What are good employed GSR engineers being paid these days?

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CG44

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I've spent most my 20 year career self employed but for the past few years have been employed as a service and breakdown engineer.

I shut my firm and joined a bigger firm to help kick their service department into shape and get it running slick and efficient - which it is now. Lots of promises have been made and broken in that time by the owner regards pay/bonus/OT/responsibility etc.

I think I'm being sold short for what I do. I take home £20k and have a van + fuel supplied by the firm have to work pretty hard for that - 10+ breakdowns and or services a day all day every day. I'm pretty good at what I do too so they tend to pile the work on thick.

I need to negotiate a better deal or get out of there back into self employment but don't really know what a good GSR engineer earns in employment.

Any thoughts?
 
townfanjon said:
Sorry I cant speak about any rates in Wales , but a guy like you doing 10 ish jobs a day , should be worth a minimum of 30 k .
Gas board would pay more than that .

Does your boss wear a hat and a cloak , ride a horse and shout “ stand and deliver “
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Take home is £20k plus van & fuel card mate, in Wales.
 
townfanjon said:
Sorry I cant speak about any rates in Wales , but a guy like you doing 10 ish jobs a day , should be worth a minimum of 30 k .
Gas board would pay more than that .

Does your boss wear a hat and a cloak , ride a horse and shout “ stand and deliver “
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No he drives a spankers M beemer and shouts "just nip here it'll only take 5 minutes do it on your way home. I'll pay you extra (usually £5 or something insignificant)"

£30k was what I thought was reasonable as a basic.

I know my billing is circa £3k a week in labour alone on servicing and even more when mixed with repairs.

Firm is ok to work for to be honest.
 
CG44 said:
Firm is ok to work for to be honest.
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No it isn’t, it’s basically ripping you off and laughing behind your back. Of course they’re nice to your face and do everything NOT to upset you..... they’re coining it in from your hrs work and loyalty. I’ve similar experience and found that they’ll drop you in a minute, if need be.

Bin them and go elsewhere.
 
PAYE usually works out around 25% of what you are worth to the company so use your 3k week as a starting point.
Just done the maths - good luck getting that though. ;)
 
Scott_1979 said:
Jesus that’s some crappy pay. Obviously I can’t speak on the wages for your your area but your getting 20k for this work is shameful imo.
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Yeah £26k gross £20k net

Bonuses and OT was promised but never materialised. If you work a weekend you get paid what seems like a random figure that fluctuates on what mood the boss is in.

bogrodder said:
No it isn’t, it’s basically ripping you off and laughing behind your back. Of course they’re nice to your face and do everything NOT to upset you... they’re coining it in from your hrs work and loyalty. I’ve similar experience and found that they’ll drop you in a minute, if need be.

Bin them and go elsewhere.
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Oh I know the owner is a piece of work but the actual work and the lads who work at the firm are good. They've all worked there for 20+ years but wouldn't urinate on the owner of he was on fire.

I don't know how they've stuck around so long. Stockholm syndrome probably..
 
CG44 said:
Oh I know the owner is a piece of work but the actual work and the lads who work at the firm are good. They've all worked there for 20+ years but wouldn't urinate on the owner of he was on fire.

I don't know how they've stuck around so long. Stockholm syndrome probably..
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If this is how you perceive your current situation, it is definitely time to be seeking pastures new. Don't bother trying to negotiate a raise, if they had any intention of paying you what you are worth they'd have done so by now.
 
rpm said:
PAYE usually works out around 25% of what you are worth to the company so use your 3k week as a starting point.
Just done the maths - good luck getting that though. ;)
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I'd settle at £30k. Gives me some spare cash to reach escape velocity and go self employed again.

I know he'll flip his lid in private if I try and negotiate a raise with him

Last year we pressed for a proper pay review and got 8p an hour and the Christmas party cancelled and the festive bonus slashed from £100 to £30.

I'm really not as big a mug as this makes me sound....lol...
 
i would be expecting £28,000 to £30,000 plus time and half for any out of hours work unless done on call out basis which would be a negotiated payment.
 
I have a relation who runs a boiler maintenance company 8 engineers its been established a good few years now, do all sorts of maintenance and servicing ,domestic and industrial installs 100 plus boilers fitted a year my brothering law works for them as a plumber they are on £33k a year + van and phone . Kop
 
I'm shocked, I earn about 35k basic, 41k or more with standby retainers, commission and overtime (gross). I live in Dorset but work for a national company who pay the same across the country. It sounds like you work bloody hard for not a lot
 
I'm shocked, I earn about 35k basic, 41k or more with standby retainers, commission and overtime (gross). I live in Dorset but work for a national company who pay the same across the country. It sounds like you work bloody hard for not a lot
 
Back to the OP ........... when you do your calculations remember employment includes sick and holiday pay, plus a pension ..........and more time for yourself

Being SE takes up a lot of your "spare" time
 
So 25k basic pay with on-costs of NI and pension. Van, fuel, insurance of various types. Then there are premises costs, office staff etc. Perhaps total costs of everything could be £50k a year. Anyone disagree?

