I work in the tire industry, it's an industry I have been in since I was a kid. Being the child of immigrants, I often had to work at the family business just to help make ends meet. So when I was 11 years old my Dad started taking me to his tire shop, there he taught me to do mount/dismounts, tire repairs, balancing, etc. As I got older the tires and wheels got bigger. Eventually at 15 I was doing road side assistance work with my uncle, working on truck tires. Later on I left the family business to work for companies like Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone, etc doing various kind of tires including OTR (like loaders and other large equipment) to solids (like forklifts). I ended up working at this union shop that pays $30/hr, and where I basically just do wheel swings all night (the tire is already mounted, aired up, and balanced I just swap em with the used one on the trucks). It's easy as hell, but it's really far from my house, so I started looking for jobs closer to home and found an opening for a commercial tire installer at Love's, a chain of truck stops.
I applied to Love's, but noticed that their listing did not include the wage. I showed up to the interview and the guys starts asking me about my skill set. I tell him all the various tire related services I do, and the various types of vehicles I have worked on, from mining trucks to lawnmowers. I tell him I know how to use most tools from tire mounting machines to boom trucks for OTR jobs. The manager seems impressed and says the job is mine if I want it. I tell him “That is entirely dependent on pay, what's the pay per hour?” He says $13/hr. I looked at him and laughed “$13/hr for a commercial tire tech?, for an experienced commercial tire tech?” he said yes. I said “That's not even close to being a living wage” he said he doesn't know of a shop that was willing to pay more for a tire tech so I listed them out.
Goodyear – $14/hr with no experience, $17/hr starting with some experience, more if you do the mobile service van.
EB Tires – $19/hr starting with no experience, $22/hr for commercial techs who work the pad $25 for road service techs, $27 for OTR. All positions earn commission based on billable labor hours. After hours jobs pay 3 hours of overtime pay regardless of how quick (do a 30 minute flat repair? still get paid for 3 hours)
Les Schwab – $20/hr
Bridgestone – $27/hr
My current employer – $30/hr for experienced techs, $25 for those with no commercial tire experience but experience in tires, moves up to $30 once TIA certified.
He says that he has another job, higher paying if I am interested. I ask what this job is and he says it's tire delivery….$15/hr
Told him “no offense, but this interview is over.” He was just like “I figured it was”
He still called me up like a week later and asked if I was still interested I told him I stopped being interested when he told me the wage and he was like “oh yeah, my bad” and hung up.