Groundie Salary in 2021

[Steven P]

First job in an industry, unproven, and needing to be trained up at the moment you are more likely to be a cost to the employer - someone needs to keep half an eye on you so their productivity is down a bit and you'll probably need some one to one supervision. The employer is taking a chance to spend the cash to train you to be useful to their team. Chances are they are paying the going wage in your area - pay too little and they won't get anyone, pay too much and they will loose money. The probation period of any job is great, take it as work experience and your 3 months will help you decide if that is what you want to do for the next 5 years, 10 years, forever... If not, after 3 months both sides can walk away and chalk it down to experience.

 

However if it is enjoyable for you and you can work hard then make a go of it, show you are willing to learn (same as in any job), ask questions, ask how you do stuff and if it is possible for future training in 6 months times - not in your probation but show the boss you are willing to stick around for longer. Often after probation I have had a pay rise, but it also shows on your CV that you are willing to work - easier to get a new job if you have one

 

I've always thought that great wages means great hassles - the car manager on 200k hates the job with massive hours (and at home too), wok minimum wage and you might love the job... and somewhere between the 2 is a level of job satisfaction balanced with the wages that is acceptable for you.

 

 

So if you enjoy the work, stick with it. You'll get used to the physical side, and an enjoyable jo b can make up for lower wages.

 

 

 

Tree felling from Big J - a walk in the forest at the weekend that is being felled, half a dozen caravans on site for the workers, that £300 a day is OK, live cheap on site, bank the cash.

[Rich Rule]

I can see you point about the wages.  I started on 43 pound a day and had to get my own PPE out of that.  That was a few years ago though.

 

I think you need to change your mindset a bit.  
 

You say you want to climb?  The best groundies are lads who can climb imo and the best climbers are people who have done their time on the ground.  
 

Instead of thinking about how hard you are working and what you are getting paid every month.  Appreciate the point that other people have already brought up about lack of experience etc.

 

Look at it as though you are getting paid in valuable experience.  You are learning to do the job from the ground up and have a goal to become a climber.  It just so happens that they are paying you 18 g a year for the opportunity to learn.

 

If you stick at it and keep your head down.  Every day is a learning day, even if you just learn how not to do something, you will be a better person for it.

 

The money will come with experience.

 

Is your glass half full or half empty?  Change the way you think about your situation and everything will be ok.

 

Good luck.

[agg221]

Rich Rule and Steven P have made some very good points.

 

If the people you are working for are decent then the end of your probationary period would be a good time to discuss the route forward. That would be a combination of salary, training and career progression. If you are learning, you are progressing and only a little of what you have done before will carry over into this new career direction so in a sense, it doesn't matter whether you are 18 or 25, you are still at the beginning.

 

I suggest looking at your personal future goals and see whether you are likely to meet them through the progression available to you within this industry, and on a timeframe you are happy with. For example, how much do you need to earn for the lifestyle you want to have? Would being an average to good climber allow you to earn that much? Do you want to climb for the rest of your career or is it a stepping stone to something else - building your own business etc.

 

You will probably end up having to make compromises somewhere. Job satisfaction vs. income vs. lifestyle. Pretty much everyone does. You will need to decide whether there is a satisfactory balance point for you somewhere in this career path.

 

Alec

[Vedhoggar]

7.30am - 4.30pm isn't a 9hr working day unless you never get a break which would be against employment law, it's 9 hrs less break times is what will be your working hours. UK min wage over 23 £8.91 (no London weighting).  For someone doing the sort of work you do with little experience we would pay £9.50/hr (£10.85/hr London) which is the UK Real Living Wage (Living Wage Foundation), if self-employed labour only £12/hr, we work a 7.5hr day before paying overtime. For an experienced ground worker we would expect to have to pay out £12-£15/hr. My best advise would be if you like the work and are comfortable working for the company then when the probation period ends discuss what training might be on offer if you were to continuing on working for the company. You will need a more than just CS30/31 if you want to get on but its a start.

[spuddog0507]

On 04/05/2021 at 00:00, sirarb said:

Even if I go off and get my CS30/31, the course on average is like £700 to £800 (which is insane), which gives me a ball in my court but without any decent return.

Why do you think its insane for a CS30/31 5 day course + another day for the accesment by a sepperate indipendant accessor ? this course is your key, which could open many doors for the future for you or who ever does it, The cost of the CS30/31 course has not gone up in cost that much in the last 10yrs, i put some lads through it in 2012 and it was £680 a head back then,

I have read your reply and the others above, there are some good points made and lets face it we all have to start some where and 99 times out of a 100 its at the bottom, i have had lads come with us straight out of collage after doing a 3 yr full time course on Arb, and when you ask them whats that tree and it takes em 5 goes to get it right, all i think is WTF have they been taught ? bit its more like the determination and will to learn of that person, i have been in this game a long time now and i have seen so many changes over the years in peoples attitude to work and boy have they changed, but then again alot of things have changed, i have had lads come and go over the years and the first morning on site they are told if you want to talk to your boy friend on the phone you can do it at 10am 12,30 or 3pm but not in the time i am paying you, this is the biggest down fall of some lads and some good lads as they just cant keep off phone and i dont know why as the msg just does not go in, some of your comments in your posts would steer me away from you as you just seem to be worried about the money, But let me say one thing and that is you need to be looking forward and be thinking of where you want to be in 2.3.4.5 or ten years and set your plan out and work towards that goal, I have seen so many very good lads not make any thing of there lives, but they could of done and 2 lads spring to mind straight away, one i am sure he would of had is own company by now and employing other lads, he had good work ethic, well manard and very well organised, the other lad worked his arse off and again well organised and well manared but unfortunatly he fell off the road due to a women f - - - - - g his head up,

