Worker hourly pay? | Making the SPF Industry Better | Spray Foam Technical Questions and Answers | SprayFoam Magazine Q&A Forums

Q&A Forums

Author	Comments
Corey Degetaire Posted: Oct 24, 2008 01:11 PM	Worker hourly pay? What is the going hourly rate for a helper? Does no spraying just help set up, support while spraying, prep, clean up and swap drum sets...I have a friend helping me, but he expects more than I have paying him.His pay averages approx. $10.00 hour cash money...is this fair pay?
richard sucher II Posted: Oct 24, 2008 04:06 PM	Cash money? - Love it when I hear guys working off the books - no work comp, no child support, no wage garnishments - no taxes. Beautiful - just what our industry needs. Since you are not issuing W-2's at year's end, do you give this guy a 1099? Good luck with state and fed tax boys. P.S. Nobody can live on $10/hr. At that rate, you will be dealing with a revolving door when it comes to help. Our rate is $14-16/hr.
Posted: Oct 24, 2008 08:55 PM	Wouldn't $14/hr on the books be roughly $10/hr take home under the table? Tim
richard sucher II Posted: Oct 27, 2008 01:51 PM	each individual is different but 14 less 20% approximate nets around $11.20 per hour. With overtime over forty and double time for any sunday or holiday work, this is ok start in my book. usually pay $1.00/hour premium for valid drivers license. More to the point, under the table erodes business for all of us that pay taxes and have insurance and the employee has the comfort of knowing that he is covered with workers comp. Many of these guys are treating these workers as "independent contractors" and we all know that is a joke. In Iowa, $11.00 is tough to live on; in other parts of the country, $11.00 for unskilled labor may be the going rate and is competitive. Guess I am more bothered by the under the table aspects of this question than the actual dollar amount.
Corey Degetaire Posted: Oct 27, 2008 02:13 PM	Not to be understood, I carry both Liability and Workers Comp. insurance on all workers. This guy is paid cash, but is covered by workers comp, and he does recieve a 1099 at tax time. This for him is only part time, he has another job were he works full time. I agree that $11.00 an hr is very tought to survive on, even in South Louisiana. Iowa is lucky to get paid double time for working on sunday.
richard sucher II Posted: Oct 28, 2008 05:13 AM	Since you are paying him cash, he is not figured in your workers comp premium. he does not show up on your payroll. you only have workers comp on your employees and he does not sound like one. if he gets hurt or sensitized to foam and he files a claim, will he get benefits. Doubt it as he does not show up as an employee and the insurance company has not been receiving premiums for his coverage. They will want to know who this guy is for sure. We could go on all day as to the proper way to run a business. As far as $10.00/hr. is concerned, I think this is low for reliable help that can be relied upon to show up to work bright eyed and bushy tailed and help you make money. Regarding Sunday double time, in thirty years of business we have only been forced to work a handful of Sundays due to weather and or job scheduling. Noone likes to work on Sunday but we do pay doubletime for that work. Good luck in your business - up here, winter is on its way and that, along with recent financial calamity, have really put a halt to activity. Will be interesting - survival of the fitest for sure.
Melvin Chandler Posted: Nov 30, 2008 06:00 PM	This is an interesting topic because in our area, there is little demand for foam due to the low cost of energy here. That makes it tough to get a premium for foam. Our primary business is something other than foam and we just sell foam as a premium product that brings a premium price. I don't spray much anymore but I'm still on the job to oversee the work. I have two hard working guys that can spray and both of those guys are making around 15/hr. My laborers are making around 10. As soon as my lead guy can handle all aspects of material and mechanics he'll be making more. The laborers are hard workers but they need frequent supervision if left alone to handle tasks (cleaning, masking, caulking, etc). $10/hr around here isn't bad for a h.s dropout who doesn't have the initiative to go get a drivers license. Oh, I failed to mention that we pay for everyone's health insurance, occupational taxes, etc. And everything is on the books.

