The time I spent at the Cadillac dealership and Merchant's Tire did not impress me. Merchant's actually wasn't overly bad as it was a new shop and we never had a technician in every stall, but the Cadillac dealership was something else. I accepted the job making less than I was at Great Dane trailers figuring work conditions and benefits had to be better. They were, and the first year or so wasn't too bad. I was sent to GM school, given a slight pay increase and started getting more "gravy" jobs. At the time I was still an apprentice tech, making an hourly wage, though there was an incentive for us if we turned over enough hours (similar to commission). The guy that mentored me initially got moved up to Technician a few months after I started there and received a whopping $2.50/hour pay increase. He was also placed on commission, though, and might have broken even on payday. The highest paid technician there made $26 an hour, turning over 90 hours a week on average. He got all the engine swaps and other major work. The transmission guy got paid $20-something as well and turned over quite a few hours. There were one or two other techs in the shop that made $16-22 an hour and averaged 50+ hours during the 42.5 hour work week. Then there were the lower end techs. They started at $10 and made up to $15 on commission, however, they usually got hampered with the warranty work or diagnostics. Especially during the winter months, when things slowed waaayyy down, I recall a few of them talking about turning over 30 hours or even less.
Skill and experience play a huge part in commission work, but naturally the lesser skilled techs are making less per hour and getting saddled with the jobs the tenured techs don't want. The more techs there are, the worse the competition gets for the "gravy" work, and at a dealership warranty work is extremely undesirable. While an alignment might normally pay for an hour, a warranty alignment may only pay for 1/3 to 1/2 an hour.
Hopefully NTB will work out for you. It's the same company as Merchants, and though most of my time there was part-time it was quite a bit better than Cadillac. If it doesn't work out for you, there is always the Army.
But seriously, if you are otherwise qualified you may be able to join as a mechanic, making up to $1827.60 a month plus full benefits, housing and a food allowance. It's worked out great for me. Joined as Infantry, got paid to do things I loved (humping and sucking) met celebrities and presidents in DC, and now get paid more than ever to talk to people. A couple more years and I'll be back behind the trigger, doing what I love.
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