He thought $90K was competitive. He'd never checked.

I asked a shop owner in the Midwest what he wanted to advertise for pay. Six-bay shop. Been in business for years. Good reputation.

He thought about it for a second. His top tech was making $34 an hour. He figured $45 an hour for the right A-tech — about $90,000 a year — would be a strong number.

Then he paused.

"I don't know if that's enough. What do you think?"

That question — I don't know if that's enough — is the most common thing I hear when shop owners are setting a pay range for a technician ad. And it tells me everything I need to know about how most shops approach compensation.

They guess.

They base the number on what they've always paid, or what they think they can afford, or what the last tech negotiated, or what feels right. None of that is market data. It's instinct. And instinct is fine for a lot of things.

Pricing yourself against 20+ other shops actively competing for the same tech in your zip code is not one of them.

Most owners don't realize how much information the tech has that they don't.

A tech who's decided to look is not reading one ad. They're reading ten. They're on Indeed at 10 PM comparing your listing to the shop in the next town, the dealership across the highway, and the fleet company that just posted a $10,000 sign-on bonus.

They have more information about your local market than you do.

Because they're reading every ad. You're only reading yours.

Before we write a single ad for any shop we work with, we run a salary survey. Not a government wage average from two years ago. Not a Glassdoor estimate. A snapshot of what's actually being advertised right now in the shop's market.

Here's what that looks like.

We pull every publicly visible, currently active automotive technician job ad within a 50-mile radius of the shop. LinkedIn, Indeed, and 5 other major boards. We only include ads that show a real number — anything that says "competitive" or "DOE" without a figure gets thrown out.

For each ad, we capture the shop name, the city, the low end and high end of the posted pay range, and every benefit listed — health, dental, vision, 401k, PTO, tool allowances, sign-on bonuses, schedule perks, training, relocation packages. All of it.

Hourly rates get annualized to 2,080 hours per year so the comparison is apples to apples.

The shop owner gets a PDF report with the raw data — a table of every competing ad — plus a summary of where their shop falls in the landscape.

The first time an owner opens this report, there's usually about ten seconds of silence. Then: "I had no idea they were offering that."

What it reveals usually lands one of two ways.

Either they find out they're paying below market and didn't know it.

Or they find out that shops in their area are offering things they never considered — and those things are making competitors more attractive even when the hourly rate is similar.

Usually both.

We ran a salary survey for a market on the East Coast recently. 50-mile radius. 24 verified ads with posted pay ranges.

The lowest posted range was $18.00 an hour. Annualized, that's about $37,440.

The highest was $205,000 a year — a dealer running a production-based flat-rate plan.

$37,440 to $205,000. In the same market. Within driving distance of each other.

That's not a salary range. That's a canyon. And most shop owners picking their number have never looked down into it.

But pay wasn't even the most revealing part.

Here's what else showed up in those 24 ads:

Sign-on bonuses of $2,500, $5,000, and $10,000 — with one ad offering relocation assistance on top of it.

A 4-day work week option at a major dealership. Closed Sundays. Flexible scheduling.

One tech told me he applied to three shops the same week. The one with the sign-on bonus and the four-day schedule got his call first. The other two never heard from him. He didn't even remember their names.

One employer was offering 30+ paid days off, healthcare starting on day one, and a 401(k) match up to 8%.

A no-flat-rate independent shop advertising $70,000 to $130,000 with retirement matching, free uniforms, and no nights or weekends.

These are the ads your ideal A-tech is reading. Right before they read yours.

If your ad says "competitive pay and benefits" and the ad above it says "$100,000-$130,000, paid training, 401(k), relocation assistance, AC in the bays" — there is no competition. You've already lost.

When a shop owner picks a pay range for their ad, they usually anchor it to what their current techs are making. That feels safe. That feels honest.

But here's the problem.

If you advertise at the B-tech pay level, A-techs will not apply.

If you advertise at the A-tech pay level, you'll get B-tech applicants too.

Read that again. It's the single highest-leverage decision in your entire hiring process.

Most owners set their range conservatively because they're afraid a B or C-tech will walk in and demand the top number. But the truth is, the top number is a conversation — "here's how you get there through production and efficiency." You'll have that conversation at the desk, face to face, where you can walk them through it.

‼️ What you can't do is have a conversation with someone who never applied because your number was too low to catch their attention.

The salary survey tells you where the A-tech line is in your specific market. Without it, you're guessing. And you might be advertising a B-tech salary right now and wondering why you only get B-tech applicants.

The other thing the survey does — and this one surprises a lot of independent shop owners — is it shows you where you can actually beat the dealerships.

Most independents assume they can't compete with dealers on pay. Sometimes that's true on raw hourly rate. But the survey lays out the full picture — and the full picture often tells a different story.

Dealerships frequently run flat-rate production plans with massive ranges ($40,000-$205,000) that look impressive in an ad but come with unpredictable income, weekend shifts, and a factory environment.

If your shop runs a steady car count, no flat rate, Monday through Friday, with a guaranteed hourly rate plus bonuses — that's a story. A compelling one. But it only works as a recruiting tool if you can articulate it in contrast to what the dealerships are advertising.

The survey gives you that contrast.

Without it, you're just saying "we're different" and hoping the tech believes you.

There's one more thing the salary survey is good for, and it has nothing to do with hiring.

Retention.

A shop owner told me about a tech who came in one day and said he'd been offered $3 more per hour at the local dealer. He was planning to leave.

The owner sat down with him and walked through the entire compensation picture — base pay, bonuses, health insurance, retirement match, PTO, tool allowance, schedule. When you added it all up, the tech would actually be losing money by switching to the dealership.

The tech stayed.

But that conversation only works if you know your full compensation picture and how it stacks up. If you're guessing, you can't make the case. You just watch the tech walk out the door.

You can start this yourself. This week. 30 minutes.

Here's how.

Go to Indeed. Search "Automotive Technician" plus your city or zip code. Filter for full-time. Look at every ad that has a posted pay range.

Open 10 to 15 of them. Write down four things for each one: the shop name, the pay range (low and high), the benefits listed, and anything that surprised you.

Now compare what you wrote down to what you're currently offering.

Ask yourself one question: if a tech saw my ad right next to these, would they call me? Or would they call someone else first?

That question — honestly answered — is worth more than anything else in this post.

This isn't the full competitive intelligence survey. It's a 30-minute snapshot. But for most shop owners, it's the first time they've ever looked at their market through a tech's eyes.

And if you did the Benefits & Culture Audit from the previous post in this series (yesterday), you now have both pieces: what you offer and how it compares to everyone else. That combination is the foundation for every ad, every interview, and every offer conversation that follows.

The salary survey doesn't just change your ad.

It changes your confidence.

You stop hoping your number is competitive and start knowing where you stand. You stop guessing at your pay range and start positioning it. You stop wondering why good techs don't respond and start seeing exactly what they're comparing you against.

The shops that have this data make better ads, faster hires, and stronger offers.

The ones that don't are writing blind.

And they're competing against people who aren't.

If your bays are empty and you're about to post an ad, do this exercise first. 30 minutes on Indeed will tell you more about your market than a year of guessing.

Need a tech now and want help? Comment HIRE.

Fully staffed but building your pipeline? Comment BENCH.

I'll point you in the right direction.

7:10

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