Do you pay employees a different rate depending upon what exactly they are doing?
Meaning do you pay Joe DaWorker less per hour doing a low-skill activity (like demoing drywall or demoing roof shingles) but pay the same guy more per hour for higher skilled activity (like when installing trim or installing roofing)?
I’m not talking about what you might be CHARGING the customer for labor in your private calculations.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Replies
Seriously? Who's got the time to micro-manage their employees? Why would any of them ever agree to do low wage work? But to answer your question, no, never even thought about it.
It's not me doing the paying. I think you pay someone what you pay them for EVERY hour the same rate.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
I agree. I can't imagine doing it any other way.
I would NEVER work under those conditions. It may even be illegal.
My employers pay me an agree upon wage rate, period. That said, when I've done publicly funded type work, I have never turned down prevailing wage rates!
We don't do that, but I think it would be fine it one could work it out with their employees.
I highly doubt it's illegal, but I could be highly wrong.
Jon Blakemore
RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
I've had "subs" tell me that they would work for one rate for some activities but then want a higher rate for other activities. Mostly, it was carpenters that were willing to do labor work at base labor pay, but wanted skilled wages when they were working with tools. Generally speaking, it makes sense. The reality is: their carpentry work resembled day laborer work.
When things started slowing down here, my lumberyard did this very thing.....
Traditionally, when truck drivers came back in at the end of the day, they would spend the last 30 mins or whatever organizing the npiles, covering bunks of lumber, etc. in the yard.
One day, guy (driver with 15 years or so) looking at his check, is lower for a 40 hour week than normal. Goes to see the boss man, told "From now on, when you get back at the end of the day and finish out your 8 hours, time in the yard will be at yard worker pay, not driver pay. If that's a problem....you can punch out when you get back"
I think it's douchey. I suppose the argument can be made that they're offering to keep them working, albeit at a reduced rate...I think it sucks, personally.
Bing
The reality is: their carpentry work resembled day laborer work
Well maybe they shouldn't be used to do carpentry. Most customers would rather have the carpentry look good and be done proper.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Well maybe they shouldn't be used to do carpentry. Most customers would rather have the carpentry look good and be done proper.
How would I be able to judge their carpentry if I never let them try anything?
Fair enough, except for the customer getting any shoddy work. You do then, make it right, don't you?
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Phil, I've probably hired 1000 people since I started in biz in the early 80's. Its safe to assume that one, maybe two, of those people didn't do perfect work.
Maybe you might want to go back and inspect all those jobs and see if there is any shoddy work left behind?
I *think* perhaps you may be taking me the wrong way. Internet conversations have a way of skewing inflection and intent.There has been no offense intended by me.A few posts back you mentioned that some guys wanted to do carpentry work, a pay step upwards. But their work still looked poor.I figured you wouldn't let that work stay as is for the customer. My remark was more rhetorical in nature.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Phil, I've probably hired 1000 people since I started in biz in the early 80's. Its safe to assume that one, maybe two, of those people didn't do perfect work.
OK, one maybe...but TWO!!...
regards
I had a working arrangement like that once and it worked fine.
While I'm an architect, I approached a builder about becoming one of his supervisors since I wanted to get out in the field more. He said he didn't need a supervisor at the time but would like an in house architect/idea guy. I said ok and went to work in his shop.
About three months later he had three supervisors leave within two weeks so he asked me if I would like to go out in the field and run one job until a replacement could be found. I wasn't quite as experienced as a supervisor as I was being the design guy so we set up two rates depending on the task.
Worked great. He found an experienced super about 8 weeks later and I was back in the office but I actually would have prefered to stay in the field at the lower rate.
Runnerguy
You had a very special learning experience too, kinda different than what I am referring to.What I talking about falls more to.... you send out an experienced remodeler/carpenter employee to remodel a bathroom for example. Same guy demos the room for 2 hours then hangs and tapes new rock/cementboard. He then installs the foam base and ditra sheets. Same day, same location.Then tell him: demo is only paid $8/hour;drywall $12/hour...... $30/hour to install crown .....
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
There was an interesting situation in Minneapolis recently. They had green roof installed on the Target Center arena downtown, and the roofing company that got the job paid their crew with landcaper's wages instead of roofer's wages - about a $20/hr difference. I don't know how or if it was resolved.
Sounds like it was a union job maybe? Had to pay prevailing union wages per job activity?
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
"Sounds like it was a union job maybe? Had to pay prevailing union wages per job activity?"Yeah, that was the case. The last I heard about it the roofer's union was involved.
a lot of government bidded job are like this, 2 hours bulldozer, 2 hour carpenter, 2 hours concrete finisher
I think I would want to get more for roof demo than finish trim.
I can run crown in my sleep. roofing is wear and tear on the body
I know what you mean. :-) Indoors, maybe a step ladder or just a milk crate to stand on.But you understand what I was trying to say.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
I almost always do T&M work, even for myself I raise and lower my hourly
rate depending on the task at hand. I do this with people that work with me also and they never complain.
In the end the client see's that we are being fair, we build long term
relationships and are rarely without work.
The plumber or elec. (used as examples only) who charges a full rate to
someone who has NOT turned something ON is not someone I would ever hire
or want to work for me. I sleep well at nite. This way of doing business
works for me.