Question about fair wage for a machine operator.

I'm wondering what is the fair wage for a fellow who loads and unloads a machine. Heavy stuff. Not a programmer or a machinist, but a sharp fellow who is always at work on time, makes few mistakes and can be depended upon to make quality work with little supervision. What should I be paying?

Reply to
Polymer Man
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Let me add, this is in the Charlotte NC area.

Reply to
Polymer Man

Use the McDonalds 1.5 rule.

MW=3D6.75 1.5*6.75=3D10.13

$10.13 per hour

CC

Reply to
CarCrazy666

Depends on how much you'd like to keep him, and how much value he is to your company. How much effort would it take to find another reliable person, and re-train him to do his job?

Getting paid a good wage means more to people than just making money. It makes them feel appreciated, needed, and part of the team.

Reply to
Joe788

Renumeration the ultimate form of flattery

Reply to
clutch

snip

Joe, I know, which is why I treat them with respect and give them a safe and comfortable work environment and I want them properly paid. Which is why I'm wondering where that number ought to be.

Thanks, Nathan

Reply to
Polymer Man

Gawd! How about a living wage.

Reply to
DL

I find this a very hard question to answer with the very limited information you provided. Can he do setups? Can he read G code? Does he edit programs at the control? Can he read prints? Does he inspect his parts? If he's not a machinist what is he? What kind of machine does he load and unload?

Jon Banquer San Diego,CA

Reply to
jon_banquer

For an entry level button pusher that is a fair wage. However I don't feel it applies to the OP's man, he is skilled, to what level we can only guess.

Tom

Reply to
brewertr

Polymer Man:

Here is a site listing a number of machine operator jobs. Some in Charlotte, some elsewhere in NC.

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But the bottom line is that the lowest pay of this set is about $9.00 and the highest around $15.00. With most of them being in the $10.00-$11.00 range.

Reply to
BottleBob

Thank you fellows, especially you Bob, I don't know why I didn't think to do that first. I'm going to go with $11.

To answer your questions Jon, no, he doesn't have any machining or programming skills. But he comes to work on time, has a good attitude and generates very little human error related scrap.

Reply to
Polymer Man

Between $12 and $13 and a chance to make more if he takes an adult education program on machining which you can offer to pick up the tab for.

Jon Banquer San Diego,CA

Reply to
jon_banquer

Works for me.

OTOH, For the last 30 years, I've considered a "living wage" to be about 30% more than I'm making. About the amount the government takes out in taxes by the way.

tschus pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich "I had just been through hell and must have looked like death warmed over walking into the saloon, because when I asked the bartender whether they served zombies he said, ?Sure, what'll you have?'" from I Hear America Swinging by Peter DeVries

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

They'll let you know.

There have been a number of people who have left the company I'm working at, for more money, who then came back. As the latest guy said "Compared to there, this place is NASA!" And the latest guy to "take a vacation", already the pool is forming for when the company will call him up and make him a better offer. Not bad "for a kid w/o even a GED." More power to him.

Meanwhile, I'm back in the Robos. I actually don't mind the work, and I can set up stuff for the "new guys", and make good parts, too. Sure, I'd like more money, but am I worth it to the company? Or am I living over my means?

tschus pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich "I had just been through hell and must have looked like death warmed over walking into the saloon, because when I asked the bartender whether they served zombies he said, ?Sure, what'll you have?'" from I Hear America Swinging by Peter DeVries

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

I missed the Staff meeting, but the Memos showed that Polymer Man wrote on Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:43:57 -0800 (PST) in alt.machines.cnc :

Right there, those are keepers. You can't teach those, those have to come from within.

Maybe you can teach him the trade, and he'll stay longer?

tschus pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich "I had just been through hell and must have looked like death warmed over walking into the saloon, because when I asked the bartender whether they served zombies he said, ?Sure, what'll you have?'" from I Hear America Swinging by Peter DeVries

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

A fair wage for anybody is whatever it takes to keep him or her working, and also to make a reasonable profit on the work. In machine shops, that varies all over the map. It also varies with the type of work the shop does, the health of the industry sector, the "posture" of the employer (long term growth plans, get rich quick myopia, trying to survive in a sinking boat, etc.), and the supply/demand dynamics of the local workforce.

It also depends a lot on whether the employer really gets what's paid for. I see a lot of people who claim to be experienced machine operators, and who actually need three guesses to figure out which end of a machine tool is the top. Once hired, though, it's expensive to fire such people, so there's a tendency to try to train them, use whatever skills they do have in whatever ways can be found, and then to discount expectations and starting wages for the next person who walks through the door.

When I went looking for a job two years ago, and found a shop I liked, I asked for a starting salary that was much less than I really wanted, and a review after six months. I figured if the shop and its managers were as good as they looked, they'd see what I was worth. And if I was as good as I thought, then my real target salary wouldn't be hard to negotiate, once we could talk about facts, and not just promises. It's worked out well.

KG

Reply to
Kirk Gordon

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