How much should I be making?

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petersonra said:
My guess is your attitude might have a lot to do with being unable to find suitable help. It does not take long for word to spread about who is good to work for and who isn't.
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Come around my town and have a look around and find out for yourself. Its not that hard to realize that certain areas of the country are full of people who do not want to work. Then out of the small percentage of people who will work...most if not all do just barely enough to get by. Im just telling you how the labor pool is around here. We are probably the most professional and courteous EC's around my town...always bending over backwards doing everything we can to please our customers. It is not an attitude problem.
 
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g@friendly said:
when I was 17 I said to my old man "I am the main and the best frame guy and painter in the shop (he owned a bodyshop) why am I one of the least paid guys and no matter how nice it came out or what I did it was never good enough for him, but everyone else was well job done... "

Answer:
My grandfather was in the room and before my father said anything he said because you are his SON! You must be better, faster, smarter, keep calm when thing don't go good, keep you person stuff to your self and EARN your right to be the owner!
That is what it takes to get the respect of you employees. Why you cry to your co workers about your dad not being there etc.. they are laughing at you because you are the owners kid. read what Tony said your dad has the hardest part. I love it when I get to go out and put my tools on and work in the field. It is easy, no pressure, black to black-white to white.
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I dont remember ever crying to my coworkers...nor them having a lack of respect for me.
 
So after 7 pages of post you have painted yourself as a good decent worker, if all this is true then you have two options.

1. Tell all this to your boss and see what he says.
2. Quit.

You never answered my question about what quitting would do to your family relationships?
 
The question is what are your fringe benefits worth? Vehicle, car, cell phone, health insurance and all of those other write off worth a year to you. It sounds like you stand to inherit the contacts of your father someday. The key is to develop your own contacts and jobs for thwe company as a whole and grow a buissness far past 3 other employees. I am sure there are other factors involved.
 
Hairbone said:
The key is to develop your own contacts and jobs for the company as a whole and grow a buissness far past 3 other employees.
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that's a great piece of advice. you've got to prove you can handle it from the top down. you start bringing in the work and the money ought to head your way.
 
brian john said:
So after 7 pages of post you have painted yourself as a good decent worker, if all this is true then you have two options.

1. Tell all this to your boss and see what he says.
2. Quit.

You never answered my question about what quitting would do to your family relationships?
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Maybe he's ignoring you. I'd like the answer to the question as well. I know another member of this forum who gets a lot of business from his father and he had a lot of complaints about how much money was coming in from those jobs.
 
kyled86 said:
Come around my town and have a look around and find out for yourself. Its not that hard to realize that certain areas of the country are full of people who do not want to work. Then out of the small percentage of people who will work...most if not all do just barely enough to get by. Im just telling you how the labor pool is around here.
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Unless you are recruiting from a public housing project I have a hard time believing that. There are plenty of people who don't want to work, but there are also plenty of people willing to work if properly motivated. As a supervisor, that is your job, and if it is not happening it is mostly your failing and not their's. You might want to examine your own attitudes about your potential employees. They may be what is getting in the way of finding good people.

I will admit that in rural and small town areas, it is very easy for a business to get a bad enough rep that no one wants to work for that business. Look at other businesses in the area (like McDonalds) and see how they are doing. If they can find good help, so can you.

You may have to spend more time on it than you want to, but thats part of running your dad's business.
 
iwire said:
If your going to post that at least be honest and let the guy know how many are on the bench in each of those areas making nothing.
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Hard to say some places have 1000 members with 50 guys on the bench some have 200 on the bench but you cant really know how many members they have.
I believe the question was "how much should I be making"
The wages are based on several local contributing factors and in most places accepted as the "prevailing wage".

We had a time here in Florida where they calculated electricians wages based on residential and commercial rates and averaged down the pay so bad that people were not interested in getting into the trade.
It was real fun for a while until there became a real serious shortage of electricians.
Then wages got back to just above poverty again.
 
