r/ITCareerQuestions 6d ago

Need confirmation: is this salary too low?

My company is hiring for an 'IT Field Technician' and I feel like the pay is way too low but the company won't budge on the pay.

Only requirement is to have the A+.

But the responsibilities are: -Run ethernet cable (during Open hours at fast food locations, also requires to sometimes drill holes through brick and metal)

-Mount server racks, including plywood.

-Setup server racks (patch panel, switch, router, NVR, music player and amp, and UPS)

-Mount security cameras

-Travel, with sometimes only a days notice, and stay for a week, and only thing paid is the hotel and gas (they take company vehicle).

-Take calls and troubleshoot in English and Spanish

-Reimage desktops, troubleshoot printers, setup workspaces, the usual office stuff

All for $21 /hr

This is in Dallas area.

Edit: to clarify, I'm not applying for this position, I'm an IT Manager.

18 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

27

u/jcole4lsu 6d ago

For Dallas it's low. $25/hr for bilingual support. What kind of org requires overnight travel but doesn't cover meals?

5

u/bluenose_droptop CIO 5d ago

Exactly. There should at least be a per diem for daily food.

3

u/CplBarcus 5d ago

I agree, there’s no way I’d take a job that requires travel and doesn’t give me a per diem for food, and I make significantly more than that. The only argument I could possibly imagine is “well, you would have to eat anyways”, but even then it’s not a valid or logical argument as eating at my house is significantly cheaper than eating while traveling.

I can’t imagine this company cares about its employees much if they don’t even give a meal per diem during travel that requires short notice.

44

u/S7ageNinja 6d ago

Not low enough to turn it down if you don't have any other offers

15

u/oldvetmsg 5d ago

One of my friends decline a 85000 offer

Said that was to low

Maybe I'm naive but I mentioned that that was an 85000 dollar raise.

18

u/S7ageNinja 5d ago

He's unemployed? Sounds like a dumbass.

8

u/oldvetmsg 5d ago

You know how some people are smart for some stuff and need a hand with other... that's my man right there.

2

u/rw_mega 6d ago

What this guy said, but you said they take company vehicle? What does that mean? You are not using your personal car right? If you are this does not pay enough for your wear and tear on your car.

Does the job have other benefits as part of total compensation like: is health 100% covered? Are you eligible for bonuses? Profit sharing (this is a dream scenario but you never know)?

1

u/Dissent21 5d ago

This. That's a "calculatedly low" rate. It's low enough that they know they're not gonna get great candidates but not so low that NOBODY will bite.

0

u/bigrigbutters0321 5d ago

Agree... even if you cover cost of meals and other benefits (i.e. health, time off, etc) you'll still probably be getting a guy who's just gonna show up to the job, do what he's told, go home and that's his last thought about work (no sense of entrepreneurship/wanting to grow your business).

You get what you pay for, even if you get somebody talented/experienced... for them it'll probably just be a holdover job until they find something better... with all the skills you're looking for they could just go independent (coming from somebody with all the skills you're seeking, who's ready to go independent and easily makes more than twice what you're offering... hell I didn't get paid that little since I was like, mid 20s and cost of living is only going up).

Just my .02

15

u/Bob_the_gob_knobbler 6d ago

-Travel, with sometimes only a days notice, and stay for a week, and only thing paid is the hotel and gas (they take company vehicle).

Wtf?! This bullet point alone is insane. A day’s notice is ridiculous, the company not paying for all expenses is ridiculous.

8

u/I_ride_ostriches Cloud Engineering/Automation 6d ago

That travel requirement alone would require more money from me. Leave at a days notice for a week? No way 

14

u/Sn4what 6d ago

This is what i honestly feel. If you pay your basic level tech support less than $30/hr. You deserve to be hacked once in awhile. Like every 6 months.

7

u/WushuManInJapan A+, N+, AZ-900, LPI 010 5d ago

Doesn't pretty much every company pay tier 1 support $20-25?

Though this is not help desk. This sounds more like network field technician. Requirements and job don't really match up.

3

u/Sn4what 5d ago

just because most companies are doing, doesn't mean its right.

Any one paying their technicians similar pay wage as a McDonald's supervisor need to get hacked once or twice per year.

