July 24, 2018

Earlier this month, 125 Boating Ontario members took a few moments to share their company’s commitments to creating meaningful career paths for service technicians. These members represent over 360 technicians in the province and have given us a robust cross section of today’s opportunities in the marine business.

Understanding income potential was one of the fundamental objectives of the Boating Ontario Service Technicians Survey July 2018. The results are very impressive and demonstrate a clear industry commitment to advancing opportunities and skill sets of our technical work force.

From the survey;

Q 2,3,4,5 – What is your hourly income for a Marine Technician in Year 1 – Year 4

Based on the numbers we see technician’s earnings progressing as follows;

Year 1  Range $15 – 18 / hour or up to $37,440 per year

Year 2  Range $19 – 22 / hour or up to $45,760 per year

Year 3  Range $23 – 27 / hour or up to $56,160 per year

Year 4  Range $28 – 40 / hour or up to $83,200 per year

The survey also clearly shows a willingness across the industry to attract and retain industry talent with some additional incentives and benefits to keep technicians in the fold and remain competitive.  In the ‘other’ category were some great ideas like a ‘no freeze winterizing bonus’, chargeable hours bonus, free docks and storage, tools and travel allowances, monthly BBQ’s and even yoga classes!

Understanding the image of seasonal layoffs was another critical component of the survey. Our industry must begin to break down the perception that technical roles are part time seasonal jobs and that all marinas and dealers lay off technicians in the winter months. From the survey we can now confidently estimate that upwards of 65% of apprentices and technicians are now being offered 12 months of gainful employment.

Boating Ontario gratefully acknowledges and thanks all members who took a few moments to share this important data with their Association.

For more information, please contact Rick Layzell  -1-888-547-6662,  or email rlayzell@boatingontario.ca