What do you pay your workers?

[sgreanbeans]

U guys pay people!!!! Crap, don't tell my sons.

 

[imagineero]

I pay mine what they're worth. If I find they aren't earning their pay they end up unemployed. Ground workers get $150-$250/day depending on skills. Day ends when the job is done, I don't see the sense in hourly pay. Hourly pay is a double disincentive for guys to work hard. Happy to pay ground workers $250/day, wish I could find more that were worth it.

 

[Affordabletree]

Is that cash or a paycheck with all the tax, deduction's and withholding's?
Jeff

Jeff, last year I wrote checks then 1099 them at the end of the year due to the business not grossing a lot being my first year. But this year I am doing pay checks with taxes taken out via an online payroll service.

 

[Groundman One]

I pay mine what they're worth. If I find they aren't earning their pay they end up unemployed. Ground workers get $150-$250/day depending on skills. Day ends when the job is done, I don't see the sense in hourly pay. Hourly pay is a double disincentive for guys to work hard. Happy to pay ground workers $250/day, wish I could find more that were worth it.

$250 a day?

Ahhhh, a man who understands.

 

[imagineero]

Everyone gotta pay their bills ;-)

 

[Groundman One]

Everyone gotta pay their bills ;-)

An enlightened view.

Some are of the opinion that "everyone gotta pay my bills" and demand more of the pie than is conducive to a good work atmosphere.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

$250 per day in Aussie dollars. How does that convert to US or CAN dollars when the cost of living is factored in?

 

[imagineero]

$250 per day in Aussie dollars. How does that convert to US or CAN dollars when the cost of living is factored in?

It's about the equivalent of USD$12 a day

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I didn't think the exchange rate was quite that bad! I do know you pay more for chainsaws and such.
I don't know how the cost of living compares. $250 here will buy about 50 meals at McD's, or Ten sheets of 1/2" plywood, or about 70 gal of gas. I could live OK on that here. In Manhattan, I would be starving on that.

 

[Zale]

I have a growing service and want good employees what is fair to pay.


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What do you pay your employees now?

 

[Zale]

We all work on percentages, but when we get an extra groundman he gets $15 to $18 if he moves. If he`s a dweezil, he gets $10 to $12. If the guy has a car and follows us to a job, we`ll shoot him some gas money and we usually spring for coffee and muffins on the way to work. You have to treat people well if you want them to pound ground and maintain a good attitude. It can be pretty a sucky job at times.

We don`t often hire extra climbers, but when we have it was always a newb or semi-newb who was there just to help with a bunch of easy stuff, and he`d get $20 to $25, depending on if we knew him and we liked him.

Coffee AND muffins? You are a good man.

 

[Groundman One]

Coffee AND muffins? You are a good man.

I've been pounding ground since '98, I have great empathy for my fellow rejects.

 

[Dan@JBT]

Where I work (in South Australia):
Groundies two on $22/hr Two on $25/hr
Climber $35
Forman/backup climber $35.
with big bonuses. I think bonuses are the way to go. if at the end of the week you expect to get 40hrs times $30=$1200. you get $1200 your happy enough but if you expect 40 times $27=1080 and you get that plus $100 bonus for a good climb or the team doing well you feel like the boss appreciates the hard work I think they're a great moral booster

 

[Dan@JBT]

If you pay too much as a base level you cant give anyone a raise or a bonus.

 

[Dan@JBT]

my best bonus was $500 for knocking out 3-4 days work in 2 days plus i got a day off

 

[treesmith]

I've worked for appreciation before, if I'm not appreciated then the money is almost irrelevant.
Almost, unless its really, really good

 

[arborlicious]

I pay mine what they're worth. If I find they aren't earning their pay they end up unemployed. Ground workers get $150-$250/day depending on skills. Day ends when the job is done, I don't see the sense in hourly pay. Hourly pay is a double disincentive for guys to work hard. Happy to pay ground workers $250/day, wish I could find more that were worth it.

Exactly - re the day rate rather than hourly rate. My youngest ground worker (16 yr) is on $150/day and my oldest (45 yr - father of the 16 year old) is on $450 but he also brings his own truck for logs & firewood and runs everything on the ground while I get on with the climbing (and he climbs too.) Others get $200-$250/day, have their own ground saw, transport, a good attitude and don't spend all day on the phone or come to work stoned. When the job is done it's home time usually well before 3pm

 

[TreeAce]

I pay mine what they're worth. If I find they aren't earning their pay they end up unemployed. Ground workers get $150-$250/day depending on skills. Day ends when the job is done, I don't see the sense in hourly pay. Hourly pay is a double disincentive for guys to work hard. Happy to pay ground workers $250/day, wish I could find more that were worth it.

how does the US$ and the aussie$ compare right now? How does cost of living compare? Are you paing workers comp like we do, or should I say, like we should be, in the US?

 

[TreeAce]

Jeff, last year I wrote checks then 1099 them at the end of the year due to the business not grossing a lot being my first year. But this year I am doing pay checks with taxes taken out via an online payroll service.

I would give my left testi to be able to run the 1099 game. Its very tricky as to what is legit and what isnt. atleast in ohio it is. It is rarely legit I can tell you that. Heck the employer has his cake n eats it to with 1099. The employee is stuck paying his own taxes which they generally screw up by not saving enough money AND they have no workers comp coverage to protect them (and the employer and the home owners to!). If you are going on the books then welcome to a whole diff ballgame money wise. But you should sleep better at night.

 

[arborlicious]

how does the US$ and the aussie$ compare right now? How does cost of living compare? Are you paing workers comp like we do, or should I say, like we should be, in the US?

Currently US$ = 1.1AU$. Cost of living is high (so why do so many people do it?) Yes, we do pay workers compensation and in our line of work it's almost 8% of wages paid. Plus there's employee superannuation guarantee (like your 401K's maybe?) which are currently 9.25% of wages increasing to 9.5% from July 2014 and every year after that by 0.5% until 2020. I use online accounting and payroll systems (linked together and linked to bank account) so everything is pretty easy to manage. The accountant handles the one off end of financial year stuff.

We have to make sure all our sub-contractors have workers compensation or person accident insurance too.

If I didn't like climbing trees all that trouble just wouldn't be worth it.