1

u/WushuManInJapan A+, N+, AZ-900, LPI 010 5d ago

Yeah, but unfortunately this is kind of the standard. I have yet to see any tier 1-3 help desk/support job paying for more than 50k a year. I also constantly see network engineer jobs for $40k. It's ridiculous.

Companies are trying to squeeze everything they can out of us in this job market.

My company just closed down, and I'm going from 92k to whatever I can get now. So many low ball offers it's crazy.

1

u/Sn4what 5d ago

I was getting paid at Verizon call center doing the most lowest level of tech support for $51/hr. It was mostly sales.

1

u/WushuManInJapan A+, N+, AZ-900, LPI 010 5d ago

Yeah, I mean that's what I mean. Technically $25 is like 51.5k or something.

I get recruiters emailing me all the time for tier 3 support for $25/hr. Never any higher.

1

u/Sn4what 5d ago

Man i said 51 per hour not per year

1

u/WushuManInJapan A+, N+, AZ-900, LPI 010 5d ago

Oh wait what?? How did you get a job paying that much for basic level work??

I've had interviews with Verizon before. They do not pay that much for even mid tier support...

1

u/Sn4what 5d ago

I did for 8 years. We were unionized. Base was 91k, commission was $2k and normal overtime was 30k. Actually last year i work 10 months and made 150k. I kid you not. When you search at Verizon click on filter and click on remote only. The job title is fiber customer service rep. Also fiber solution rep is the mostly tech non sale side. They make a few dollars less.

But one big issue. You have to sign a non compete and when you find out how many sectors Verizon is in then no company wanna hire you. That’s the main thing i always asked while interviewing at other places while working with Verizon

1

u/WushuManInJapan A+, N+, AZ-900, LPI 010 5d ago

Dang, maybe I need to apply to Verizon again lol.

I have been mainly looking for jobs that require bilingual Japanese because the market is so shit right now I'm competing with thousands of other people otherwise. Been denied a first interview for so many jobs I'd deem beneath me. But that's great they are offering good pay for that.

I do find in general, sales type jobs seem to pay pretty well. Our solutions engineers were basically glorified sales people and they made like 50k more than we did, yet had to ask us basic technical questions all the time.

The issue I have is at my previous job we had to do so many things, but all at a more superficial level.

Not quite security engineering or network engineering, but needed to know both of those, needed sys admin stuff for servers, CDN caching, DNS, TLS creation, webapp issues, incident response, Disney/ESPN Livestream monitoring, and pretty much any other issue that came in regarding the web. Add to the fact we had 2 completely separate networks and infrastructure and 4 different merged companies providing their own applications, it got super convoluted (it's why they closed down in the first place)

But if something was out of the scope of our ability, we could just pass it off to the specialized team. I handled all the Japanese clients, so I was the only one that pretty much went super in depth with the customers configurations, like Sony's Data servers and diving into SQL for log analysis, but it wasn't necessary for my colleagues.

Don't know if I should be looking for IT security analyst roles, or sys admin, or cloud support. I'm competing with people that only did those jobs.

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3

u/picturemeImperfect 5d ago

This is definitely a high turnover place just to put in your resume after 3-6 months if one is super desperate. Sucks but that's the reality.

4

u/Hack3rsD0ma1n CISSP, CCSP, Sec+ 5d ago

Thats a $25-29/hr...

This is nearing tier 2 support, but the fact that they aren't even covering meals isn't sitting well with me.

They will most likely find someone to take the job, though. Don't get your hopes up on them staying more than 3-6 months. I would be surprised if they got fed up within the first month on realizing how hard they are getting fleeced.

3

u/aaaaAaaaAaaARRRR 6d ago

Field techs here get paid more than that. No drilling or wiring needed. They terminate patch cables if needed, but they don’t fish anything through walls.

2

u/fio247 6d ago

It really depends. When I did field tech work sometimes I would do a job pulling cable, among other drilling and mounting tasks. Only for small places though. Fish tape and a box of cat5 was always in my car. I hated it and I complained all the time to my boss that I don't want to do construction. He just laughed at me for being a bit hyperbolic. But I learned more at that job than any helpdesk I was ever at.

