Groundie Salary in 2021

[Stere]

Sometimes people forgot  about the impact of decades  of compound inflation.

 

Wages haven't kept up

[AHPP]

2 hours ago, sirarb said:

it’s a young company as well, the two bosses are brothers

Improve yourself with the expectation of going elsewhere. Use your cheapness as leverage to get training. Make them pacify you with a £500 course instead of a £2000 pay rise.

Generally, zig zagging up the wage ladders from firm to firm is the way to make more money. Climbing the ladder where you are is dead.

Specifically, your current company will probably be shut in three years. There'll be a period of tension and resentment followed by an argument. There won't be enough money in it for one to go on without the other. Come back in three years and tell me if I'm wrong.

Edited May 3, 2021 by AHPP

[Paddy1000111]

I don't think that's bad considering you have no tickets or experience. When I worked in aviation guys were starting on £19,800 and that was with a degree, training, practical skills and their own tools and kit. 

 

261 working days a year so 68.91 a day. After tax £1325 a month or £60.93 a day. That 9 hour day will be excluding Lunch and Break times which will bring it to 8 hours which is £8.61 an hour or more likely £8.91 to be on the minimum wage. 

 

I agree with others that wages haven't kept up with inflation and the cost of living however we don't make the rules. Sadly (and I don't mean this in a harsh way), but you have to be worth it to the company with tickets and ability or why would they pay you more? That being said I have been paying brash draggers with no tickets £130 a day because I priced it into the job and I don't mind paying someone more if they are able to talk to customers and they're clean, tidy and well spoken. Some of them are also older (45+) with kids and stuff so I don't mind helping them out. Sounds kind of harsh but I don't want my company represented on the ground by some swearing, badly spoken, pubic beard "lad" who spends half his day on his phone or having girl problems just because they are cheaper and I want to make £20 a day more. I've been warned off groundies by other companies near me after they were dealing drugs at work etc. I would pay the £20 to not have a pain in the arse groundie. Don't think I am saying you are the person above by the way 😂 You sound like you're on your way to being better paid. 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Paddy1000111

[treevolution]

It's not a lot of money unfortunately but with any job that you start without any qualifications you will start on min wage and have to better yourself to gain more money. 

 

At least the company you are working for are doing it by the book and paying towards your NI and pension which is worth something. 

 

Have you considered going to college for the year and getting all your tickets in one go. 

 

This way you have more choice of jobs when you leave. 

 

 

[swinny]

I'd say all that stuff you do in the original post is just what the job is :

Fueling saws , raking, cleaning, loading logs , sorting ropes etc it doesn't matter who you are, boss,climber , groundy all muck in. 

 

Your not going to win a.medal.for doing it as it is basic stuff.... 

 

You need to get better at what you do to get a wage rise.... People can't start off on top dollar if they are not worth it. Employers have no room to put your wages up if you start too high....

 

You don't have a trailer license would be a pain to most companies...

 

If you've only just started months ago and are interested in this line of work, keep your head down and work hard and show the boss your worth more and a valuable asset 

 

If you think pays too low and have attitude you can earn more stacking shelves, then I don't think that attitude is the place for tree work. You won't last long at all

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by swinny

[jfc]

I think you are on a fair wage for your skills and experience. If you are with a decent company they will increase that when you have more skills and tickets, however groundie wages are not usually high even if you're amazing at it. Yeah you could earn more in retail but those jobs can be really boring at least our job is varied, challenging and sometimes exciting. If that's not worth anything to you maybe look for a different job.

[headgroundsman]

Try working on a farm with no tickets or experience!

[Dbikeguy]

Show willing, maybe try and do some rec climbing in your free time.
Watch and learn when you can.
Read/watch videos to grasp the basics and ask when on the less time pressured jobs to try setting rigging etc

[sirarb]

Read all the responses so far, I appreciate everyones opinion. I think some of you have got the wrong impression though. I understand you have to learn to walk before you can run, I was simply asking if my salary was good or bad. Whether I agree with the £18k a year or not is another discussion. 

