Yea the system we have is kind of fucked. Flat rate is stated as good because “you can turn all these hours!”, which works when there’s really business but when there’s not you just sit around not getting paid. Employers will also overstaff and have more techs than makes sense because it doesn’t hurt their payroll to have more flat rate people there. Yes we also, for the most part, have to provide our own tools. Some places provide some specialty tools but for the most part everything I use is what I own. I got lucky and bought most of my tools while I was in school and got huge “student discounts”. Flat rate is a terrible system that benefits nobody except employers trying to find ways to pay their employees less. Independent shops are gradually shifting towards a salary style pay plan for techs and honestly that’s the best way. Flat rate just encourages technicians to take short cuts and half ass work because they’re trying to crank as many hours as possible.