It's a lot more than $18 an hour, now there is:
Workman's Comp
Medical
Dental
401K Matching
Holidays
Vacation
Vehicle
Vehicle insurance
Gas
Tools
Uniforms
$125 to the contractor that is tax deductable is a deal. What you have a hard time with as the MSO is quality control and training in an industry that is getting more technical on a daily basis. The MSO's hire and train, the bean counters come in a couple of years later and say "that if you went to contractors it would increase the profit margin", so they lay off a lot of the tech staff. The contractors come in and the service calls start climbing, the NPS score drops and customers start compaining. After a few years some new guy working for the MSO says "if we brought the tech staff in house we could control the training" and fix the issues. It's a circle a lot of have seen many times, takes 7 to 10 years to come around.