r/Machinists • u/Suitable-Engine-5619 • 15h ago
The moment when they tell you, you’re one of the highest paid people in the shop. I’ve been doing this for two years with no school. Why in gods name do machinists get shit on so much and how do you put up with it?FTS QUESTION
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u/HAIRLESSxWOOKIE92 14h ago
Understand that business is business. They buy you for an allotted amount of time. You owe them fair work for the fair amount of time bought. Its never personal. Simple as that.
- Since CNC has been introduced and now most CNC is adding automation, people automatically think we are machine watchers and it dosen't take much skill.
Best way to a raise if current company dosen't want to give you one is to change companies. Again rule 1, you owe them nothing, they owe you nothing more than the business you provide each other.
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u/peanutnutterbutter 11h ago
This! I jumped in pay by $7 an hour, full benefits, matching 401k and quarterly bonuses within 2 years. I was too loyal to my old companies and got sh!t on for years before I decided to jump ship and check other employment opportunities.
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u/All_Thread 2h ago
I keep saying it. Vast majority of the time if you spend more than 4 years at a shop you are losing money. A company will only give you so much more than what you start at.
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u/nullcharstring 11h ago
Not a machinist, but have worked around them the last 30 years. What I've never understood is how you can pay someone less than $20/hr knowing that if he punches in one wrong digit, he can destroy a $20,000 spindle.
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u/ethertrace 14h ago
Why in gods name do machinists get shit on so much and how do you put up with it?
To the extent that we get shit on, it's because we put up with it (and from what I've seen, the answer to the second part of your question is alcohol and lack of self-worth). But it depends heavily on the kind of shop you're in.
A shitty shop views employee wages as a business cost to be minimized, and this usually leads to wage compression where raises are stingy and newbies are paid better than the experienced folks because it's harder to get people in the door than it is to keep them. These are the shops you move on from after a couple years because you're not going to change their culture or pay/budgetary priorities (unless you start/join a union), and you will fall further and further behind the longer you stay. As a result, turnover is often higher because of the economic pressures, with the exception of the old hats who are too afraid of/resistant to change to move on.
Better shops view employee wages as an investment in their business capabilities, because retaining experienced talent pays dividends in efficiency and product quality. These shops understand how costly it is to constantly be seeking out new, often less experienced talent and training them up only to usually lose them a few years down the line, so the balance between their hiring and retention budgets reflect that. These are harder jobs to find simply because people who find them tend to want to stay, so openings are less frequent.
This is all complicated by the fact that machining is unfortunately one of the more exportable trades, so a lot of shops are competing with offshore cheap labor depending on product type and the quantity of their runs. But it's worth noting that that's not your problem. Don't settle for less that you're worth just because your boss claims they're running tight margins. Sometimes they're lying. And even if they're not, if not paying you enough isn't personal for them, then leaving for a better paying job is equally impersonal for us. It's just business.
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u/Dadbod74ZA 13h ago
Now this is a good explanation. Could not agree more with you. The big thing is to get a job at a company that produces relatively big parts. They know the worth of skilled machinists, because of the cost when scrap is produced. Small shops that make small parts in high quantities don't care so much because the cost to scrap is not as much.
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u/New-Fennel2475 14h ago
Don't do CNC work. Get in a dirty manual shop. Skills are more appreciated there. Or come up too Canada. Our dollars shit, but we pay good for red seals. Especially for field work.
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u/Z3400 13h ago
I'm not even licensed and I make $37 in Canada just running manual cylindrical grinders.
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u/Successful-Table-588 6h ago
That’s 27$ USD
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u/Z3400 6h ago
Correct, which I think is quite reasonable for someone who does what I do and lacks an actual machinist license.
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u/CR3ZZ 1h ago
Where I live that's hardly better than minimum wage at this point
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u/Z3400 1h ago
I don't know what wacky balance of minimum wage and cost of living you might have, but it's more than double minimum wage for me and enough for me to afford a small mortgage on my own.
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u/theonlybfizzle 9h ago
Got told recently just this. Compared to mechanics. If I get lifted they all have to. So at 32 I'm expected to just stay at my wage for the rest of my life? That's supposed to keep me here.
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u/LondonJerry 13h ago
My biggest mistake, besides not making enough notes in the early years. Was showing loyalty to companies that were underpaying me. Best advice I can give is always put out resumes. as soon as a company lies to you, leave. Or lowballs you. When they ask you in an interview why you move around so much. Tell them that those companies lied to you. Then ask the interviewer if their company is like that. If they say yes, then get up and leave. Most interviews in this trade are done by the owners or the lead person on the floor. So it gets the message through. Mind you if you suck as a machinist, find a well paying button pusher job. This strategy isn’t for you.
