How much do I charge?

[Greg Swartz]

Ok...

I've got an out of town contractor that needs to use 2 of my guys for about 12 months straight.

This is a Davis Bacon Job. I believe prevailing wage is $38.00 / hr.
After all the other fees, I am somwhere around $46 / hr.

To "rent" my guys out for a year, I'd like to make a few bucks... what do you think is fair?

Greg

 

[quogueelectric]

Ok...

I've got an out of town contractor that needs to use 2 of my guys for about 12 months straight.

This is a Davis Bacon Job. I believe prevailing wage is $38.00 / hr.
After all the other fees, I am somwhere around $46 / hr.

To "rent" my guys out for a year, I'd like to make a few bucks... what do you think is fair?

Greg

20% seems reasonable to me all the way around.

 

[hardworkingstiff]

To "rent" my guys out for a year, I'd like to make a few bucks... what do you think is fair?

Greg

It depends on your work load. If you are slow and about to let someone go, then your cost +something small would be OK.

If you are busy and don't need any help in keeping your men busy, then the out of town EC probably won't want to pay the fair price.

Do you have a "feel" for the market going forward?

 

[jimport]

How will renting your guys impact your ability to meet your customers needs? Will you need to turn them away and loose more money than they are going to bring in?

 

[Greg Swartz]

How will renting your guys impact your ability to meet your customers needs? Will you need to turn them away and loose more money than they are going to bring in?

I was thinking of bringing on a full time residential guy to replace the 2 commercial guys.

 

[Greg Swartz]

It depends on your work load. If you are slow and about to let someone go, then your cost +something small would be OK.

If you are busy and don't need any help in keeping your men busy, then the out of town EC probably won't want to pay the fair price.

Do you have a "feel" for the market going forward?

I understand, how much is too much? I have a decent workload, and he will be keeping them busy for 40 hours / week for 12 months.

Is 10% too much, or like the post above stated 20%?

 

[petersonra]

Ok...

I've got an out of town contractor that needs to use 2 of my guys for about 12 months straight.

This is a Davis Bacon Job. I believe prevailing wage is $38.00 / hr.
After all the other fees, I am somewhere around $46 / hr.

To "rent" my guys out for a year, I'd like to make a few bucks... what do you think is fair?

Greg

There is no such thing as fair. A long term labor only project like that has a fairly low, but not zero risk to you.

If you can send out a couple guys you don't need for other things, maybe $55-60 an hour is a reasonable rate.

If you have to take your best guys away from profitable work and can't easily replace them, you may want more out of the deal.

I would not underestimate the potential negative impact to your business if you take out your two best guys for a year though if you are a relatively small contractor.

 

[emahler]

since there are national companies that specialize in providing temporary skilled labor, i have to ask why they are looking to rent 2 of your men? is it because they are not licensed in your jurisdiction and need to use your license?

if they don't need your license, then what are you responsible for? will the men still be your employees? paid for and insured by you?

does your insurance allow you to do what you are thinking? what happens if one of the men gets hurt on the job and your worker's comp says "no, they were working for that guy at the time, no payout for you"

what happens if one of your guys quits? or can't work due to injury? are you on the hook to recruit a new worker for this guy?

there are so many variable, legal and just common sense, that need to be addressed.

 

[petersonra]

I have run across this kind of thing before. It was pretty common at a previous employer where there were often some specific requirements on who was allowed to do work on a project. Often it was a requirement they be unionized or from a specified list of "qualified" contractors.

What would have been ideal was to send our own people, or those of a contractor we regularly worked with who had a lot of experience with our equipment, but it was not always possible due to these kind of requirements. It added a lot of cost to the field labor, but it did cause us to find ways to avoid as much field labor as possible, which usually made for a much better product in the long run.

 

[Greg Swartz]

Good questions...

Good questions...

since there are national companies that specialize in providing temporary skilled labor, i have to ask why they are looking to rent 2 of your men? is it because they are not licensed in your jurisdiction and need to use your license?

if they don't need your license, then what are you responsible for? will the men still be your employees? paid for and insured by you?

does your insurance allow you to do what you are thinking? what happens if one of the men gets hurt on the job and your worker's comp says "no, they were working for that guy at the time, no payout for you"

what happens if one of your guys quits? or can't work due to injury? are you on the hook to recruit a new worker for this guy?

there are so many variable, legal and just common sense, that need to be addressed.

I asked myself the same thing... While they are not licensed in my jurisdiction, they do not have need of my license. I think mostly becasue the job is on a military installation. I was referred to their company from a guy that I network with. He knows the company owner, who asked him if there were any good electricians he knew. Well, he knew me, and I took the whole thing another direction. I wasn't about to lose my 2 best guys (yes, the best) to an out of state contractor for 12 months of Davis-Bacon wage increase.

Right now, the contractor is asking me for a wage to rent the guys out. At first, there will be a few weeks of demo, then nothing for about 2 months, then 12 months of solid 40 hr work weeks. So, the guys are still paid by me, insured by me, and ran by the other company.

Does the insurance allow this... I don't know, but I'll start asking now. Workman's comp is evil!!!

Injury / quitting ... yeah, I'm probably on the hook to get someone in there...


Greg

 

[emahler]

I asked myself the same thing... While they are not licensed in my jurisdiction, they do not have need of my license. I think mostly becasue the job is on a military installation. I was referred to their company from a guy that I network with. He knows the company owner, who asked him if there were any good electricians he knew. Well, he knew me, and I took the whole thing another direction. I wasn't about to lose my 2 best guys (yes, the best) to an out of state contractor for 12 months of Davis-Bacon wage increase.

Right now, the contractor is asking me for a wage to rent the guys out. At first, there will be a few weeks of demo, then nothing for about 2 months, then 12 months of solid 40 hr work weeks. So, the guys are still paid by me, insured by me, and ran by the other company.

Does the insurance allow this... I don't know, but I'll start asking now. Workman's comp is evil!!!

Injury / quitting ... yeah, I'm probably on the hook to get someone in there...


Greg

ok, i can buy that...just make sure that you account for all your costs since you will still be responsible for them...make sure you add in any of your payroll costs over and above the prevailing wage...make sure you add in for your overhead of paying and being their HR director...

it's a tough call...guaranteed money is nice, but what will you lose by not having them available for your work?