Your labour is generating 3k a week, say 45 weeks a year come to £135k, I assume the 3k is before VAT.

And you came in as a consultant to sort things out!

Having worked for yourself you should have some idea of the figures, but perhaps that’s not your strong point so decided to work for someone else.
 
I work for a large firm in the North West, the pay is around £37k basic, I took around £56k last year with o/t all taxed Basic and Higher bands. Van,tools,fuel etc provided. Holiday, sick pay,pension. I was looking into going self employed to have a bit more control of my own time but can't really gauge if i'd be better off.
 
malx42 said:
So 25k basic pay with on-costs of NI and pension. Van, fuel, insurance of various types. Then there are premises costs, office staff etc. Perhaps total costs of everything could be £50k a year. Anyone disagree?

Your labour is generating 3k a week, say 45 weeks a year come to £135k, I assume the 3k is before VAT.

And you came in as a consultant to sort things out!

Having worked for yourself you should have some idea of the figures, but perhaps that’s not your strong point so decided to work for someone else.
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The companies that pay £25000 per year are not charging £75 every hour.going on your assumption that it generates £3000 a week.
A guy on 32,000 will generally be charged out at 45 first hour, then 34 from then on. A day rate would be worked on £32 per hour for a 8 hour priced day.
 
Bearing in mind a GSR engineer is probably more crucial to an individuals ekf and safety than their GP. none of these rates compare to a GP.
Always thought like this ..Fitters and plumbers should inherite the earth in my book
Rob Foster aka centrakheatking
 
malx42 said:
So 25k basic pay with on-costs of NI and pension. Van, fuel, insurance of various types. Then there are premises costs, office staff etc. Perhaps total costs of everything could be £50k a year. Anyone disagree?

Your labour is generating 3k a week, say 45 weeks a year come to £135k, I assume the 3k is before VAT.

And you came in as a consultant to sort things out!

Having worked for yourself you should have some idea of the figures, but perhaps that’s not your strong point so decided to work for someone else.
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Yes I came in with the intention of sorting out the poor organisation and building up the service side of the business. It's running well now but it seems the owner seems happy with the cash we have flowing in and has kicked me into line.

As background. I went SE as soon as I did my time (21) Was a partner in a domestic heating installation company in the early 2000s till about 2005 employing a small team of fitters. I sold out my share to the other partner and started a commercial catering service company covering the north west. I did well at that but got fed up of it and closed it down.

Then I decided I fancied a go at being a war hero and joined the Royal Marines so I could go and fight in Afghanistan. I came out of that with both my legs had a couple of kids and went back into catering maintenance racket on my own. I never really got back into the full cut and thrust of it after the Marines so took the job with this firm.

And that's where we are today. I know I'm getting screwed over and will leave but could do with a bit more cash to get it done. My career gap in the forces is why I'm unsure what good pay is these days.
 
Chalked said:
The companies that pay £25000 per year are not charging £75 every hour.going on your assumption that it generates £3000 a week.
A guy on 32,000 will generally be charged out at 45 first hour, then 34 from then on. A day rate would be worked on £32 per hour for a 8 hour priced day.
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I don't see how you can possibly state that with such implied authority. A boss's job is to maximise income and minimise expenditure. Some will apply that to the fullest extent that customers and employees will allow.
 
firemant said:
I don't see how you can possibly state that with such implied authority. A boss's job is to maximise income and minimise expenditure. Some will apply that to the fullest extent that customers and employees will allow.
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Typically the minimum price on my head is £65 per job and I do 7 calls a day on a slack day, and I rarely have slack days. We are often made to fit used parts that he'll happily bill out as new.

Like today I just swapped a main heat exchanger on a Vaillant. I was given a used one taken from an old boiler we took out of somewhere. The customer left the quote stuck on the boiler. £300. I was there 30-40 mins doing the job that was my 7th job of the day. Right now I'm being pressed to work over and 'just' re route a cold main a few metres feeding a block of flats. He'll probably slip me an extra tenner in my pay packet.

I'm about ready to rip his throat out and feed it back to him.

There is maximising profit, which im all for, and there is taking the pish out of customers and staff.

Roll on self employment!
 
CG44 said:
We are often made to fit used parts that he'll happily bill out as new.

