I have hired a new employee, he has been doing electrical for a long time but is unlicensed and not properly trained, we are under complete understanding of his wage and I want him to complete a apprenticeship to obtain a licensce. I also hired him as he has a huge mechanical back ground and I servie and do warranty work on generators. I feel I could pay him more for this type of work. What are peoples thoughts of a split scale for the type of work he is doing? The generators are probably 15 percent of total work. More at different times and I believe could be even more.
Split scale
- Thread starter arnettda
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James L
Senior Member
- Location
- Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
- Occupation
- Electrician
If he's not properly trained as an electrician, and that's the stuff he'll be working on 85% of the time, you're likely to lose money on him in that work - at least sometimes.
Have you sized him up properly? If so, you can probably guess pretty closely just how much training time you'll have to invest in him.
My guess is if he hasn't been properly trained, there's no way possible for him to be efficient until you after lose money on him to train or retrain him.
You NEED him to make good money for you in that 15% generator work, to help pay for what you'll lose in the other 85%
Same pay across the board I would think. And I'd probably explain it to him just like that.
Fred B
Senior Member
- Location
- Upstate, NY
- Occupation
- Electrician
I dont think I would do a true split rate at least not until you can actually see added value for service work he may be performing. If he is bringing you added profit by his experience in the gen service category I might consider a bonus on gen service above base apprenticeship rate but would be contingent on his bringing added value. (If your normal number of gen services is say 2 a day but he can get you 2.5 a day, a bonus could be appropriate, but if all you maintain is the baseline, no.) Even with that consideration for how much supervision would be needed for your reputation to be maintained, you obviously have worked hard to get a certain level of reputation to reach the point of getting extra helpers, and you want to keep that intact.
Additional caviet, dont let his proficiency in mechanical gen service sideline your getting him up to speed with his electrical skills, otherwise he will loose interest in working that lower apprentice rate, and you loose a ?good? mechanic.
Additional caviet, dont let his proficiency in mechanical gen service sideline your getting him up to speed with his electrical skills, otherwise he will loose interest in working that lower apprentice rate, and you loose a ?good? mechanic.
rnatalie
Senior Member
- Location
- Catawba, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Engineer
First off, in general, unless unions or other collective bargaining is in place, you're free to pay people whatever you want as long as it's over minimum wage and that you pay them overtime when they work more than 40 hours (or some other limits depending on your state). Most states, will require you to lay out what you're going to pay in advance. So if you tell the guy, I'll give you $20/hour, but an extra $5 on generator jobs, that would fly in most places. Whether it's a good idea or not, I'll remain silent.
readydave8
re member
- Location
- Clarkesville, Georgia
- Occupation
- electrician
perhaps a bonus each quarter based on profit from generator jobs
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