ETS Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis

What a "Salary Guide" Can Honestly Say About Basic ETS

Search for earnings data tied to Basic Earthmover Tire Service (ETS) training and you won't find a published salary survey, a certificate-specific pay scale, or a documented wage premium. The Tire Industry Association (TIA), which administers Basic ETS as a 200-level exam-backed Certificate of Completion, does not publish compensation figures for graduates of its program. Any article claiming a precise "average ETS salary" is inventing a number that does not exist in TIA's materials.

What this guide does instead is lay out the verifiable context: who typically pursues Basic ETS training, what the credential actually documents, the only relevant government wage benchmark available, and how the cost structure of the training compares to the career signal it sends to employers. If you're still deciding whether the credential is worth pursuing at all, read Is the ETS Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 alongside this guide - the two questions (value and pay) are related but not identical.

Who Hires Technicians With Basic ETS Training

Basic-level training is designed for two groups: new-hire orientation for technicians entering off-the-road (OTR) tire service, and experienced technicians who need documented, verifiable training on file. That framing matters for pay conversations because Basic ETS functions less as a bargaining chip for a specific wage and more as proof that a technician has been exposed to structured safety and procedural training covering earthmover tire, rim, and valve service.

Employers who invest in this training tend to fall into a few categories:

• Independent OTR tire service dealers who service mining, construction, and heavy-equipment fleets
• Mine operators subject to MSHA Part 46 refresher training requirements
• Fleet maintenance departments that want a documented training record for liability and safety-audit purposes
• Tire manufacturers and distributors that run in-house technician development programs

Because training can be delivered through TIA Online University or in person with videos, workbooks, and paper exams, many employers roll Basic ETS into onboarding rather than treating it as an external certification a candidate arrives with. That changes how it shows up on a resume - as evidence of trained, documented competency rather than a stand-alone credential with its own posted salary band. For a broader look at what the credential actually represents before you connect it to pay expectations, see What Is ETS? and ETS Meaning.

The Only Verified Wage Benchmark: BLS Tire Repairer Data

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a May 2025 median annual wage of $37,710 for the broad occupational category of tire repairers and changers. This is the only government-sourced wage figure that can honestly be cited in connection with this field - and it comes with important caveats.

OTR tire service - the specialty Basic ETS trains technicians for - involves larger equipment, hydraulic bead breakers and rams, heavier fastening systems, and higher-consequence safety procedures than typical passenger or light-truck tire work. It's reasonable to expect that specialty, equipment, and site conditions influence pay in practice, but there is no published data source that isolates OTR technician wages or Basic ETS holder wages from the broader BLS category. Treat the $37,710 median as a general occupational anchor point, not a prediction of what any individual technician will earn.

How the 15 Basic ETS Modules Translate Into On-the-Job Value

Even without a wage table, you can reason about employability by looking at what the program actually teaches. The 15 unweighted modules that define the current Basic ETS course/exam scope cover the full lifecycle of earthmover tire service - from site setup through final wheel fitment. Employers evaluating a technician's readiness are effectively asking whether these areas have been covered.

For a full breakdown of every module and how they're sequenced in the course, see ETS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 15 Content Areas. Understanding the actual scope of these domains is far more useful for career planning than chasing an invented salary number.

Training Cost vs. Career Investment

Because there's no per-candidate exam registration fee in the way some certifications structure pricing, the real cost conversation around Basic ETS centers on training-material and access pricing published by TIA:

• A Basic ETS kit (two DVDs, one workbook, one test booklet) costs $995 for members or $1,995 for non-members
• A student workbook with one test booklet costs $95 member / $195 non-member per copy (quantities of 1-9)
• An additional test booklet alone costs $75 member / $175 non-member per copy (quantities of 1-9)
• Online University access to Basic ETS is $305 per location per year including technician certificates, or $155 without certificates, plus a $20 annual membership fee per location

Shipping and handling are additional in all cases, and these are training-material and subscription prices - not standalone exam fees. In practice, most technicians don't pay these costs directly; employers typically absorb them as part of onboarding since Online University access allows unlimited technicians per subscribed location. That structure is worth understanding before you assume the "cost" of certification maps onto your personal budget. A detailed pricing breakdown lives at ETS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

From Basic ETS to Certified ETS 300/400: The Pay-Relevant Pathway

Basic CTS and Basic ETS serve as prerequisites for the separate Certified ETS 300/400 pathway, which is designed for experienced OTR technicians who have moved beyond entry-level orientation. That advanced pathway carries its own two-year online recertification rule - a requirement that does not apply to the Basic ETS scope covered in this guide.

From a career-progression standpoint, this two-tier structure is the closest thing to a documented advancement path in the TIA system: Basic ETS demonstrates foundational, documented competency; Certified ETS 300/400 signals a higher level of hands-on OTR experience layered on top of it. Neither tier comes with a published wage table, but the structure itself explains why some technicians pursue Basic ETS as a stepping stone rather than an end point. If you're mapping out eligibility for either level, ETS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify walks through what's needed before you can move forward.

Separately, technicians working in mining environments covered by MSHA Part 46 should note that 30 CFR 46.8 requires at least eight hours of annual refresher training. TIA describes eight hours of refresher instruction followed by testing for an updated Certificate of Completion and wallet ID card in that context - a mine-safety compliance requirement, not a universal Basic ETS expiration or CEU cycle.

Building a Study Plan That Reflects Employer Priorities

Since the exam draws from the 15 course-defined modules rather than a separately weighted blueprint, an efficient study approach groups related domains together instead of studying them in numeric order. This is one of the few places generic study methodology is worth applying - but only when it's mapped directly onto ETS module content.

Spacing review sessions by module group - rather than cramming all 15 the night before a final exam - mirrors how the modules build on each other in the actual course. For a fuller walkthrough of pacing, resource selection, and common trouble spots, see ETS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. If you want a sense of how the exam itself feels once you're ready, How Hard Is the ETS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 and ETS Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows are useful companion reads, and you can rehearse the material with our practice test platform before test day.

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