£15/hour

[difflock]

That old adage "work smarter, not harder" applies as much to semi-skilled manual labouring as to any other endevour, there are those who shave significent seconds, or fractions of seconds off every individual operation, by thinking about they are doing and being properly ergonomically positioned  in the right place, to be as effective as possible, and with the least effort,(which boils down to "making it look easy") and those who are simply cack-handed or uninterested.

As I am fond of saying; "we are all different" and most unfortunately;"ye cant fix stupid".

And yes, there are those that society would be better subsidizing to stay at home.

Even something as simple as say litter picking along the roads needs brain function, at the very least to avoid needlessly causing frustration or the possibility of a RTC due to inconsiderate work vehicle parking, and also to avoid being struck by other vehicles.

Perhaps there needs to be a new siteworks/roadworks sign; "Darwin works here"

 

[Big J]

8 hours ago, spuddog0507 said:

£15 hr is a fair rate for some but not for others, as Big J says some people need to stay away from a work site as they will never fit in, i have 1 guy who works with us and he does work, he can fell tree after tree all day but cant use a tape measure so some logs end up under size and that costs, if he is just on 2,5 mtr firewood its ok but not on saw logs, another guy i pay him well as i dont need to watch him or check anything its all done right, 

 Back in the yard i pay lads £10 a IBC cage for splitting firewood one lad will do 2 + cages an hour and the other lad ( if he turns up ) when he gets there he just wants to arse about on his phone and struggles to do one an hour, he then complains that he has worked hard and he only got £40 for the day !! and the other lad gets £140, should i subsidise him the other £100 ? and me loose out NO he will just have to learn that in life you sometimes have to put some effort in to get the reward !! Some people will never understand how things work with in business, and the older i get the more i think some of the younger lads are just not worth entertaining,

  

 

The productivity point is salient. 

 

Fundamentally, if I am a business owner and the people working for me aren't productive, I am not profitable. If I am not profitable, my business fails and then everyone is out of a job. 

 

As such (in my line of work), I can only afford to employ people that are productive and there are plenty of people out there that aren't even worth the current minimum wage, nevermind £15/hr.

 

That being said, I do think that for most self employed cutters, £200/day is a good and sustainable rate of pay. It's enough that the cutter can afford to take 6 weeks holiday a year and only work 4 days a week and still take home around £30k after fuel/machinery costs. I say four days a week because there are always some unproductive days repairing machines, sitting inside looking at the god-awful weather, injuries and such like. 

[Jack.P]

Anyway with hand cutting even if you do get bugger all like I did (too focused on cutting to spec and keeping site tidy and not maximising product output ) then it’s good for learning stuff you wouldn’t otherwise 

[eggsarascal]

Is anyone going to answer the original question, or are we all focused on £15/hour?

[Mark Bolam]

It’s obviously acceptable because people are paying it.

[eggsarascal]

No choice ya mean.

[Jack.P]

3 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

No choice ya mean.

Still about 120 day rate.many factors to think about in this .like how hard the jobs are and what’s provided 

[eggsarascal]

5 minutes ago, Jack.P said:

Still about 120 day rate.many factors to think about in this .like how hard the jobs are and what’s provided 

At the top end you'd be paying a weeks wages each month before tax to rent a room with a shared kitchen and bathroom.

[Mark Bolam]

14 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

No choice ya mean.

Yup.

[Mark Bolam]

The problem is if you pay £15/hr at the bottom end, it spirals upwards pretty quickly, and the system crashes.