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Wage Watchers: How much does a chocolate factory electro-mechanic earn?
What do you do?
I work at the chocolate factory of Barry Callebaut in Lebbeke-Wieze (Dendermonde) as an electro-mechanic in the maintenance department. I’m in charge of the preventative upkeep of machines in the chocolate coating section of the production line. For the moment I switch between mechanical and electric roles to learn how the factory functions as a whole. This is because I will later be part of a team designed to solve technical problems in the factory.
Do you enjoy the work?
My first impression of the workplace is a good one: it’s a great opportunity to work in the largest chocolate factory in the world. Another advantage of working in a food company is that the work environment is always clean and healthy. The fact that the final product is chocolate also makes the job more attractive. I’m also fortunate to have fallen into a great group of colleagues, which is a very important factor in enjoying your job.
Still, the biggest job advantage is that I have the chance to work in a strong and stable company. The company promises further growth too, but it’s probably too soon to tell. For the moment I just focus on getting to know my job and learning how to do it well.
How do you find the pay?
I’m happy with my net salary of €1,790. Compared to what I was earning with my former employer it’s a 150% increase in salary. But while of course a salary is important, for me it’s even more important to have a challenging and varied job where you can gain lots of experience.
Would you change jobs for a better salary?
No, I would only change jobs if I no longer felt challenged in my current post, which is definitely not the case now.
How many hours do you work per week?
Normally I work 38 hours a week. If needed I sometimes work an hour extra here and there, but my overtime is really limited. We get two extra vacation days to compensate for our extra hours and have an extra company holiday on July 11.
What does most of your salary go towards?
I recently moved in with my girlfriend, which cost a pretty penny. Otherwise, the largest part of my salary goes towards our rent. But I try to set something aside each month.
Are you more cautious about how you spend because of the crisis?
Up until my recent move I was living at my parents' house, so I was fortunate to have not felt the crisis that much in its hardest years. Also the effects of the crisis are not felt that much in our company. As production continues 24/7, its apparent that, economic crisis or not, you can always spend a little money on chocolate.
What do you not like spending money on?
I collect figurines and put quite a bit of money towards my hobby. I also pay to go see the occasional concert or to spend a weekend at the coast. So there’s no room in the budget for exotic vacations or luxury goods.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
I would save a good part of my money for unexpected setbacks like sickness or an accident. I would continue to work and then maybe after a couple of years buy, build or have a house built for me.
Comments
Only a Belgian would focus on NET salary. Get a grip. Let's have some real information, like gross salary + benefits. The net varies wildly if you have a working wife or 7 kids. And lets have some real people, like freelancers with no job security, people on the NATO or EU gravy train, cleaners and catering staff who clean the toilets at NATO and the EU, catering staff whose 50% contract covers a 5 day week.
Oh - and the real like of a cleaner on Titres Services. That would be far more relevant to xpats than some twat who fixes machines in a random factory.
Gross salary does not mean much to me as the deductions could be 30-60%, I have only to guess. The net gives me an idea with how much people make their living.
The salaries of the NATO/EU are published in their websites, they are fixed and can never increase by bonuses or benefits as there are no such things there. As for the cleaners of the tiolets in NATO/EU, these are Belgian contractors who hire and pay according to Belgian law.
I would be interested to see the salaries of people who are in the middle of their careers and have more mid-level jobs. Here we see only 20-25 year-old people who make 1500 net as these are their beginning-of-career jobs.
To me it's the net salary that is the most interesting and I'm happy they are using it in this interview series. That's the salary that the people interviewed have to manage on. Gross salary would give me no useful information whatsoever.
You will never get anyone working in the EU to appear in this series because they would have to be insane to do so. People already hate them enough.
Net salary is probably excluding the so called vacation bonus and not allowing for the income tax which will amount to more than the vacation bonus!
For all his years of study, this 24 year old is not paid enough :-)