Average pay is probably close to $11 - $14 an hour. Depending on policies, you can do worse or better. But you will not be making $1000 a week. At one time, yes, that was possible. In a nutshell, all of these companies find ways to dock your pay to the point where you make about $12 an hour. And keep in mind, this is not waking up at 7am, clocking in at 8am, and then clocking out at 5pm. There is alot of BS time that you don't get paid, such as meetings, inventory, drive time, ect...
You can find a couple different ways to work. You have "inhouse" techs and then you have contractors. If you choose Dish Network, I believe you are actually working for Dish. DirecTV outsources all of their work to regional contractors called HSP's. There are a couple regions where you actually work for DirecTV. If you work for Dish Network, also called DNS, or one of DirecTV's HSP's, they will provide you with all of the equipment, vehicle, fuel, and parts. There will be some basic tools that you will need to bring to the game. At this point, you are an employee for these companies, NOT a contractor.
The pay structure with both of these employers are complex and meant to keep your eye off the real question...What are you REALLY making?
DirecTV pays by piece work. Basically, you get paid $x.00 to put the dish up, then $x.00 for each additional receiver. If its an upgrade or service call, its a flat rate. So basically, if an install pays $65.00 and takes you an hour, you did great. If it takes you four hours, then you're screwed. Same with service calls and upgrades.
Dish Networks uses some Points Per Hours, or PPH, BS. Its basically the same idea behind piecework, except you're awarded points per hour. Then there are several factors including PPH, such a connectivity (hooking phone lines up), Quality of work, ect ... that all determines your hourly rate. Dish Network is notorious for micromanaging and implementing ridiculous rules. For example, you are required to rewire every house if it is not Dish Networks substandard cable. Yes. Substandard. Nearly every cable company and DirecTV uses a higher standard cable than Dish Network and they require you to rip it all out because it is not their specific vendor of cable. The idiotic nonsense is just getting started with that example.
Contractors: Stay away from these guys. DirecTV's HSPs and DNS outsource some of their work to smaller contract companies. If you go through these guys, they require you to provide everything up front, vehicle, gas, tools, ect... They pay a little better, but you take all the risk. Very often these contractors are snakes. The open up shop, land the contract and disappear in 6 months time. They back charge you (DirecTV's HSP's do this too) for numerous things, often for things out of your control. Stay away from them unless you find a very good one from talking to the guys who are contracting for them.
Retailers are the local guys around town. They land a sale and need someone to do the install. They pay by piece work too, but the almost always pay better and w/out all the nonsense you find with the groups above. If you are serious about getting in this industry, this is where you should start. Unfortunately, they have very experience tech's waiting in line outside their door.
My advise: Rethink this and find something better. You're going about this very wrong if you expect to make 52k a year. There is good money to be made in the satellite industry, but its all in commercial. There is nothing wrong with starting out with one of with one of these slave outfits to get the experience, but you need to have a very clear exit strategy in a year or two to move onto something better.
Is it legal to get TV and radio broadcasts from another country?
