(Fwd) Piano Technician Position

[Paul S. Larudee]

JIMRPT@AOL.COM wrote:
> 
>   Low salary level for 3/4 time at 22.5K = 30K full time and is that really
> sooo bad?

Bad?  It's horrible!  It costs over $80/hr for a telephone repairperson
here.  Cost of living differentials are not geometric.

> 3/4 time is.... 30 hours per week X 50 weeks =1500 hrs per year or $15
> dollars an hour.   This is without any expenses to speak of for 'anything'
> but personal tools.

For the remaining 1/4 time on your own you incur all the other expenses.
> 
>    To this one could reasonably expect to add 3 or 4 "outside" tunings per
> week and then we come to a very livable income don't we?  At $50 per tuning
> and using 3 tunings per week X 50 weeks =7.5K
> Now taking the 22.5K base and adding the 7.5% SEP tax to it gives us a figure
> of 24.187K and adding the 7.5K (extra outside tuning) would give us 31.687K
> per year without any expenses to speak of.....put another way this is the
> amount one would needfully earn AFTER EXPENSES, before taxes, in a private
> shop situation to equal the position at Binghamton U.
> 
>   Now figuring 3/4 time for the Univ. work and 2 hours per tuning for the
> outside work that would give us an average of 36 hours per week of 'work
> time'.........
> 36 (hours) X 50 (weeks)= 1800 hrs of work time per year.......
> 22.5K + 7.5K =30K/1800 = 16.67 per hour
> Now this ain't living in the lap of luxury but it ain't "chump' change either
> :-)
> 
>   Also Binghamton is part of the State of NY University system and there will
> be, by State law, 'some' collateral employee benefits...just what I couldn't
> say but there will be some.  In addition as part of the faculty(?).....
> Education/Continuing Education possibilities are there for the taking by the
> tech at a very reduced cost, if any costs at all.
> 
>   So would this position be attractive to some of us? No, of course not...at
> least not in the position we are in now :-)   Can we 'all' honestly say that
> it would not have been 'very' attractive to us at some point early in our
> tech lives...I kinda doubt it.

It might be attractive to an incompetent technician with poor judgement,
which is no more than such an offer deserves.  An incompetent tech with
good judgement knows that incompetence in such a position could wreck a
career before it gets started.  Much better to live hand to mouth until
one develops the skills.

I enjoy disagreeing with you, Jim.

Paul S. Larudee, RPT
Richmond, CA
> 
> Just another point of view.
> Jim Bryant (FL)