What do you pay your workers?

[beastmaster]

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.

Darn, I'm a climber and that is what I make a day. I'm not an owner operater, but from an employee's perspective, I prefer an hourly wage. Guy's that pay by the hour are less likely to make you work 10 and 12+ hour days. Guess it has something to do with overtime.
I know its counterproductive to have to come back to finish a job, but it's funny how it's not as important if they have to pay time and a half. I am always told it evens out with the days we get off early. In reality it doesn't even come close. Iv spent more days cleaning up in the headlights of the truck, then beating traffic home.

 

[treesmith]

I prefer getting day rate pay depending on the boss, work harder finish quicker

 

[treesmith]

Quick guide to cost of living in oz, my rent for three bed house in suburbs is $1,740 a month, Stihl 261 costs $1,300+, Stihl 660 is $2,000+ and fuel is $1.50+ a litre

 

[TreeAce]

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.

so you are paying these extra percents on top of the pay per day you had mentioned? In ohio I am paying 25% of wages paid to WC. I am not sure the percentages of the other stuff I pay like social security and unemployment and what not. I do know that all the other things combined are less than the WC.

 

[beastmaster]

I feel like I've been exploited by owner/operators my whole working life. Not just me but all my fellow workers. On the flip side I've watched good really decent owners get taking advantaged of time after time from their employees. It's a fact that some people the nicer and fairer you are to them the more they'll screw ya.
With wages being what they are, why would a hard working decent person want to be involved in this industry? So were left with those that can't find a real job. You can pay a dead beat more money and it'll make no difference in their work out put in the long run. That's the pool your getting most your workers from. Kids aren't getting out of college thinking I want to be a tree trimmer so I can be capped at 35,000 a year for rest my life.
Most the good guys working in this industry move on to better paying jobs in other feilds. I should of been a welder, I would be making twice what I make now. The best jobs money wise I ever work at, had the best hardest working people. Doing beetle trees in the 80's I worked on a 5 man crew. The crew chose for the most part who would get hired. Climbers were getting 50.00 an hour when in the trees. We were like the navy seals of tree crews. That crew ruined me for life. I know what could be, if you had the right people.
I worked for a religious man who paid us a percentage of the jobs. There was only 3 of us. If we pick up another worker it came off the percentage, so we all pushed 100% to finish and do a good job, no dead weight. Oh and I made bank$$$ I also learned how to bid, what the costs of running a job were etc.
To the OP you find the best people you can, make it worth their while, they'll stay and do a good job. Pick the wrong people it doesn't matter how you treat them or pay.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

That makes gas about $6.30/gal US. Compared to $3.49 I paid at the pump yesterday. If the worker making $250 in OZ were to spend it all at the gas pump, he would get the same gallons as a worker here earning about $140 and spending it at the gas pump.

 

[TreeAce]

That makes gas about $6.30/gal US. Compared to $3.49 I paid at the pump yesterday. If the worker making $250 in OZ were to spend it all at the gas pump, he would get the same gallons as a worker here earning about $140 and spending it at the gas pump.

which is 17.25 per hour.

 

[jefflovstrom]

If I got paid by the hour, I would be rich,,60 hours a week for me.
Jeff

 

[Groundman One]

That makes gas about $6.30/gal US. Compared to $3.49 I paid at the pump yesterday. If the worker making $250 in OZ were to spend it all at the gas pump, he would get the same gallons as a worker here earning about $140 and spending it at the gas pump.

$5.60 a gallon here - truck, chipper, and saws - and it comes out of our percentage of the job, not the boss` cut. It`s not too bad, really, but it adds up.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Groundman One, do they still use the 5 qt gallon in Canada?

Edit: My mistake, I always thought the Imperial gallon was equal to 5 QTS. After doing some reading, it seems that your QTS are larger than ours too.
The Imperial gallon is larger than the US gallon, so that is part of the price difference. I'm too tired to do the math tonight. Somebody else can compare the OZ pay to Canadian Pay.

 

[arborlicious]

so you are paying these extra percents on top of the pay per day you had mentioned? In ohio I am paying 25% of wages paid to WC. I am not sure the percentages of the other stuff I pay like social security and unemployment and what not. I do know that all the other things combined are less than the WC.

Yeah, those are all extras for employees - me included since I'm an employee of my own company. Many businesses in Oz will run as 'Sole Traders' to try an get around having employees due to the costs. All workers are then sub-contractors who need to have personel accident insurance. Although if a sub-contractor gets 80% of their earnings from a single business then they are deemed to be employees of that business for tax purposes. The exact rules are more complicated than that - lawyer territory, I'm just assuming what I do is right according to the letter of the law. Lucky there are no laws on one handed chainsaw use or I'd be in jail.

