u/RealTrippSci

Hey! Just trying to gather some opinions, I've been in my current shop for around two years, went from Glass-16/hr to Autobody 20/hr and now I've hit 6 months in the paint department on commission

I currently make 3.80 per team hour and we average around 450-600 biweekly. I prep out about 25-35 hours religiously in a 8 hour day depending on workflow

We have 4 people, a painter, then three preppers, one for each booth and a primer, we switch out whenever we feel tired of a specific task to add some variance and occasionally will paint some things as well to keep up on the skills of our lead painter is gone.

We share around 36 dollars per hour and it's not based on percents as much as it is just the "magic number" ex 3.81225/hr

As I've said I'm wondering if it's justified for asking about a pay bump due to being efficient now, sometimes hitting 350-400% efficiency, I feel like I was started on the lower end of how they can move money around and they can afford more, I briefly asked last week Friday and didn't get anything definitive, just that my manager would have to talk to his higher ups, no date, no update just a like okay maybe.

Further onto that would it be drastic to ask for a dollar or more bump, at first I was hoping maybe around 4.50/hr turned, but like 5/hr turned would also be a huge bump in the grand scheme of things so I'm not sure how to negotiate it, I'm as efficient as the other people, rarely have a burn through, maybe 1 in 30 blend panels, I have a history with being able to paint, but the lead painter has taken an interest in pushing me more to paint in case he's gone so production can stay more steady.

I also have the pressure of my lease going up, possibly having to move to another place where it would be 15% more expensive so I'd like to try and budget that into my ask.
Thank you for any input!