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UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jdemarco on October 29, 2007, 08:17:22 am

Title: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 29, 2007, 08:17:22 am
Theres been alot of discussion on employing recently and when you do go down that road how much do you pay a day?
 Ive paid different amounts to start with i paid 25 pound then i increased it to 50 then 60 then 70 then i changed it to 8 pound an hour then i tried a percentage of the amount done in a day now that i think was a mistake because in doing this whoever you work with nows how much you earn and they get greedy. I tried 15% to start and i was paying him between 75/90 pound a day till in the end he wanted 20% a day which would have been an average of between 100/120 pound a day which there was no way i was paying that so he left and tried to start up by himself. Now ive gone back to 50 pound a day.
I think it all depends on the individual and i think you can pay to much because they always want more.
Im interested to know how much you guys pay your workers and which way you think is best?
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: xxmattyxx on October 29, 2007, 08:54:10 am
£60.00 a day is a pi$$ take to be honest nowadays, you get more packing sandwiches, with guaranteed dry working conditions, paid holiday, paid sick, the guy you're working for doesn't try to rip you off to be sure he's earning 10 times what you are; anyone working self-employed for £60.00 a day is a fool to themselves IMO, no wonder they wanted more !

Pay peanuts, get monkeys.


When I first started the guy who ran the business paid those who worked for him 75% of the amount they'd done. Seemed fair, they were after all doing the work, he had to do very little for his 25%, I would have thought you'd ahve known that.

15%? I seriously hope you are having a laugh.

Matt
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Helen on October 29, 2007, 11:57:53 am
75%!!!!! wow I want to work for that. So out of his 25% came employers national insurance, pl & emps liability insurance and all the rest of the overheads...what a nice man he must be. At present we pay hourly, with an attendance bonus, which can be lost for lateness and bunking off etc, along with a quality bonus, which speaks for itself. Our guys are on £20k+ ote using this system it works well for us, but may not for others
.....seriously 15%??? £400.00 gross per person would give £60.00 gross per person. you have to ask yourself would you work for that? :)
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: simon knight on October 29, 2007, 12:44:31 pm

£100 per day flat rate plus 10% of takings.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Central Window Cleaners on October 29, 2007, 12:56:58 pm
Hi Simon, for that £100 what is there daily target?
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 29, 2007, 01:28:23 pm
£60.00 a day is a pi$$ take to be honest nowadays, you get more packing sandwiches, with guaranteed dry working conditions, paid holiday, paid sick, the guy you're working for doesn't try to rip you off to be sure he's earning 10 times what you are; anyone working self-employed for £60.00 a day is a fool to themselves IMO, no wonder they wanted more !

Pay peanuts, get monkeys.


When I first started the guy who ran the business paid those who worked for him 75% of the amount they'd done. Seemed fair, they were after all doing the work, he had to do very little for his 25%, I would have thought you'd ahve known that.

15%? I seriously hope you are having a laugh.

Matt
Well ithink it depends where you live. for that 15% he could earn 100 pound a day just to clarify thats with the 2 of us working. 75% is alot the fact is its your business that you have set up and put hard work into it. what do employees do that results in them being paid 75%.
 On my work a lad on his own can easily clean 200 pound worth of work now if i paid him at 75% that would be 150 pound a day and i would get 50 pound a day come on be serious. When i started i was on 25 pound a day and i worked damn hard for about a year till i asked for a pay rise and got 30 the most i have earnt working for somebody else is 60 pound. i think the most i would pay in percentage for a lad on his own would be 40/50%. You are the owner when your workers go home does work stop for you well it doesnt for me i have post to sort out, invoices, phone calls to make and any customer care to sort out not to mention writing the work out for the following day and filling up my tank and containers.
 75% and your on to a loser. my aim for next month is to set 2 lads up working together. they will both be on 50 pound each and they will bring in at least 400 pound a day. in the meantime i can manage the business inthe day canvassing as much as possible, tendering for commercial etc. they have only just started with me i have trained them and i know there potential and when they have proved there trustworthyness and loyalty they will get more money and i will look after them.

 window cleaners round me are doing well if they can earn 100 pound a day so if  pay them as close to that as possible they will stick with me its not all about how you pay them its how you treat them. Dont fire them fire them up and you can do that by not just flashing the cash. They will respect you for it aswell.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: xxmattyxx on October 29, 2007, 03:06:30 pm
75%!!!!! wow I want to work for that. So out of his 25% came employers national insurance, pl & emps liability insurance and all the rest of the overheads...what a nice man he must be.

No, he didnt pay stamp, the guys were viewed as being self-employed, their tax affairs were their business; which would most definately be viewed as dubious nowadays, as their employment was 100% window-cleaning with that guy.