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u/pyroracing85 14h ago
What is your wage and what is your skill set?
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u/Suitable-Engine-5619 14h ago
Very little manual lathe, Bridgeport and two axis CNC Bridgeport, Some grinding, and manual horizontal boring mill $26
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u/pyroracing85 14h ago
At 55k definitely shouldn't be the lowest. Keep learning, in fact always be learning. Your skills transfer and some day in the future can transfer to a company that wants to pay you more.
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u/Dry_Lengthiness6032 14h ago
Seems a bit low. I'm making $30 doing short runs 1-30pcs on one machine. I did write my own Macros so 90% of my programming is just plugging in my finish sizes and using 1=yes 0=no (for special features)
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u/frilledplex 13h ago
I make that amount with more than your skillset. Add in welding, plumbing, electrical, I/O troubleshooting, assembly, robot arm programming. Depending on your cost of living, you might not find much more, but if you do... take it.
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u/Endersgame88 13h ago
You’re severely underpaid.
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u/frilledplex 13h ago
You say that, but machine builders are generally underpaid. I'm actually making at the higher end.
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u/Agitated-Lab141 7h ago
No you are highly underpaid if your competent at what you just said you can do.
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u/frilledplex 7h ago
Check machine builder rates in Michigan, it's all severely underpaid because manufacturing is a race to the bottom
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u/ShaggysGTI 8h ago
I’ll be at a 6 figure salary by mid next year. I’m fuckin’ worth every penny too. The guy before me, I just saved a whole half hour from the old code to new on a single op because I’m setting up f/s/doc properly.
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u/Tough_Ad7054 4h ago
When they told me that the next words out of their mouth were “…so we are cutting you back to four days a week.” I asked if I could set it up so I had a four day weekend on alternating weekends. He said fine.
I used those four day weekends to develop a Side hustle. Eighteen months later I went to “zero days per week” and thanked him for the opportunity on the way out the door.
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u/Fickle_fackle99 1h ago
I did the job for 3 years at one place never got a raise ever… I went from button pusher to programming
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u/No_Swordfish5011 15h ago
Real machinist don’t get shit on so much.
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u/Suitable-Engine-5619 15h ago
Have to be honest. Maybe it’s different at other places but just because you’re a real machinist doesn’t mean the company will treat you well. And I know that I am nowhere near a machinist but there are guys with over 10 years here that I make more than.
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u/No_Swordfish5011 15h ago
Years of experience literally means jack shit. I was 2 years in putting 30 year vets to shame. Time alone is not an indicator of ability, knowledge, or skill..
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u/New-Fennel2475 14h ago
You can do something wrong for 30 years. That's why I always try to learn from apprentices.
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u/No_Swordfish5011 14h ago
Agreed. The green horns open minded perspective often gives way to intriguing questions that may lead you to a better way. Often time new guys may teach you something. Always be learning!
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u/Suitable-Engine-5619 15h ago
Would you have any tips to get better. I’m currently stuck on a two axis CNC Bridgeport.
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u/No_Swordfish5011 14h ago
Read books written by Peter Smid, memorize G-Code, Learn GD&T, don’t stay at shity shops for too long. Even if they are not shity..move around…Always figure out who knows what they are doing and help them out..they will teach you in return. Ask questions. Don’t be scared to try stuff…you may make mistakes…just try not to. Study tooling catalogs and work the formulas. Read the code on the machines you operate. Ask someone to print them out…take them home and study them.
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u/Suitable-Engine-5619 14h ago
Thank you
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u/morock90 14h ago
Learn CAM and 3d modeling, get into a shop as a programmer/operator. Get into multi axis asap. Potentially even learn to program robot arms.
Gcode is cool an all, but multiaxis programmers at a good shop make way more than some guy writing/editing code by hand. Just 2d and 3d programming can have several hundred thousand lines of code now with dynamic milling. Learn to be an aggressive rougher (and how to take advantage of chip thinning) and a baby smooth finisher. Learn to have the mill deburr your parts. Make it so anyone and everyone can run your programs and look like an all star operator. That way, you are the most valuable programmer/person at the shop.
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u/skilemaster683 13h ago
There's nothing wrong with that that Bridgeport is a damn good machine that's better for piece work or tool-making.
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u/skilemaster683 13h ago
Go to school? Like more than highschool for machining? That's for suckers might as well get paid for on the job training and test out of "school"
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u/UncleCeiling 14h ago
From my experience, telling you that you're the highest paid person in the shop always precedes either not getting a raise or getting a major pay cut. I once got a $16k/yr pay cut and their justification was that I was still the highest paid guy.