 

Groundie work is a form of labouring and I don’t care who you are, nobody wants to labour, at least not at the capacity of a groundie. It’s one thing being a brick layer, plumber, electrician, carpenter etc and a whole different thing sweating your balls off 9 hours a day and coming home with palms covered in blisters, a body covered in bruises, gashes, cuts, whiplash, a body which hurts particularly your back, the fatigue which ruins your social life after work and generally taking years off your life, the money spent on food for breaks just to get your stamina back etc etc, I just feel like you literally have to be nuts to willingly want to do it especially with such a tediously slow progression to the next checkpoint. 

 

I come from a labouring background and was on an hourly rate of £14ph, that’s normal in my opinion, it’s a shite job that no one wants to do so therefore you pay enough to attract. I have applied to numerous other jobs in the past as a labourer and companies were offering on average between £20k to £23k a year. There was another job I applied for in the past as a “general farm worker” and their starting wage was £24k a year. In my opinion, that low £20k range is normal and acceptable. 

 

I don’t know how groundies go what they go through for a mere £60 to £70 a day on average, it just doesn’t seem worth it in any sense of the imagination. And i’m not talking about the dossers with no aspirations who have been on JSA for a large part of their lives and don’t take groundie work seriously. I’m talking about genuinely hard grafters who get stuck in and give their best day in day out. 

 

From the money I see they are paying in North America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the pay here (in the UK) really is peanuts in comparison. 

 

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. 

 

I want to become a climber and have a genuine aspiration to become one, but at this rate I don’t know if it’s worth it with what you have to endure to become one. I’m sure there are easier routes, just none of them are accessible to me as of now.   

 

I honestly rather work a normal job, earning more money, without taking years off my life and where I can mentally and physically function after work and lead a normal social life even if it’s potentially “boring”, which by the way working is boring, every job is boring, unless you have a talent or a passion which you’re genuinely good at, all work is boring and shite, period. 

 

My sisters partner is a manager for an automotive company on £200k a year, he hates his work with a passion, the paperwork, all the travelling around the world and all the stress just ruins him and the money he’s on doesn’t stop him from loathing his work, all work is shite in more cases than not and the only thing that keeps him going is the relatively high salary, otherwise he would happily quit. 

 

I will stick to it until my probation period, carry on grafting hard and have a long hard think and go from there. 

 

I got the answer I asked for though, £18k a year is considered decent. 

 

Again, I appreciate everyone who responded, thank you. 

[Big J]

It's a tough call.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to fully explain your position too - it makes for interesting reading and I agree for the most part.

 

Running a small harvesting company, I tend to find that you get what you pay for. I pay my cutters £20/hr (self employed) and their output is such that they are markedly cheaper than one chap that I use occasionally who I pay about £13/hr. That guy brought a cutter with him for a job we did last month and I had to say that I couldn't pay him more than £80 a day for the 2 days he did, given how slow he was. 

 

For me with my work, it all comes down to production speed. A cutter on £200 a day producing 20 tonnes of product is much cheaper than a cutter on £120 a day producing 7 tonnes a day. The chasm between the fastest and slowest is even more extreme than that. I've had many more cutters I've ditched after a trial week than I've kept. When I was cutting, in 40 year old hardwood (I spent three years cutting on the same estate) there wasn't anyone that could keep up with me, but that's almost 10 years ago now and I'm far too broken to cut full time now.

 

My limited experience with tree surgery is that it's a lot more cutthroat, in terms of wages. The proprietors have less work ahead of them than forestry contractors and seem to make more of an effort to keep costs down to keep a kitty in case of a downturn in work. It's also a lot less skilled, until you get into climbing.

 

I'd suggest getting your CS30-31 and getting into forestry (depending on where you are in the country). Once you're experienced and productive, you'll be a rare breed and able to ask for £200/day. Doing more technical work (like felling for a skyline, felling outsiders or chucking trees at harvesters) up in remote parts of Scotland can command up to £300 a day.

 

Just my thoughts.