How PDR technicians are paid

First, a note

This guide describes common pay arrangements and how the arithmetic works. It is not legal, tax or wage advice. How a shop classifies and pays its people is the shop's decision, made with its own accountant or attorney.

Why PDR pay is different

Hail work arrives in storms. Crews travel to where the hail fell, often work out of a dealership or a body shop that hosts them, and repair hundreds of cars in a few weeks. The work is priced by the panel and the range, not by the clock, so pay is usually tied to what the work bills rather than how long it took.

Door-ding and dealer work is steadier, and is more often paid by the panel or by the hour. Many shops run both, with different people on different plans.

Commission: a split of the work

The most common hail arrangement. The technician earns an agreed share of the work they repaired; the rest stays with the shop or the company running the storm. A "60/40" or "70/30" split means the tech keeps 60 or 70 of every 100 the work brings in, after any agreed deductions.

The rate is only half of the agreement. The other half is what the split is figured on, and it is where most pay arguments start. Three questions settle it:

1. Split of what? Usually the labor and the PDR on the car, before sales tax. Parts, sublets and materials are usually left out, because the shop paid for them.
2. After what? A facility fee, if there is one, normally comes off before the split.
3. Which rate? Many shops pay one rate on insurance work and another on retail or wholesale work.

The facility fee comes off first

Many storm setups take a facility fee before any commission is figured: a set amount for each car, or a share of the work, paid to the location hosting the crew or kept by the shop for overhead. It is a cost between the shop and its crew, not a charge on the customer's bill.

The order matters. Taken off the top, the fee is shared by everyone on commission in proportion to their split. Taken after the split, it lands on whoever it is charged to. Write down which one the shop does.

Hourly

An hourly tech is paid a rate for hours. Which hours count, and how overtime applies, is your shop's question for its accountant or attorney. Hourly is common for apprentices, for R&I and detail help, and for shops that want steady pay through slow weeks.

Flag hours

Flag hours pay the hours written on the work, not the hours on the clock. If the estimate gives an R&I 2.5 hours, a tech on flag hours is paid 2.5 hours for it, whether it took two hours or four. Whether and how wage-and-hour rules apply is your shop's question for its accountant or attorney. Fast, experienced techs often prefer it for that reason.

The flag rate is either a set amount for each flagged hour, or a share of the labor rate the estimate bills at. Either way, a flag-hour plan needs a rate everyone has agreed in writing before the hours start piling up.

By the panel

A set amount for every panel a tech repairs, whatever its size or range. It is simple to check and common on dealer and door-ding work. On heavy hail it is less common, because a roof with a hundred dents and a fender with five would pay the same.

Salary, and mixed plans

A salary belongs to the pay period, not to any one car. Some shops pay a base, salaried or hourly, with a commission on top, which keeps a floor under a tech's pay in a slow month and still rewards a big storm.

One car, five ways to pay

A sample hail car: a hood, a roof and a three-hour R&I on the belt molding, billed at $820.00 on an insurance claim, with a facility fee of 10 percent. One technician repaired all of it. Here is what they earn on this car under each pay type:

• Commission$295.20Commission: $295.20 (40% own rate × $738.00 base — $820.00 of $820.00 work, after the $82.00 facility fee)
• Flag hours$97.50Flag Hours: $97.50 (3h × $65.00 × 50%)
• Hourly$84.00Hourly: $84.00 (3h × $28.00/hr)
• Per panel$190.00Per Panel: $190.00 (2 panels × $95.00)
• SalaryPaid by the periodA salary belongs to a pay period, not to anybody's car.

Figured by PDRCore's pay engine, the same code that pays a real technician. The car, names and rates are samples, not a recommendation of any rate.

Notice that the facility fee changes only the commission figure. Hourly, flag hours and per panel are paid for the tech's own hours and panels, so a fee on the car doesn't touch them, and a salary isn't paid by the car at all.

Two techs on one car

Two techs on one roof is everyday hail work. The fair way to share it is by percent, so the shares on each line add up to the whole: a roof shared 60/40 pays each tech their share of that line under their own plan. One tech's plan should never change what the other earns on the same car.

What to agree before the first car

• Each person's pay plan and rate, and whether it differs for insurance, retail and wholesale work.
• The facility fee: a set amount or a share, what it is taken from, and that it comes off before the split.
• What commission is figured on: the labor and PDR, before tax, after the fee.
• When pay is earned: when the repair is finished, when the invoice is paid in full, or as each payment arrives.
• How a supplement is paid when the carrier's check comes weeks after the car has gone.
• How a shared panel is split, and who decides.
• What happens when a rate was never set, so nobody is paid a guess.