wages

treewhisperer · Feb 16, 2003

hey guys,
I'm new to the forum, but i have notice some of the discussions talking about wages. my question is- what is a typical wage for climbers, or crew leaders with lets say 5 years exp. on the east coast. the reason i ask is that my wife and i have talked about moving to new england (vermont,maine, mass.?) to be closer to our families, but she is a little worried about the type of money i would be making because wages here in colorado seem to be really low!! i have friends that work for companies her locally that have been there for 7 years and make $14.50 an hour to climb and do big removals!any imput?

treeclimber165 · Feb 16, 2003

Eric (netree) owns a tree service in Mass.
Hey Eric! What's a half decent climber make up your way?

CO sounds like Florida. I was only making $14 per hour when I left Davey after running the big removal crew for 2 years. That was about 4 years ago.
Here's a pic from one of our picnics when the boss took us all to Wet 'n' Wild.

NeTree · Feb 16, 2003

My climbers make $15-$20 per hour, depending on experience and seniority. $12-$15 seems to be the average starting wage around here, though.

John Paul Sanborn · Feb 16, 2003

You also need to look at the cost of living in the area; rent, fluel, insurance, milk...

My barber lives in a small town about an hour north of hear. He sais that the cost of auto insurance alone pays for the differance in the drive from when he lived in MKE.

NeTree · Feb 16, 2003

Yes JPS... and this IS tax-a-chusetts after all...

treewhisperer · Feb 16, 2003

What about these larger companies like bartlett, savatree, davey? i talked to a lady at savatree who was in charge of recruiting and she said that their climbers get paid really well and some make as much as $30 an hour. she also said that arborists or sales reps make $45,000 a year to start plus ten % of gross sales for their territory. does this sound like a load of *#%& ,or is she talking about arborists and climbers in huge metro areas. dont get me wrong i love this work like all you guys ,but doing potentially dangerous stuff and climbing scetchy trees for $12 to $14 an hour (which is the going rate around here,and as fred B. said in another forum this place,boulder CO, is expensive to live!!!)is kind of a bummer! especially when wife makes $19 an hour to work in a health food grocery store!!!