As with Treesmith we work on a day rate since it's go hard then go home. Usually done by 3pm or earlier with a 7:30am start.

Wow, 25% of wages for WC and I thought 8% was steep.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I was quoted 45% of wages for W.C. here in NC.

 

[DR. P. Proteus]

I have one guy working for me, he makes 37.5hr and is a top notch climber. I buy him lunch almost everyday and never yell at him.

Buying the guy a head of organic lettuce and some dried kale isn't really anything to brag about and its high time you hire somebody to yell at. I mean, what's the point of owning the business if you aren't going to holler at people? Seems like a waste of time to me.

 

[DR. P. Proteus]

Nobody mentioned benefits?

 

[Affordabletree]

It

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.

it is a whole new ball game and I am still trying to figure it out. The 1099 thing was a bit of a pain. In the way of helping employees figure stuff out. The payroll thing is much simpler. But my biggest issue is workmans comp is absolutly raping me. Every $7500 in payroll is $3600 to the state. My insurance guy told me that after a year in the state pool my rate will go down to 18-20% but until then this whole thing sucks.

 

[treecutterjr]

Ky is like 32% wc. Then they estimate to figure rates. So if you said 15k was expected payroll they base rates off that. At end of year they audit to check actual payroll. Then if you are over (say payroll ended up being 20k) you owe the extra wc PLUS the next year's estimated payroll rate is raised to the actual of the previous year. I haven't come in under the estimate yet to see if you get a refund check or something.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[MountainHigh]

workers comp and paper work in general is a real disincentive to going into business in Canada - I always found it a royal pain in the arse - we're all forced to be tax collectors here in Canada - and the gov wants their slice on time and in abundance. In Canada, unless cash flow is large enough to easily employ your own trusted bookeeper/paper handler, I say work for someone else and forget about the stress of being in business. Better yet, work for the government and be among the lucky few who actually get a juicy pension when they retire

That feels better ... end of rant!

 

[imagineero]

Ours is base wage + super and then workers comp based on that. I pay my workers as casuals which means they get the 'benefits' included in their hourly rate. We don't do health benefits in australia because everyone has medicare here. The benefits are sick pay and holiday pay. If you get them, then you're a full time employee and your total yearly earnings end up the same either way. Just depends how you want to receive them. When I said i pay 'per day' that is for a standard day ie 7:00-3:30 and I put lunch on for the boys as well. If we go past that time it's overtime at base rate. If they finish early they get a full days pay. I tend to just hire on extra labor on bigger jobs because i find i make more that way if the job is priced accordingly rather than coming back a second day.

If I've got a very big job with a lot of complex rope work I'll sometimes actually hire in a contract climber and run the ropes myself. A good guy on the ground can double the work a climber can get done, I hate waiting in the tree and I find it's easier to find a good climber than a good groundie.

 

[arborlicious]

A good guy on the ground can double the work a climber can get done, I hate waiting in the tree and I find it's easier to find a good climber than a good groundie.

And there's the problem of too many chainsaws and not enough dragging brush. I don't mind it that much. Quite often out of the tree pack up my gear and grab a rake to clean up. Leave the boys to finish cutting and feeding the chipper.

Same for my workers too paid as casual so automatically get extra to pay for holidays etc. Never gonna be a rich man doing this work.

 

[rbtree]

Based in Seattle, I have always paid workers well. It's been rare that I've kept any worker busy 40 hours a week, due to the way I run my business....running the show, office, bidding, and on the crew, we don't work in the field every day. Partly because they don't get regular paychecks, I tend to pay higher than is the norm.

I'll rarely pay less than $20-25/hr for a groundie, unless it's when someone is being tried out, or really is just temporary. A well trained ground person, especially if he is a capable climber, but performing ground duties, can sometimes make over $35/hr. The work is physically demanding, and requires lots of competency and skill, and should be paid commensurately, for a top notch worker. A top climber will be paid $300-400 a day, on the higher end if he's an insured sub contractor.

Recently, our new groundie was thrilled to make 41.69 hr on a 6 day prevailing wage jobwell above his normal $160-220 a day. As Pat was hurt, and I did 90% of the climbing, he got the most hours besides myself. I used big Michael Oxman one day. The climbing wage rate is only a little higher at 42.46/hr.