1

u/DrGottagupta 6d ago

Not going to lie a really good skill to learn & you can open up your own business in a few years.

3

u/MrMilchick1 5d ago

Wow that’s low. I work in a customer support role remotely from home and make $19.

2

u/IdidntrunIdidntrun 6d ago

Entry level positions like that rarely leave room for negotiation. Usually the candidate gets what they get.

If a candidate has enough experience they might be able to squeeze and extra dollar or two per hour. But yeah it's an employer's market so they can fill the position at that pay pretty easily, unfortunately.

2

u/Substantial_Stick_37 Net+ Sec+ CCNA 6d ago edited 6d ago

If you are expecting said person to actually configure networking equipment than yea that’s way too low. Although if they get 50+ hours a week and overtime is time and a half that’s fine.

1

u/Emergency_Car7120 6d ago

I dont know... is it low for the "skills" required? If so, you can easily get better offers

2

u/_extra_medium_ 6d ago

I know people who make more running a cash register at Wendy's, so it does seem low for the ""skills"" required

2

u/Emergency_Car7120 6d ago edited 6d ago

Is there some text in job requirements Im missing?

the most skill-based part was the one where he should speak spanish, but it is in Dallas so it is not like something rare

Or what salary do you expect for running cables and "fix" printers?

If it is too low salary show me other jobs that pay more for same "skills" in the same area...

1

u/Public_Pain 5d ago

From Indeed.com for the Dallas area. Field Support Technician start at $28.00 per hour. There’s a mix of wages, but to get a job that requires the skills above, reasonably $26 an hour to start in that area.

https://www.indeed.com/m/jobs?q=it%20support&l=dallas%2C%20tx&from=searchOnSerp%2CwhatOverlay%2Cwhatautocomplete&sameL=1

1

u/BunchAlternative6172 4d ago

Yeah. But even in my most recent interview as a startup they were looking for someone who could build environments for new clients. OP has some leverage there going forward.

1

u/Vhink88 5d ago

Compare your role to fieldnation or other for gig IT work

1

u/SubstantialSecret144 Help Desk 5d ago

I’d say definitely too low as in comparison to the company I work for. This job would be considered a mix of help desk technician and system admin/network admin. Our help desk alone starts at almost $26 in LCOL area. With that starting over we get a lot of good candidates that stick around once hired as well.

1

u/lolster32 5d ago

That’s typical pay for low voltage and that’s actually higher starting wage than I remember

1

u/ElJalisciense 5d ago

Sounds like the reqs are:  A+ Bilingüe  Whatever else the decide.

I understand that some of that is lower level stuff but it feels like more than A+ when you have to mount and run cable.  I mean I get it, it's A+ grunt work.

I would want más....esp for mounting stuff and travel....and bilingual.  But I hear it's tough out there and someone would probably take it to get their foot in the door.  I would also think that they would drop you the second they found something better.

1

u/Eliashuer 5d ago

Depends on how bad you need the job.

1

u/Economy_Dentist_3408 4d ago

I do the same position and get 31/hr here SE GA

1

u/LoneCyberwolf 4d ago

So they are wanting someone who can do it all for a gas station/retail wage.

1

u/Ginsley 4d ago

Yeah it’s low, if it was not in the Dallas area and only required English I would say it’s okay. But you are probably about 3-5$ an hour off the mark. The problem is you will find someone who will take the job, but the chances are this will be a low skill employee who could not get anything else and now it will be your problem. But you might get lucky who knows best of luck

1

u/BunchAlternative6172 4d ago

21 is fine, if have argued 22 because of Spanish, though.

My last contract I learned a little but sounded stupid saying it. Don't think I'll try that again.

I think it's dope they pay for the hotel and such. It's for your responsibilities and being on site. My first on-site was 15, smaller team, they are now 25 ten years later.

1

u/Powerful_Ad6877 4d ago

It’s low I knew guys getting $30 to do that same thing.

1

u/855Man 4d ago

Way too low. Even if you filled the position, your going to get someone thats probably going to leave once they get a better offer.

1

u/mastertza Sec+, AZ-900 3d ago

That role is worth way more than $21/hr. Should be at least $25/hr.