Thread: average pay for a machinist

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anybody know what the average automotive machinist makes a year?

that would have alot to do with what you can do alot of big shop were one guy may only do 3 or 4 things like bore/hone .recon rods. and balancing .were you would work on a percent . a guy that works in the same shop could make more money grinding cranks and line bore work on diesels this is were you can make money. i made alot more money doing body/paint and frame work. but it would still have to do what the shop is willing to pay and how much work they get it a very tough bussiness

My brother-in-law has been a machinist in Idaho for over 10 years working in a shop that does government contract work. He makes $14.00 an hour. I've tried to get him to relocate here in Oregon where the local machinists make $26.00 an hour and up depending on experience/knowledge. You will make more if you are the lead man of course.

I ain't one but I would imagine the pay would be commensurate to where you live and experience. Now before anyone gets upset, let me explain that I am a retired A&P mechanic, over 48 years experience and have seen MANY mechanics applications for employment that reflected a lot of experience. When the cards were on the table it turned out to be a lot of BULLSHI...stylingZ, have no idea where your brother in law is in Idaho, but might be that his $14.00 is as good as Oregons $26.00.

Around here, the small cheesy shops pay $12.00 to $14.00 an hour. The larger well established shops pay $22.00 to $26.00 an hour. Our biggest problem in Ontario is that due to Canada's poor immigration laws, we get a new boatload of "third world" immigrants every week, and these people have no idea of what it costs to live in canada. Some of them are damn good machinists, and when offered $9.00 an hour to start a machinists job, that is more money than they have ever dreamed of earning. They work and draw Canadian Government assistance (for settling new immigrants) for the first two years that they are here. When the government assistance money runs out, they realize that you can not live on $9.00 an hour in Canada, so they then want more money. Of course, they are immediately laid off or fired, and the shop owner is down at the docks the next day to catch the newest boatload of immigrant machinists. The outcome of this, of course, is that the shop owners who do not follow this practice can not be competitive in pricing their services to the public, so they have to cut everybodys wages to stay competitive!!!

Automotive machinist around here are still stuck in the $12.00-$20.00 range depenending on the shop they work in.... The back room shops that just do boring, honing, and cylinder heads being on the low side and the race shops with the 5 axis equipment and the like being on the top end....

As Pat mentioned, if the work is there and you can stay at it, working on a percentage can also be a very good deal!!!!