special commission holds 4-hour hearing on body shop labor rates, AASP-MA meets with lawmakers on inflation-tied auto body labor rate bill, A disconnect on labor rates and the cost of doing business, Auto body shops urge Mass. For many auto body shops, if the flat-rate time to replace a car starter is fixed at 2 hours. Finally, shops need a repeatable process. Average Auto Body Repair Technician Hourly Pay Pay Job Details Skills Job Listings Employers $19.52 / hour Avg. The refusal of auto insurers to adjust their labor rates in response to decades of rising costs has left body shops in an increasingly dire position, collision repairers and industry experts testified at a Massachusetts legislative hearing on Tuesday. So, there is a certain simple procedure to be able to write an auto repair estimate. I spent $125 an hour quite willingly to add my pickup truck serviced when the check engine light went out. In both cases, the companies advised the shop to bill the customer for the balance. 49-3021 Automotive Body and Related Repairers Repair and refinish automotive vehicle bodies and straighten vehicle frames. Im tired of being nice about this, he said. Rate B* (Skilled Mechanical work) - $125/Hr. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. Speaker after speaker argued that the allowed rate is too low to attract and keep the kind of technicians needed in the highly technical field, and is a fraction of the labor rates consumers regularly pay small engine repairers or bicycle repair shops. Florida Autobody Collision Alliance Reveals Why Havent We Seen a Major Increase in Labor Inquiry submitted by the DEG to the information provider, Information provider or DEG requests additional information, Response/resolution received from the information provider. Auto repair labor rates vary widely across the country, and even within the same city. Body shops saw a 10% increase in their own commercial insurance premiums, he noted. "Our History is Our Strength! is the theme for this years National Womens History Month. He reasoned that an increase in competition had led more shops to accept direct repair program (DRP) agreements with insurers, suppressing the average labor rate. Its just a business making the right decision for their own individual business, Valenzuela said. Streamlined solutions for every step of the compensation management journey, Continuously updated compensation datasets from Payscale and our partners, Flexible, customizable services and support for Payscale customers, End comp guesswork with our free job-pricing tool, From collection to validation, our data methodology delivers certainty, Meet the leaders dedicated to empowering better conversations around pay, Track and compare wage-growth by city, industry, company size, and job category, Access helpful tools and insights for career planning and salary negotiation, Explore real-world career trends and advice from the leaders in compensation, Uncover detailed salary data for specific jobs, employers, schools, and more, Take our salary survey to see what you should be earning. The smaller the relative standard error, the more precise the estimate. Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. How were paying body shops just $40 an hour makes zero, zero sense to me., Sam Valenzuela, president of National AutoBody Research (NABR), told the committee that, according to his companys data, the free market in Massachusetts absolutely would accept these higher rates that are necessary for shops to have a sustainably profitable business and all the things that go along with that.. Thank you for your feedback. Factors That Determine The Labor Rate. It is very common for some customers to disagree about a misunderstanding with the mechanics. Rates can be even higher for more specialized services and for new cars. Industries with the highest levels of employment in Automotive Body and Related Repairers: Industries with the highest concentration of employment in Automotive Body and Related Repairers: Top paying industries for Automotive Body and Related Repairers: States and areas with the highest published employment, location quotients, and wages for Automotive Body and Related Repairers are provided. steel, aluminum, fiberglass, etc.,". A lot of that is internally making decisions on how you approach repairs finding tangible ways to differentiate your business and maybe aligning with certification programs that promote a specialty, ensuring that you have to have the skills, training and equipment in order to do certain tasks, Schulenburg said.