Author

Comments

Corey Degetaire

Posted: Oct 24, 2008 01:11 PM

Worker hourly pay?

What is the going hourly rate for a helper? Does no spraying just help set up, support while spraying, prep, clean up and swap drum sets...I have a friend helping me, but he expects more than I have paying him.His pay averages approx. $10.00 hour cash money...is this fair pay?

richard sucher II

Posted: Oct 24, 2008 04:06 PM

Cash money? - Love it when I hear guys working off the books - no work comp, no child support, no wage garnishments - no taxes. Beautiful - just what our industry needs. Since you are not issuing W-2's at year's end, do you give this guy a 1099? Good luck with state and fed tax boys.

P.S. Nobody can live on $10/hr. At that rate, you will be dealing with a revolving door when it comes to help. Our rate is $14-16/hr.

Posted: Oct 24, 2008 08:55 PM

Wouldn't $14/hr on the books be roughly $10/hr take home under the table?

Tim

richard sucher II

Posted: Oct 27, 2008 01:51 PM

each individual is different but 14 less 20% approximate nets around $11.20 per hour. With overtime over forty and double time for any sunday or holiday work, this is ok start in my book. usually pay $1.00/hour premium for valid drivers license. More to the point, under the table erodes business for all of us that pay taxes and have insurance and the employee has the comfort of knowing that he is covered with workers comp. Many of these guys are treating these workers as "independent contractors" and we all know that is a joke.

In Iowa, $11.00 is tough to live on; in other parts of the country, $11.00 for unskilled labor may be the going rate and is competitive. Guess I am more bothered by the under the table aspects of this question than the actual dollar amount.

Corey Degetaire

Posted: Oct 27, 2008 02:13 PM

Not to be understood, I carry both Liability and Workers Comp. insurance on all workers. This guy is paid cash, but is covered by workers comp, and he does recieve a 1099 at tax time. This for him is only part time, he has another job were he works full time. I agree that $11.00 an hr is very tought to survive on, even in South Louisiana. Iowa is lucky to get paid double time for working on sunday.

richard sucher II

Posted: Oct 28, 2008 05:13 AM

Since you are paying him cash, he is not figured in your workers comp premium. he does not show up on your payroll. you only have workers comp on your employees and he does not sound like one. if he gets hurt or sensitized to foam and he files a claim, will he get benefits. Doubt it as he does not show up as an employee and the insurance company has not been receiving premiums for his coverage. They will want to know who this guy is for sure.
We could go on all day as to the proper way to run a business. As far as $10.00/hr. is concerned, I think this is low for reliable help that can be relied upon to show up to work bright eyed and bushy tailed and help you make money.
Regarding Sunday double time, in thirty years of business we have only been forced to work a handful of Sundays due to weather and or job scheduling. Noone likes to work on Sunday but we do pay doubletime for that work.
Good luck in your business - up here, winter is on its way and that, along with recent financial calamity, have really put a halt to activity. Will be interesting - survival of the fitest for sure.

Melvin Chandler

Posted: Nov 30, 2008 06:00 PM

This is an interesting topic because in our area, there is little demand for foam due to the low cost of energy here. That makes it tough to get a premium for foam. Our primary business is something other than foam and we just sell foam as a premium product that brings a premium price. I don't spray much anymore but I'm still on the job to oversee the work. I have two hard working guys that can spray and both of those guys are making around 15/hr. My laborers are making around 10. As soon as my lead guy can handle all aspects of material and mechanics he'll be making more. The laborers are hard workers but they need frequent supervision if left alone to handle tasks (cleaning, masking, caulking, etc). $10/hr around here isn't bad for a h.s dropout who doesn't have the initiative to go get a drivers license. Oh, I failed to mention that we pay for everyone's health insurance, occupational taxes, etc. And everything is on the books.

You need to login to reply to this topic. Please click here to login.