A smog technician is a specialized type of vehicle technician, who’s particularly concerned with vehicles’ emissions. The job involves performing maintenance, check-ups and repairs on emission control systems installed in various vehicles. Smog technicians are commonly employed by government organizations, working at specialized stations that perform inspections on vehicles with regards to their emission rates. Smog technicians are commonly tasked with upgrading vehicles’ emission systems and fine-tuning them to minimize environmental damage.
The job of a smog technician isn’t usually difficult to obtain, as it only requires a high school diploma. However, smog technicians must be licensed, which requires going through a specialized examination designed to test one’s aptitude and knowledge in the field. A common misconception is that smog technicians need a higher educational degree to get hired – in fact, the job can rarely benefit from any degree higher than a high school diploma.
The salary for smog technicians is rather low by most standards – $18,000 – $24,000 is the most common range, and additional bonuses and benefits are low and rare. In the best cases, smog technicians may earn a good additional income from their healthcare bonuses, but even those rarely tend to be high enough to compensate the job’s workload and the hazards it imposes on those who practice it. The satisfaction rate for smog technicians has been rather low according to research, and the sector has seen a large turnover rate, which isn’t very common for this sector, but mostly for this job in particular.