This post is a bit long but its full of hiring gold nuggets if you stay with me till the end. You might know that Technician Find has started doing comprehensive salary and benefits surveys for the shops we work with so they can see at a glance what their competition is offering their techs and how they stack up. We pull this data from the top job boards online and then aggregate the data into an easy to read chart. Then we run a statistical analysis of how our client shop's salary and benefits stack up so they can see where they are weak. This level of detail helps us write ads that get applications and it helps shops make offers that get accepted. Anyways, a client asked a great question this morning... To paraphrase he asked if there was a way to see what shops were actually paying their techs. NOT what they were offering online in job ads. You know me, I love a good challenge so I took a deep dive on Perplexity.AI to see what I could drum up. This is my reply and the interesting stuff I found in my deep dive: ______________________ Thanks for the detailed context. You're absolutely right that posted salaries only tell part of the story. Short of doing a W2 audit of each shop in your area there's no way to get an accurate read on real compensation numbers. That being said, there is a workaround of sorts. I did a deep search for actual compensation information in Perplexity.AI and received the output below. This output is based on supposedly factual data gathered from real shop owners and technicians via online sources where compensation is being discussed candidly. You can be the judge of its veracity but this data does reveal some interesting conclusions about how salary should be structured and listed for maximum impact. Let me know what you think. Take care, -Chris ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Based on recent placement data and industry compensation research, here's what strong technicians are actually accepting when they're recruited off-market versus what appears publicly.

Let me tell you a quick story. A few months back, I got a text from Jeff Lee. He and his wife Amy own J&R Service Center—three shops, including a motorsports division. His message? "That ad got five responses in one day. Between 15 and 30 years of experience. You might wanna spread that around, bud. It definitely hits the buttons." Two minutes later, another text: "Two more just came into the inbox. That's seven. Over 10 years experience." Now look—that doesn't happen every day. That's an outlier for sure. But here's what's NOT an outlier: Ads that stand out get responses. Ads that look like everyone else's get ignored. Go search Indeed right now. Type in "automotive technician in [your city]" You'll see 380+ jobs that all look EXACTLY THE SAME. Same boring headlines. Same "requirements first" structure. Same invisible, forgettable copy. Meanwhile, the techs you actually want? They're scrolling past all of it. So I put together something special for you. Inside the classroom, you'll find: → A 16-minute video walkthrough showing you exactly how the ad that got those 7 responses was built—section by section → The actual swipe-and-deploy template you can customize for your shop → A custom AI tool (Mini Travel Brochure) that writes the relocation section if you're open to hiring outside your area → Another AI tool (Tech Ad Tuner) that diagnoses what's wrong with your current ad and shows you exactly how to fix it Your ad is usually the first impression a technician has of your shop. It's the highest-leverage thing you can work on if you're serious about attracting real talent. Go grab these tools and write something that makes a tech stop scrolling. 📍 Find it all in the classroom under "Grab a technician ad template that works!" Remember—techs aren't reading every word. They're scanning. They're deciding in seconds whether you're worth their time.

You just haven’t said the number out loud. So let me help. Take your ARO. Multiply by how many cars that bay could move per week. Multiply by 4. That’s what’s bleeding out of your shop every month. 🔥 And for what? Another week of hoping the right guy applies? “We’re booked 2-3 weeks and still not hitting our numbers.” Yeah—because you’re saying no to work while your equipment sits cold. Here’s what I’ve seen after talking to hundreds of shop owners: The ones who stay stuck treat hiring like another line item. The ones who break through treat it like the $20K–$40K++/month problem it actually is. Which camp are you in? Drop your number in the comments. What’s that empty seat really costing you? Be honest. The math doesn’t lie. If you’re ready to do more than just talk about it—I’ve got something that’ll help. Just ask.

Jim Farley thinks America has a skilled labor shortage problem. I think Ford has a humanity problem. A few days ago, Ford's CEO went on a podcast lamenting that they can't fill 5,000 mechanic positions despite offering $120,000 salaries. He blamed it on everything from lack of trade schools to generational work ethic. Let me translate what's really happening: Ford is discovering what happens when you treat human beings like "employee 389" for decades. (Yes, that's how Farley literally referenced his grandfather who worked there.) See, Ford thinks this equation still works: Big Money + Big Brand = Automatic Talent Magnet. Meanwhile, independent shops with a fraction of their recruiting budget are stealing their best technicians. How? They remembered something Ford forgot: Technicians are humans first, workers second. Here's what Ford's $120K can't buy: - Direct access to decision makers - Not 7 layers of management who've never turned a wrench - Being seen as a craftsman - Not employee #12,847 in the meat grinder - Flexibility when life happens - Not "submit form HR-7B for your kid's baseball game" - Input that matters - Not suggestions that die in committee meetings - Recognition for excellence - Not the same raise as the guy who shows up drunk The best part? Farley admits they agreed to a 25% pay bump over 4 years with the UAW. Translation: They'll throw money at anything except treating people with dignity. I've placed hundreds of technicians. The ones earning $110K at independent shops that take care of them? They laugh when dealers wave $120K at them. Why? Because they've learned what shop owners are starting to realize: Culture and lifestyle eat compensation for breakfast. Yes, you need competitive pay. But Ford's panic proves what I've been saying for years: The technician shortage isn't the real problem. The humanity shortage is. While Ford scrambles to understand why money isn't working anymore, smart independents are building something money can't buy:

A shop owner recently asked me about our "pool of technician candidates." He wanted to know how deep is our bench? In other words, how many techs are in our database? Classic recruiter questions. Asking about a ‘talent pool’ is natural—but it’s the second question. The first is: What system turns employed techs into interested applicants for your shop this month? THE RECRUITER'S DEATH SPIRAL Traditional recruiters are like fishermen working from a stocked pond. They brag about having 200, 500, or 1,000 techs in their "database." Sounds impressive, right? Wrong. Here's what they don't tell you: That pond is shrinking every single day. Every placement depletes it. Every tech who finds a job elsewhere drains it. Every retirement empties it further. A pipeline is only as real as its weekly refresh rate and reply-to-conversation conversion. It's like trying to heat your shop in winter by burning your own furniture. Sure, you'll stay warm tonight—but what happens when you run out of chairs? THE OCEAN VS. THE POND At Technician Find, we don't fish from a pond. We fish from the ocean. The difference? Recruiter thinking (The Pond): - "I have 200 contacts" - "My database has 500 techs" - "Let me check my pipeline" - Dead when the pond runs dry - Limited to whoever answered their last Indeed ad Technician Find thinking (The Ocean): - Access to every technician in your market - Fresh candidates discovered daily through strategic sourcing - On-demand attraction of employed techs not even looking - Unlimited potential through authentic storytelling - Never runs dry because we're creating interest, not depleting inventory THE PIPELINE SOLUTION When shops ask about our "candidate bench," they're asking the wrong question entirely. It's like asking a master chef how much leftover food they have in their fridge. The chef doesn't succeed because of leftovers—they succeed because they know how to source fresh ingredients and create something irresistible every single day.