Like today I just swapped a main heat exchanger on a Vaillant. I was given a used one taken from an old boiler we took out of somewhere.
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Blimey! I've very rarely used a "second hand" 22mm service valve in good nick when I've been in a pinch on the very rare occasion but what your boss is doing is downright out of order, criminal even.
 
Stigster said:
Blimey! I've very rarely used a "second hand" 22mm service valve in good nick when I've been in a pinch on the very rare occasion but what your boss is doing is downright out of order, criminal even.
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Last year he gave me a 'new' (clearly used) electric shower to fit. The box was a bit dusty because it had 'been on the shelf for 6 months'. I fitted it and it didn't work.

Customer called Mira warranty line and it turns out that particular shower model went out of production 10 years ago...

The customer quite rightly went ape. Pretty embarrassing tbh.
 
CG44 said:
Typically the minimum price on my head is £65 per job and I do 7 calls a day on a slack day, and I rarely have slack days. We are often made to fit used parts that he'll happily bill out as new.
[...]
There is maximising profit, which im all for, and there is taking the pish out of customers and staff.
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There's also 'conspiracy to defraud' (Fraud Act 2006), which can win you and your boss a criminal record and possibly a spell in prison.
 
Last edited:
I get 40k basic, Mon-Fri, 08:00 - 17:00. After stoppages I get around 30k take home per annum.

I am going SE this year for 1) the challenge and 2) to see if I can make more money that way. (Opinions would be good on the likelihood)

I don't mean to be offensive but for 26k basic, I would expect to be working in a non-skilled job.

By the sounds of it, you know you are being had over and you're not enjoying it, so do the right thing and look around.
 
Lee Davies said:
I get 40k basic, Mon-Fri, 08:00 - 17:00. After stoppages I get around 30k take home per annum.

I am going SE this year for 1) the challenge and 2) to see if I can make more money that way. (Opinions would be good on the likelihood)
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I would guess that by working strictly 8-5 you would struggle to get much more than £40K after expenses, if you can even achieve that, assuming minimun 28 days holidays. I know I worked a lot more hours, all in - altbough if I could go back in time, I would do things differently. There is a lot of admin, quoting, courses etc. In fact, I would be surprised if there are many on your money, on the books, for a standard day. But could well be wrong.
 
firemant said:
I would guess that by working strictly 8-5 you would struggle to get much more than £40K after expenses, if you can even achieve that, assuming minimun 28 days holidays. I know I worked a lot more hours, all in - altbough if I could go back in time, I would do things differently. There is a lot of admin, quoting, courses etc. In fact, I would be surprised if there are many on your money, on the books, for a standard day. But could well be wrong.
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I see what you are saying.
I would be willing to work outside those hours, 100%. I only do those hours now because there is no overtime here. Contracted hours, that's that. I would be willing to do an emergency hours service Mon-Sat.

I wasn't really going self-employed to earn MORE money, but more for the experience of "Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda". I would at least like to give it a go.

There will also be the incentive of private, off books work of course which isn't an option here. not to mention tax reliefs.

I am hopefully, but is it realistic?
 
Lee Davies said:
I see what you are saying.
I would be willing to work outside those hours, 100%. I only do those hours now because there is no overtime here. Contracted hours, that's that. I would be willing to do an emergency hours service Mon-Sat.

I wasn't really going self-employed to earn MORE money, but more for the experience of "Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda". I would at least like to give it a go.

There will also be the incentive of private, off books work of course which isn't an option here. not to mention tax reliefs.

I am hopefully, but is it realistic?[/QUOTE

Private work when SE is, err, work.
Obviously you can choose to fiddle the tax.

Tax relief: to save £20 via tax relief you have to spend an additional (roughly) £80.

Expenses are ALWAYS more than you expect.

To put SE against employed in perspective, to earn £40K in your existing 4o hours, you would have to earn £22.22 per hour, after every penny if expense has been costed. That assumes 35 days unproductive: Holidays (4 weeks plus bank hols) and a conservative 7 days spent on courses, sick, family emergency, accountant meetings etc. It also assumes you are charging for EVERY one of the 40 hours- which is unrealistic.

No personal pension is better than a company one, which is something I would urge every SE guy to consider.

All that said, being SE. gave me a good life, but longish hours. I was able to attend every school play, assembly and parent meeting for my 2 kids. It is only now as employed that I realise what a privelige that was.

So, go for it, but make sure you do a proper business plan and cash flow to work out the £££’s - and do not be afraid to charge enough.

In my experience, undercharging is the biggest downfall of new SE - but we did not have the benefit of computers and free resource like this and DIYNOT.

Good luck
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