Wages are low in north Georgia too, that's why I drive an hour and a half to Atlanta to make double what I would make up here. The mountain is full of trucks every morning of people doing the same thing, but you could not pay me enough to live in Atlanta though.
 
iwire said:
If your going to post that at least be honest and let the guy know how many are on the bench in each of those areas making nothing.
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ooohhh.... trick question....... not fair. NOT FAIR!!!!!

those, of course, are I.B.E.W. locals.
some say that is International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
some say that is I've Been Every Where
some say that is I'm Broke Every Week.
some say all of the above.

i remember seeing the fifth wheel of a "boomer" ahead of me
on the freeway, and underneath the logo, and his home local
was the following slogan.... "making bail, chasing t..."
you get the idea. a swashbuckling fellow, perhaps.
however, he was 2,000 miles from home, trying to earn a
living. that speaks a great deal of the realities in
today's labor market.

most locals have a 5 year apprenticeship, and start
at anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of JW rate. so.....
you can start near where you are in pay, and go to
double that, provided the work is there. it often isn't.

however, that may change, and a union membership
might return to the luster of better days.... if, with
this change of administration at the national level,
someone decides that we really do need to build 100
nuclear plants in the US.

that would empty out the labor pool in a hurry.
i'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.

however, to the 22 year old questioning his pay scale....

relax, breath in and breath out, and consider that you
are getting a largely risk free education. it doesn't sound
like you are sitting at home not working, and right now,
there are a lot of sparkies with 10+ years experience who
are doing just that. i'm halfway thru a code class to
satisfy the california requirements for a JW license,
which requires 32 hours of inservice education every 2 years,
and of the 25 people in the class, 10 are unemployed,
and have been so for over 3 months.

and if you aren't the ace in your current arraingement,
then you are just another sparky on someone else's crew.
and subject to sitting home if things get slow. how far
will an extra $2 an hour go if you have to take next week off?


randy
 
Just maybe

Just maybe

kyled86 said:
My father is a licensed electrical contractor and owns his own business. I have an electrical contractors license also and I am his right hand man. I run pretty much all of the jobsites. He is a fulltime employee with the local power company therefore he rarely is ever on a job site other than to talk with me about the work that needs to be done. We have 3 other fulltime employees that i supervise. I call all of the shots on the job site. I do basically everything except getting the jobs, pricing, and billing the customer. I am located in Southeast Georgia. I have been working for my father for going on 7 years now but have only had my contractors license for the past 2 months. I am just curious what you guys think I should be making. I have been working for the same wages for a little over the past year and I think that the job i do is worth much more than I make. Up until the last 2 years I just done the manual side of the job. These days I do much more supervising and planning. My latest project was a 12 suite hotel/restaurant/bar that I handled almost completely on my own. What do you guys think?
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To me it sounds like your father is a hard worker. He works a full time with the power co. and handles the all the office work, including the bidding all billing and promoting of the business. He sounds like a man that making sacrifices to keep the business run.( Face it: he is working TWO jobs to keep it going). So when he gets mad when you ask for more money. Could be because, he's looking for you make sacrifices too? It hard or almost impossible to keep construction based business open under this economy.:mad:
 
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William1978 ?One thing you need to remember is that money isn't everything.? True. I was offered five more dollars an hour and I declined.

I love the work that my employer bids and, for the most part, I like my peers. They employee some top notch intelligent peopleand some who seem to care about peoples well being.

It?s all about making the boss money and hopefully, in time, it will come back around. I want to learn and it seems that here is a great place to do it

Buckofdurham ?I'm a strong beliver in rewarding good employees with the potential of a bonus. On big jobs and if the job makes me money.? I think a bonus gives incentive to those who might not have a good work ethic.

It?s tough working for family. I would say talk to your dad. Not that I was arrogant but I thought I knew a lot ten years ago. Now I realize how much I didn?t know and still don?t know. LOL.

Keep at it. Express your thoughts and ideas. You might have an opportunity to own the business someday. It just takes time. Best of luck. Remember family comes first.