.....seriously 15%??? £400.00 gross per person would give £60.00 gross per person. you have to ask yourself would you work for that? :)

peanuts....monkeys, as I said earlier, no wonder they wanted more, I mean, come on.....!
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: sgibsoncleaning on October 29, 2007, 03:47:48 pm
50  pound a day.
give me a break the only person who works for that rate is the unemployed.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Count Phil on October 29, 2007, 04:59:56 pm
Sorry. 50 a day is about 12 grand a year.

Look in you local paper and see how many jobs pay that. Loads. Which means there are a lot of people working for not alot.

60 a day is more like 15 grand. Again, look in the paper. Unless you're qualified that's the kind of money you will earn. At least wfp is fairly easy, without the usual pressures involved with working somewhere.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: supernova77 on October 29, 2007, 05:26:47 pm
jdemarco,

Some of the things you say don't make sense and you contradict yourself a lot.

If you think 2 lads working together will turnover £400 per day, day-in day-out then you are either mad or inexperienced (or both).

Andy
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: xxmattyxx on October 29, 2007, 05:27:44 pm
Sorry. 50 a day is about 12 grand a year.

Look in you local paper and see how many jobs pay that. Loads. Which means there are a lot of people working for not alot.

60 a day is more like 15 grand. Again, look in the paper. Unless you're qualified that's the kind of money you will earn. At least wfp is fairly easy, without the usual pressures involved with working somewhere.

That is true, but theyre paid sick/holiday/bank holiday/maternity, paternity; they  work whe its raining, this job you go home when its too wet (with nought to show for it)
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: windowwashers on October 29, 2007, 05:37:49 pm
Sorry. 50 a day is about 12 grand a year.

Look in you local paper and see how many jobs pay that. Loads. Which means there are a lot of people working for not alot.

60 a day is more like 15 grand. Again, look in the paper. Unless you're qualified that's the kind of money you will earn. At least wfp is fairly easy, without the usual pressures involved with working somewhere.
go home when its raining ??

That is true, but theyre paid sick/holiday/bank holiday/maternity, paternity; they  work whe its raining, this job you go home when its too wet (with nought to show for it)
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: sgibsoncleaning on October 29, 2007, 05:42:14 pm
a fellow i know employs 6 blokes window cleaning. he pays top money but expect a certain standard. he sets this out from day one and if they dont make the grade they are gone.
he has never had a problem with someone leaving and nicking contracts from him. he earns good money then new merc in the garden says that. his blokes are happy and will return the favour if he needs them at short notice.
met up with him last month, he told me he had a short notice job on a sunday morning. all of his blokes said they would come in, except one who said he would come straight from church.
now could you say you would get that on basicly minimum wage.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: mick hay on October 29, 2007, 05:50:39 pm
I dont want to get into the argument of what we earn etc, but  by going on what i turn over a day myself, £400 a day from 2 workers in my book is expected.

No-one will ever work as hard or as good as yourself, so it will never work out that 2 ppl working will double 1 workers turnover, i always go on say 1.5 times.

Unless everybody charged the same, did the same amount of work per day, per week, there will always be some disbelief in what ppl expect from workers or even what they claim to turnover themselves.

If i had 2 lads working together, i would expect 400 a day between them!!


Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Kwackers on October 29, 2007, 05:52:03 pm
6 blokes is good going, is that 6 vans or 3?
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: windowwashers on October 29, 2007, 05:55:26 pm
I dont want to get into the argument of what we earn etc, but  by going on what i turn over a day myself, £400 a day from 2 workers in my book is expected.

No-one will ever work as hard or as good as yourself, so it will never work out that 2 ppl working will double 1 workers turnover, i always go on say 1.5 times.

Unless everybody charged the same, did the same amount of work per day, per week, there will always be some disbelief in what ppl expect from workers or even what they claim to turnover themselves.

If i had 2 lads working together, i would expect 400 a day between them!!



on wfp that would be easy, on trad I dont think this is a realistic figure in the winter
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: mick hay on October 29, 2007, 05:58:19 pm
Sorry, that is wfp, btw w/washers, i will in the nr future be talking to you re a webste!!!
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: sgibsoncleaning on October 29, 2007, 06:06:02 pm
6 blokes is good going, is that 6 vans or 3?
he runs 4 vans. one for him. mostly they work in pairs.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Russell Macdonald on October 29, 2007, 06:25:44 pm
Theres been alot of discussion on employing recently and when you do go down that road how much do you pay a day?
 Ive paid different amounts to start with i paid 25 pound then i increased it to 50 then 60 then 70 then i changed it to 8 pound an hour then i tried a percentage of the amount done in a day now that i think was a mistake because in doing this whoever you work with nows how much you earn and they get greedy. I tried 15% to start and i was paying him between 75/90 pound a day till in the end he wanted 20% a day which would have been an average of between 100/120 pound a day which there was no way i was paying that so he left and tried to start up by himself. Now ive gone back to 50 pound a day.
I think it all depends on the individual and i think you can pay to much because they always want more.
Im interested to know how much you guys pay your workers and which way you think is best?


