Wind turbine technician pay

The easy way to write this page would have been a table: “starting pay is this, after five years it is that.” It would have brought traffic too. I am not doing it, for three reasons:

• Numbers go stale fast. Pay is revised more than once a year in many markets. A figure I write today will point you the wrong way in six months — and you will walk into a negotiation believing it is current.
• There is no such thing as the average. Two people on the same site, on the same turbine, doing the same job can be on noticeably different packages. Quoting an average hides that the gap exists — when the gap is exactly what you need to understand.
• Base salary misleads. An offer of “45” can be worse than one of “38 plus the full package” if accommodation and travel are on you and there is no site allowance. A single number cannot carry that difference.

The damage I see most in this industry is exactly this: people who take a figure they read online as their reference and then turn down a good offer, or accept a bad one. Instead of a number, let me give you the method for reading one.

• 01 · Manufacturer or contractor. The turbine manufacturer’s own service organisation and the contractor serving the wind farm owner pay very differently for the same work. The manufacturer side is usually more corporate and more settled; the contractor side gets you work faster. You cannot be choosy in your first job. Be choosy in your second.
• 02 · Both trades. This is the biggest lever. There are few technicians who can do mechanical and electrical work, and that is the person wanted when a crew is put together. Stay on one side and the number of people who can replace you goes up, so your bargaining power goes down.
• 03 · Site allowance and shift. Base salary alone misleads. Work it out together with travel, accommodation, meals, site allowance and shift premium. In some offers a third of the package comes from these — and they can stop when the project does.
• 04 · Overseas projects. On European installation projects the daily per diem changes the picture completely. That was my own period on Danish and other European sites. If your passport is ready, this door is open.
• 05 · Certification level. A technician with BST plus BTT plus manufacturer training is not on the same money as someone with BST alone. Specialist modules such as high voltage, blade repair or advanced rescue feed straight into the package.
• 06 · Experience and brand variety. A technician who has worked on three brands finds work more easily than someone who spent ten years on one. Variety helps more than seniority here.

Enter the items from the offer in front of you. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. The point is not the total — it is to see how much of the package is fixed and how much is conditional.

Use whatever currency the offer is in. The figures are only compared with each other, so the currency does not matter.

Asking these five introduces the company to you as much as the other way round. How clear the answers are tells you more about working there than the salary does.

1. “Is this figure gross or net?” The most basic question and, surprisingly, the one most often skipped. Ask for the answer in writing.
2. “Is the site allowance included in this figure, or on top?” If it is included, your pay drops in any month you are not on site. You need to know that up front.
3. “Who pays for accommodation, travel and meals?” If all three are on you, there is a serious gap between the apparent value of the offer and its real value. The calculator above shows it.
4. “Who pays for GWO training and the refresher?” The industry standard is that the employer covers it. If they do not, that is information about the company. Detail on the GWO page.
5. “Which training will I get in the first year?” As important as the salary. A company that trains you makes you a more expensive technician in two years; a company that does not keeps you where you are.

The way to describe progression without giving numbers is to say what changes at each threshold. These are the points where pay jumps:

• 0–1 year — entry. Cleaning, lubrication, bolt checks, moving material. Your bargaining power is close to nil; in this period negotiate training, not money.
• 1–2 years — independent maintenance tasks. You take jobs on your own during scheduled maintenance. The first real rise comes at this threshold; if it does not, ask why.
• 2–4 years — choosing a speciality. Electrical faults, major components, blades, commissioning or site supervision. The biggest jump is here, because the number of people who can replace you is now falling. This is the road to working both trades.
• 4–7 years — crew responsibility and going abroad. Crew leader, commissioning lead, or overseas installation projects. The per diem period usually falls here and it changes the picture.
• 7 years and beyond — site management, training, consulting. The threshold where you leave the tower base and start selling the knowledge. It is also where the degree gets asked about; the moment a diploma pays off is not your first job, it is this one.

The biggest jump in earnings in this industry is on overseas installation projects. Let me describe it without any romance.

• Per diem is added to the base salary, it does not replace it. If the offer says “so much per day”, ask how many days a month you will actually be on site. The difference between twenty days and ten changes the whole offer.
• It stops when the project does. Treating a per diem period as permanent income and taking on commitments accordingly is the most common mistake I have seen in this industry.
• Preconditions: a passport ready to go, and any national service obligations completed. Offers usually require you to travel at short notice; get the passport now.
• Ask about tax and social security. Be clear about which country you will be insured in and whether your contributions at home keep running.
• The return is not only money. Having worked on a European project becomes the line people ask about most on your CV afterwards.

Slow down if you see these in an offer.

• No straight answer to “gross or net”. That is a sign of something you will be arguing about later.
• No written offer. A verbal figure can come back as a “misunderstanding” after you have started.
• You pay for the GWO training and it is tied into the contract. If a minimum service period is required in return, read the period and the penalty clause.
• The site allowance makes up most of the package. The calculator above shows this: if the fixed part is small, a month without site work leaves you in trouble.
• Crew size is far too small for the number of turbines. Regardless of pay, that means burnout. Ask at interview: “how many people to how many turbines?”
• Nobody tracks your certificate validity. A company that lets your refresher slip will one day be unable to put you on site at all.