blow account after every procedure you do to be saved forever as a legal record.

Wife's in the other room dictating right now.

[LUFTMAN]

hey fastfredracing it used to be 50/50 back in the fifties and up to the mid sixties. you should ask what other trade do you need so many tools and training to make so little money that is why there are so many openings for automotive technicans not grease monkeys. most people think cars are easy to work on because goober from the andy griffin show in the fifties was a joke on the trade. now in 2011 people think that automotive technicians make $75.00 an hour because dealers charge $120.00 an hour. they do not have a clue or care about what it takes to work on todays technology. most of the time they are mad because they have to spend money period. most people do not have the skills to repair cars properly so they look for the cheapest person and usually spend more on the repair because they are back and forth many times to the same cheap guy. then they come to a professional technician and cry that they just paid x amount on repair and it still is not right the old saying is you get what you pay for but most people do not want to pay period.after 38 years of working on porsche cars the saying still is that the cheapest part on a porsche is the owner.

[cstreit]

Every single salaried white collar professional.

You make $xyz dollars per week. Period. If you worked 30 real hours, good for you. If you had to work 80 hours, good for the company.

[asphaltgambler]

Originally Posted by Laneco

Over-the-road truck drivers are paid on a per mile basis, direct routing only or a flat rate per trip.

Too bad if snow delays you three days, or an accident on the freeway, etc. Pays the same. It's sort of a sweatshop on wheels. These people really deserve better treatment...

Of course, so do good mechanics.

angela

Yes - but they are not highly skilled blue collar labor - skilled yes but not like we are - IE: Bet I could learn to drive his rig before he figured out how to fix it when it didn't run

[asphaltgambler]

Originally Posted by ckissick

FWIW At my father's VW dealership, when the mechanics got paid by the hour, and the jobs were billed by the hour, the shop was losing money. Then they switched so that the mechanics got paid by the job, and the customer paid by the job, not by the hour. The shop started making a profit, and the mechanics made more money, too.

Great example of how NOT to do this. You can't just completely change the way techs are paid and not change anything else = fail

[Noah930]

Another benefit of wrenching is the ability to raise prices to reflect the increased costs of doing business/inflation/etc. Granted that's kept in check by regular capitalistic market forces, but over time you (and your competitors) can raise rates to keep up with the cost of living. Reasonably a mechanic would expect to make more in 10 years than he/she does now.

In medicine (at least from my procedural perspective) it seems every year you get paid less to do the same thing. Maybe not by much, but by 1 or 2% annually. And that's largely dictated by the federal government, which sets Medicare rates. Virtually all insurance payment plans are based upon some percentage of Medicare, so as Medicare reimbursement rates diminish annually, so too do private insurance reimbursement rates (unless you continually negotiate better and better contracts with insurance companies annually, which is more than highly unlikely). And the majority of customers who can't afford health insurance also can't afford your product regardless of how inexpensive you make it, so there's a limited number of cash-paying patients onto which you can "pass the costs."

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Not only that, but you get to take care of them for free for 90 days after surgery, because follow up is "part of the procedure," even if they did everything you told them not to do.

Plus a mechanic doesn't have to fix a car for free if it belongs to an illegal alien

[Noah930]

I know you meant that in jest, sammy, but for the record, I've found that just because someone's an illegal alien doesn't mean they won't pay their bills. Plus, there are plenty of illegals who still may have health insurance or workman's comp through their employers.