Wage rates?

[packerbacker]

I am looking for an outsiders opinion. I am an employer of 3 journeyman electricians. (All have worked with me for over 5 years each.) I pay no health insurance and give 2 weeks vacation, but guys do take work trucks home. Our work is normally in the residential field as well as service work, farm, light commercial, etc.. Just curious as to what a fair hourly wage rate might be to my guys? Thanks!

 

[brian john]

Location?
What is the going rate in you area? You should have an idea what your competion is paying.

Strictly my opinion BUT at a minimum you should offer holidays, vacation, and health insurance for the employee and all of their family, all tools above minimal hand tools.

 

[packerbacker]

Location of work

Location of work

Our shop is located near central Wisconsin

 

[ptonsparky]

I have often wondered if I pay my guys enough, probably not, but no one has ever asked for a raise. They get upto 4 weeks of sick/vacation, most holidays, plus a couple floaters, and a Simple IRA. No Health Insurance. Most are covered by spouse. That may need to be addressed in the future.

 

[iwire]

Our shop is located near central Wisconsin

This is such a tough subject on a National level as every area is so different.

Around me it is expected that there will be health care, vacation time, paid holidays, likely some sort of retirement savings help, and a decent hourly wage.($25-$40 for a Journeyman, more for leaders) A truck with gas card makes it better but would not take the place of the other bennis. .... at least for me in this area.

 

[cowboyjwc]

wages are a tough topic to talk about here, because of the different locals we cover.

You have inspectors in Los Angeles making $80K a year and I've seen ads for building officials in the midwest paying $50K.

 

[__dan]

You could try doing the calculation backwards and see if the guy has enough left at the end of the week to pay for the basic necessities, what it costs him to live and get to work.

Home mortgage payment monthly, $225,000 @ 4% for 15 years: $1665.
Home insurance + property taxes, monthly: $420
Toyota Camry, payment + insurance+gas, monthly: $400
Phone, internet, electric: $150
Food, monthly: $480
Amusements, monthly: $100
Heat, clothing, gear, annual averaged monthly: $210

You should see I've listed numbers for a very frugal person, very basic necessities essential to living, and have surely forgotten to include some stuff, like family expenses, saving for rainy days, health and disability insurance. Education budget should be not less than $2500. annually. You should also see this is based on having good credit and smart, economical buying.

(take home pay numbers) monthly expenses total of the above is $ 3425. or $ 856.25 weekly take home. This is based on making enough in 40 hours, employed professionally and productively, what it takes to earn a living.

At this point half the board is saying WTF??? I don't make that !!! Guesstimating it's ~ $30/hr gross.

I have a very fair eye and mind for this. Your inquiry may have been, 'am i being fair compared to the market pay rates?' Your inquiry could be ' am I being fair compared to the market cost of living and having the basic civilized human necessities?'.

Clearly the market generally looks down on skilled trade labor, pays enough to live in a bunk house, eat crap food, drive a crap car, get educated from bubblevision, seek amusements in petty scams.

This was all laid out very clearly by Carroll Quigley in the 1950's, discussing turn of the century economics.

 

[electricguy61]

You could try doing the calculation backwards and see if the guy has enough left at the end of the week to pay for the basic necessities, what it costs him to live and get to work.

Home mortgage payment monthly, $225,000 @ 4% for 15 years: $1665.
Home insurance + property taxes, monthly: $420
Toyota Camry, payment + insurance+gas, monthly: $400
Phone, internet, electric: $150
Food, monthly: $480
Amusements, monthly: $100
Heat, clothing, gear, annual averaged monthly: $210

You should see I've listed numbers for a very frugal person, very basic necessities essential to living, and have surely forgotten to include some stuff, like family expenses, saving for rainy days, health and disability insurance. Education budget should be not less than $2500. annually. You should also see this is based on having good credit and smart, economical buying.

(take home pay numbers) monthly expenses total of the above is $ 3425. or $ 856.25 weekly take home. This is based on making enough in 40 hours, employed professionally and productively, what it takes to earn a living.

At this point half the board is saying WTF??? I don't make that !!! Guesstimating it's ~ $30/hr gross.

I have a very fair eye and mind for this. Your inquiry may have been, 'am i being fair compared to the market pay rates?' Your inquiry could be ' am I being fair compared to the market cost of living and having the basic civilized human necessities?'.

Clearly the market generally looks down on skilled trade labor, pays enough to live in a bunk house, eat crap food, drive a crap car, get educated from bubblevision, seek amusements in petty scams.

This was all laid out very clearly by Carroll Quigley in the 1950's, discussing turn of the century economics.

And that $30 per hour is based on a 40 hour week, which may or may not be the reality.

Hire the very best employees, pay them as much as you possibly can, give them all the benefits you can afford, heap them with praise, keep them trained. Two awesome employees at top pay are cheaper then 4 or 5 average employees that have no loyalty.

 

[djd]

wage

wage

I really do think this answer is the best what you can afford and what they and the local competition is , although you didnt mention this it is a small factor, if the competition is paying lower wages those workers are not going to stay there for long. the guys I work are always looking for the prevailing wage , we do have a very high cost of living in southern Ca.