Cost of someone's labour

[Steve]

My mate's 16-year old son is going to do some work for us before he starts at college. We're going to hire a skip and he's going to do a general garage tidy-up (and believe me it needs doing :o)) and clear the area behind the garage. The biggest job however, will be the front "garden".

The previous owners got rid of the lawn (not very well, I might add), laid visqueen, and then put on about 2 to 3 tons of pea gravel. We want to get rid of the pea gravel, level the ground properly, lay landscape fabric and then put down a couple of tons of 20mm Golden Gravel.

He's a good strong lad and well up for doing the work for us (I can't because of a back injury) but we haven't got a clue what to pay him, and he doesn't know what to ask for because he's never done a job like this for money before. We obviously want to pay him a fair price for his hard graft so has anyone got any ideas as to what we should be paying him, and should we say so much per hour or give him a lump sum for the job?

TIA,

Steve.

[Christian McArdle]

6-7 pounds an hour if he won't name his own price.

Christian.

[Steve]

I should have said that this is in Blackburn, Lancashire, where the cost of living is a lot less than London or the south - I know the north-south divide does really exist :o)

[Andy Hall]

I would have thought something in the £100 a day region would be reasonable or perhaps £700 or so for the whole job.

It would cost you more than these figures to "get a man in" but OTOH, this sort of sum is a nice chunk of change for a 16 year old.

It's hard to be more specific without knowing the size of garage etc and how bad it is.

[Rob Morley]

I reckon minimum £5/hr. Does the job include the levelling and laying, or just clearing?

[John Cartmell]

A friend of mine* did similar work every Saturday at that age and received the princely sum of one crown (5/- or 25p) for about 4 hours work. That too was in Blackburn - but the cost of living may have gone up slightly since the late

60s. ;-)

[Rob Morley]

That's a nice chunk of change for me - have you got any work needs doing?

[ben]

pmsl, I'd be out of work in no time asking for that daily amount.

£50 a day is about right.

[Mary Fisher]

It does, but if he's worthy of his hire he should have at least the legal minimum hourly rate for his age.

How much it costs him to live is irrelevant, you're paying for the job you want doing, not for his living costs. And goodwill is valuable - even in Lancashire :-)

Mary in Leeds.

[Grunff]

When we had plasterers in (very good ones), the plasteres charged £150 a day each, and they had a 16 year old apprentice acting as a general labourer who charged £70 a day. I thought these were very reasonable (read cheap) rates (Devon).

[ben]

Thats Plasteres though, not General labouring. A 'good' plasterer is worth his weight in gold. Also they're labourer is part'n'partial of the team so what the plasterer ask is irrelevent to what his labourer does.(does the mix and cleans up the mess is not hard work). :-)

[Mary Fisher]

I've just looked that up, it's £3 an hour for a 16 - 17 year olf, a review is urged but won't be applicable until October 2006 I believe.

This is disgraceful. A good lad, doing an adult's job, should have an adult's pay. £5 an hour minimum is what I'd pay.

And I have done - to our grandsons, three years ago. And they had good meals too. We wouldn't want to exploit anyone.

As someone else said, if you don't think he's worth that get a man in. I think it's worth encouraging the lad - and making sure that he does a good job. It might also be an idea to pay some of it into a savings account if he has one, or open one for him.

It must also be borne in mind that what he's paid for this job could become the level he'll ask others for. You wouldn't want him to be ripped off in the future. If he does a good job it should be respected - you could suggest a 'penalty clause' - but be fair about it.

Mary

[Grunff]

Yes, I appreciate that - I was referring to what their labourer, who by their admission was totally new to this and as yet unskilled, was paid.

This is exactly what he did - mixing and cleaning.

[Steve]

Wow, that got a fair amount of replies quite quickly :o)

Thanks to all who've replied. I think we'll probably try for the £7 per hour or about £50-£60 per day mark - that seems quite reasonable and if someone was paying me to do it, I'd be happy with that.

Cheers all,

Steve.

Steve.

[ben]

Yeah, and dont forget his tea breaks and dinner, goes without saying really. :-)

[Mary Fisher]

Good man!

Mary

[Adrian C]

Dinner? Wish my employer fed me after 5.30pm....

Oh, check your house insurance on liability cover for persons working on your property. There should be something in there.

-- Adrian C

[Andy Hall]

Go take a look at typical unskilled rates. The OP hadn't said where it was, but in the home counties this is about it...

Are you sure that it isn't that you wish you were 16 again? ;=)

[Mungo "two sheds" Toadfoot]

You beat me to it. £100 a day? Yes please!

Si

[Richard Polhill]

"Steve" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

National minimum wage for 16 year old is £3/hour, however I think a bit more would pay you in goodwill. £4-£5/hour?

Then (bearing in mund this is a teenager) I think you'd be better setting a piece rate per job. Say, you expect the front garden to take 3 days at 8 hours/day, then offer 3x8x£4.50=£108 to do it. If he then works his nuts off to get it done in two days, it's to his advantage, whereas if he farts about for 7 days it'll not cost you £252.

If you can see just reason for genuine delays then you can still give a bonus.

You can break the overall work down into, say, 4 seperate jobs.

Personally I think it's nicer to get paid for what you do rather than the time you spend doing it.

Rich