My two cents

JJ
 
It sounded like your father has quite the work ethic. He?s working fifty hours a week and bidding work! He must be doing something right if he keeps everyone working.

ches2443 "Could be because, he's looking for you make sacrifices too?" Maybe theres truth to that... talk to him


JJ
 
I now that Mister Sparky electric in Alanta GA... Pay some of those guys close to and over 100k a year.. They work hard for it and earn every sent.. Goodluck
 
I've seen some of the mister sparkey trucks running around here.How does that work? I've heard that it's a franchise company is that correct?
 
Do not over value yourself

Do not over value yourself

kyled86 said:
My father is a licensed electrical contractor and owns his own business. I have an electrical contractors license also and I am his right hand man. I run pretty much all of the jobsites. He is a fulltime employee with the local power company therefore he rarely is ever on a job site other than to talk with me about the work that needs to be done. We have 3 other fulltime employees that i supervise. I call all of the shots on the job site. I do basically everything except getting the jobs, pricing, and billing the customer. I am located in Southeast Georgia. I have been working for my father for going on 7 years now but have only had my contractors license for the past 2 months. I am just curious what you guys think I should be making. I have been working for the same wages for a little over the past year and I think that the job i do is worth much more than I make. Up until the last 2 years I just done the manual side of the job. These days I do much more supervising and planning. My latest project was a 12 suite hotel/restaurant/bar that I handled almost completely on my own. What do you guys think?
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I'll hire you and give you a raise... you can run my jobs... and if they make a profit, I'll give you a bonus... If they don't, you work for free until they are paid off... Sound like a deal?
That is what your Dad is doing...

I would LOVE to have someone run my jobs for me and treat the jobs the way I want them to be treated.

Since he is still working for someone else, I figure one of two things have occured: Either someone in the family is REALLY sick, and he needs the health insurance to cover the medical costs, OR he is not making enough money to support himself...

Which means you cost a lot...

It may not be much... heck, it may not be enough, but I honestly believe it is just about all he has to offer you.

Take it. Learn what he has to teach you. My kids are not old enough, but this is what I have planned for some of them... trust that your dad loves you, and has the best in mind for you. I don't think he's holding out on you.

One of my former foremen started his own company, here in Colorado.
He moved to Georgia, and had things scheduled to take that test...
I don't know how things went, but he is now back to Colorado... 2 years later. He's just a year or 2 older than you... and he already had business experience...
I'm telling you, it's not easy.

Working and supervising are the easy parts.

It's 9:16 PM, and I am answering e-mails, and finishing bid proposals. I will be at the office, and gone long before anyone else shows up. My first appointment is at 7:15... and I have meetings throughout the day.
And I have 3 hours of work to do... BEFORE the day starts...
Take it from me... you have the easy part.

Now go and make your dad some money!

Greg
 
Mr. Sparky is evil

Mr. Sparky is evil

William1978 said:
I've seen some of the mister sparkey trucks running around here.How does that work? I've heard that it's a franchise company is that correct?
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Ok... Mr. Sparky... yes, it is a franchise.
You'll need some money for the franchise license.
Then you'll need a lot of money for the nice van. It has to be new, and you've got to get a vehicle wrap too...
Then you need to have the van stocked... I mean loaded!
Then the biggie: Advertise! Every phone book ($5k a month easily), every internet website, EVERYWHERE.

So, start off with about $60k, and set it all aside, because it is going to disappear.

And then expect the phone to start ringing...

Still waiting?

Thought so... you'll need the "time" factor to set in...

Yes, some Mr. Sparky guys make $100k a year.
It is all residential work: 100%

Panel change outs, hot tubs, ceiling fans, plugs, switches, and whatever else you can think of...
The guys get paid piece work. The faster you work, the more per hour you make. But do not get ANY call backs. You do not get paid for those, and you'll be reprimanded or fired (depending on the severity.)

They charge a lot for work, so they're easy to beat on bids
 
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