Career Path > Outages
Are pay rates slowly dropping?
Content1:
I recently came from Ginna as a Sr RP Tech for $26/hour last fall. For the Spring at Brunswick and at North Anna I am being quoted the same rate. Has this always been their pay rate? When I enquired about other places like Texas and some of the sites with DZAtlantic I was getting rates of $28 - 30 Hour. It is my imagination or are our wage rates stagnant or slowly decreasing for us? Or is it I am I simply choosing the wrong sites to apply at?
Rennhack:
--- Quote from: Content1 on Dec 15, 2012, 07:17 ---I recently came from Ginna as a Sr RP Tech for $26/hour last fall. For the Spring at Brunswick and at North Anna I am being quoted the same rate. Has this always been their pay rate? When I enquired about other places like Texas and some of the sites with DZAtlantic I was getting rates of $28 - 30 Hour. It is my imagination or are our wage rates stagnant or slowly decreasing for us? Or is it I am I simply choosing the wrong sites to apply at?
--- End quote ---
The wages are stagnant, and will remain that way for a while. They will not go up in the short term. The wages went up while the stimulus money was spent which soaked up all of the available techs. The stimulus money is gone and so are all the extra jobs. Lots of people looking for work.
However, you are picking sites that historically pay lower. Progress, Duke and other southern sites with a low cost of living vs tech supply pool tend to pay less, and have no trouble staffing at the lower rates. If your main goal is to get as much money from your hours worked, then that should be your first question to the recruiter. Try "Which sites pay the best? That's where I want to go." vs "I want to go HERE, what does it pay?"
Content1:
Ginna also pays $26 in the North. It is not a matter then of a lower cost of living, as the motels which we pay for are as high or higer in the south, it is the worker willing to go to those site are willing to take less then. If the wages are stagnant, other strategies may come into play then. It may be wise to go for places that pay full, not capped travel, or higher per diem, or work for excelon at sites with 7 12's. You work shorter outages but get higer pay. When I went to Peachbottom I maxed out my 401K with Bartlett and put a lot of non-taxable wages into the retirement account. So I guess it is best to work with what we have. I have no preference on where I work. I found that when I go to a new site that so many say it sucks, but I get there and it is about the same. So I guess it is a case of survival with all the stimulus DOE sites coming into the pool. I heard that many in that pool were hired off the street, maybe many of them will tire of the travel. I guess supply and demand will work this one out in time.
Eric_Bartlett:
Wages haven't stagnated for the industry as a whole just some utilities. There are sites out there, that in the past 3 years, that have raised their rates to more than $30/hr. On the other hand there are sites out there that paid $25/hr 3 yrs ago and still do. Most have gone up over the past couple of years, some by a little, some by more. BNI, and I would think the other vendors as well, continually ask for increases in the compensation packages, but depending on a sites historical ability to staff and the time frame of it's shutdown along a bunch of other factors is whether we get them or not.
A site shutting down in January or in May, know they can pay the industry average or a little less because of the opportune timing of their outage, likewise a site shutting down and staffing during Peak season knows they have to pay more to attract enough techs to ensure a successful outage. Then there is always the "how do they treat me factor" - I've seen techs flock to lower paying sites over higher paying sites just due to the fact that the site treated them real well and didn't over work them. There are of course a myriad of other factors that vendors take into account when asking for an increase in their rates as there are also a myriad of factors that the client takes into consideration when setting rates.
Eric
atomicarcheologist:
--- Quote from: Content1 on Dec 15, 2012, 07:17 ---I recently came from Ginna as a Sr RP Tech for $26/hour last fall. For the Spring at Brunswick and at North Anna I am being quoted the same rate. Has this always been their pay rate? When I enquired about other places like Texas and some of the sites with DZAtlantic I was getting rates of $28 - 30 Hour. It is my imagination or are our wage rates stagnant or slowly decreasing for us? Or is it I am I simply choosing the wrong sites to apply at?
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Go where the money is the best until your pocket is full enough to allow the luxury of going where you want.
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