Another thing to compare is when i first started work in 1980 i was on £32 a wk and a pint of shitty Youngers tarten bitter in our local was 40p a pint, so i got 80 pints of beer for my weeks wage, your money is very simular and yes i know beer varies a lot more these days from pub to pub for the same pint, I think you need to sit down and have a chat with your self and sort out where you want to be, what you want to earn and most of all what would make you the happiest as its no good being in a job if your not happy and enjoying it, i still enjoy my job as much today as i did 40 yrs ago, So i think you need to sort yourself out first and be thinking of what you actually want from life, so i will wish you the best of luck and stay safe,

Edited May 5, 2021 by spuddog0507

[Mick Dempsey]

5 hours ago, spuddog0507 said:

Why do you think its insane for a CS30/31 5 day course + another day for the accesment by a sepperate indipendant accessor ? this course is your key, which could open many doors for the future for you or who ever does it, The cost of the CS30/31 course has not gone up in cost that much in the last 10yrs, i put some lads through it in 2012 and it was £680 a head back then,

I have read your reply and the others above, there are some good points made and lets face it we all have to start some where and 99 times out of a 100 its at the bottom, i have had lads come with us straight out of collage after doing a 3 yr full time course on Arb, and when you ask them whats that tree and it takes em 5 goes to get it right, all i think is WTF have they been taught ? bit its more like the determination and will to learn of that person, i have been in this game a long time now and i have seen so many changes over the years in peoples attitude to work and boy have they changed, but then again alot of things have changed, i have had lads come and go over the years and the first morning on site they are told if you want to talk to your boy friend on the phone you can do it at 10am 12,30 or 3pm but not in the time i am paying you, this is the biggest down fall of some lads and some good lads as they just cant keep off phone and i dont know why as the msg just does not go in, some of your comments in your posts would steer me away from you as you just seem to be worried about the money, But let me say one thing and that is you need to be looking forward and be thinking of where you want to be in 2.3.4.5 or ten years and set your plan out and work towards that goal, I have seen so many very good lads not make any thing of there lives, but they could of done and 2 lads spring to mind straight away, one i am sure he would of had is own company by now and employing other lads, he had good work ethic, well manard and very well organised, the other lad worked his arse off and again well organised and well manared but unfortunatly he fell off the road due to a women f - - - - - g his head up,

Another thing to compare is when i first started work in 1980 i was on £32 a wk and a pint of shitty Youngers tarten bitter in our local was 40p a pint, so i got 80 pints of beer for my weeks wage, your money is very simular and yes i know beer varies a lot more these days from pub to pub for the same pint, I think you need to sit down and have a chat with your self and sort out where you want to be, what you want to earn and most of all what would make you the happiest as its no good being in a job if your not happy and enjoying it, i still enjoy my job as much today as i did 40 yrs ago, So i think you need to sort yourself out first and be thinking of what you actually want from life, so i will wish you the best of luck and stay safe,

Bit wordy, but many good points.

[Mick Dempsey]

One point Spuddog0507 makes that I very much agree with in this job and life in general is achievable goals and time frames.

Just drifting along isn’t good enough.

 

Say you want to be a decent climber in 2 years and a highly competent one in 4 years.

So work out how you can achieve that and expedite it. 
 

Start your own gig by the time your 30, so start some weekend work as a climber once you get handy.
 

I don’t want to get all ‘in my day...’ because it’s the same now as it was then, you have to put in some extra effort to be good.

 

Good luck.

 

[MattyF]

If you had tickets that would cost thousands to get you would be worth £120+ a day .. but you don’t and can’t be used as such , will have to be supervised and if you follow the advice of doing one as soon as you have your tickets are a liability to the employer you have any way... personally I would of stuck labouring on a building site and got a trade there.

[Paddy1000111]

I guess, thinking about it. You would usually pay a freelance brash dragger £80-£90 a day with no tickets. You supply your own PPE, fuel to get to site etc and there's no guarantee of work. 

 

You're getting 71.28 a day but you're also getting a pension, sick pay, holiday pay and a guarantee that if you turn up you're getting paid to work. I don't think that's far off the freelancer wage considering the benefits. 

 

If you want more you need tickets. Save up and do it yourself or go through the probation and then ask to get qualified. Let's face it, if you're employed they will at least stick you on a cs30 course as at the moment you can't even start a saw to warm it up send it to the climber technically.

[Mr. Squirrel]

If you actually want to be a climber then doing your time on the ground will be important and worth it. It isn't great but you could do far worse in my opinion. If the cost of tickets and the poor initial wages (and to be fair relatively poor wages long term) put you off then I'd just not bother.