(Fwd) Salary survey information request

Avery Todd atodd@UH.EDU
Thu Dec 10 09:43 MST 1998


Jeff,

   Your situation sounds similar to mine here at the University of Houston.

>In both cases, the deans were well aware that (busy)
>independent techs gross significantly more than what they were able to
>offer.  They use the value of the benefits to offset that somewhat, and I
>agree the value is great...it's why I pursued a state position,

   Mine also knew that this job was worth more than they were able to pay
but you're correct, the benefits do offset that a good amount.

>My dean does allow for me to be compensated for double hours (thanks to the
>previous tech for putting his foot down) when Sunday work is required...
>but in hours only...not pay.  I don't get overtime pay, just comp hours.

   I also only get comp hours for anything over 40 hrs. a week but no
double time for Sundays. However, I'm working on a memo now to all the
performance
type teachers here which says, for one thing, that I will no longer tune on
Sundays except for major university type concerts. And even those tunings
will be done on Saturday, if at all possible. And my boss actually supports
me on this!

>It's basically a salaried position, but hours are reported in order to
>compute leave accumulation hours.  The advantage is that they can't require
>me to work extra hours I'm not paid for.  Besides, we're on the honor
>system and I keep up with my own hours, anyway.

   This is exactly like my situation, with the "salary" being based on an
hourly wage for 40 hrs. a week. The 'requiring' thing has never come up
since most of my performance tunings start at 5 PM. I can basically set my
own hours so if I want, I can always come in late to offset the late
tunings.

>Another thing I can thank
>the previous tech for is insisting on stable, consistent hours.  It's
>pretty much 7:30 until 4:00, day in, day out, and rare weekend appearances.
>I can then go out and service pianos outside for extra money.  Some places
>don't allow that, I think.

   Because they were aware of the salary not being what it should, our
agreement when I accepted the job was that I'm allowed to do outside work.
I don't take advantage of it but if I only do one tuning on any given day
and then work the remainder of the day at school, I still write down 8 hrs.

>What I like most about the institutional position is that the customer
>can't tell you, "I think the piano is fine...besides I can't afford to have
>it tuned (regulated/voiced/repaired, etc.) right now."  You really have the
>opportunity to bring out more of each piano's potential...that is, if you
>can get to them.

   I totally agree here with that great big caveat, "IF" you can get to them
for that kind of work. I'm in the process now of having a "floater" piano
which I can put in the studio while I pull the other one out to work on it.
It's one which has been restrung, new action parts, etc., so it'll still be
a decent piano. All of our piano teachers have a new B, with their second
piano being 2 with lease Kawais, 1 Disklavier C-3, 1 rebuilt B, and 1 Bose,
so with the other teachers who have grands, it's not so critical.

>You also don't have to drive 117 miles in a day to be
>able to get in 4 or 5 jobs.  That's worth a lot.  (And another thing is
>that there are no cheap old spinets to deal with!)

   A double AMEN to that. And in Houston, that kind of mileage is very easy
to do. And I've only gotten trapped about 2 or 3 times having to tune an
old spinet.

>I know I'll never get rich at this, but I also know that I'll never have to
>worry about where that next client will come from, or medical bills, or
>retirement (it makes tax-time easier to deal with, too).  So, it's not such
>a bad deal...

   Agree again. Now if I can just last long enough to get my 20 years done.
I started late. :-)

Avery

>Jeff

>Jeff Tanner, Piano Technician
>School of Music
>University of South Carolina
>Columbia, SC 29208
>(803)-777-4392 (phone)
>(803)-777-6508 (fax)


___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
http://www.music.uh.edu/




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