£50 per day,  :o, i wouldn't get out of bed for that. Pay peanuts & you get a monkey.

Even if you pay him 20% = £100, your still on £400 per day,  ::),

Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 29, 2007, 06:38:43 pm
Theres been alot of discussion on employing recently and when you do go down that road how much do you pay a day?
 Ive paid different amounts to start with i paid 25 pound then i increased it to 50 then 60 then 70 then i changed it to 8 pound an hour then i tried a percentage of the amount done in a day now that i think was a mistake because in doing this whoever you work with nows how much you earn and they get greedy. I tried 15% to start and i was paying him between 75/90 pound a day till in the end he wanted 20% a day which would have been an average of between 100/120 pound a day which there was no way i was paying that so he left and tried to start up by himself. Now ive gone back to 50 pound a day.
I think it all depends on the individual and i think you can pay to much because they always want more.
Im interested to know how much you guys pay your workers and which way you think is best?


£50 per day,  :o, i wouldn't get out of bed for that. Pay peanuts & you get a monkey.

Even if you pay him 20% = £100, your still on £400 per day,  ::),


Yeh but thats down to my business skills and my hard work im not gonna pay somebody else for that. Its not about what im on its what an employee deserves for cleaning windows. I think mr p bowen is on the right mark 12 grand to 15 grand is what the majority of people are on so why should we pay more for a job thats p easy no stress no responsibility.

 400 pound a day is very realistic for 2 lads on my work. Why would you say that, if you havnt got a clue about me and my business. How much work does a lad that you train do compared to your self. Hell never be as quick as you,        SO HOW MUCH? and that will tell us if its possible.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: xxmattyxx on October 29, 2007, 06:51:40 pm
Quote
Yeh but thats down to my business skills and my hard work im not gonna pay somebody else for that. Its not about what im on its what an employee deserves for cleaning windows.


 

If business skills had anything to do with it then you'd be using motivational skills to improve their work-rate, after all the more they do the more you earn, but surely theyre not doing anyone any favours if all theyre worth is 50 a day.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 29, 2007, 06:59:31 pm
Quote
Yeh but thats down to my business skills and my hard work im not gonna pay somebody else for that. Its not about what im on its what an employee deserves for cleaning windows.


 

If business skills had anything to do with it then you'd be using motivational skills to improve their work-rate, after all the more they do the more you earn, but surely theyre not doing anyone any favours if all theyre worth is 50 a day.
Yeh quite right mate but 50 pound is just a start rate. If they prove themselves the first couple of months and work hard then based on that i will pay them more and thats what ive told them. That in itself should be an incentive. I mean what has happened to employees mind set when i started working i worked damn hard without complaint and less than half the amount that i pay out. i must have been 1 in a million!
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: windowwashers on October 29, 2007, 07:11:14 pm
Quote
Yeh but thats down to my business skills and my hard work im not gonna pay somebody else for that. Its not about what im on its what an employee deserves for cleaning windows.


 

If business skills had anything to do with it then you'd be using motivational skills to improve their work-rate, after all the more they do the more you earn, but surely theyre not doing anyone any favours if all theyre worth is 50 a day.
50 a day is a fair start IMO, when they get faster and prove themselves the wages they earn are in there own hands, if they do a bad job then £50 is far to much, thats My opinion of this matter
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Moderator David@stives on October 29, 2007, 07:57:26 pm
The average wage where i live is £12'000

I pay £6.50 an hour.

dave
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Wayne Thomas on October 29, 2007, 08:03:42 pm
The average wage where i live is £12'000

I pay £6.50 an hour.

dave

Dave:

We should re-locate to say the South East where we can charge £2 a window, pay less for our water and take on some employees for £100 a day ;D
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: P®oPole™ on October 30, 2007, 09:24:26 am
The thing many need to differentiate between here is 'lads' and 'men' or Thumberlers and Shiners.

Lads (16-19/20) anything from £40-£60

Men £60-£110/upwards

A trick that many miss is a well trained 'lad' will do the same and maybe more! However never let on how good they are, and never pay them a full days money for half a days work.

Pro
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Small but perfectley formed on October 30, 2007, 03:16:27 pm
were do you get lads that earn you £200 aday here in south yorkshire that would be a weeks wage some figure quoted on here  ::) .lots of residential WC in this area do 60/40 split 60 to employee
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 30, 2007, 03:36:09 pm
were do you get lads that earn you £200 aday here in south yorkshire that would be a weeks wage some figure quoted on here  ::) .lots of residential WC in this area do 60/40 split 60 to employee
Well basically you have to set the example. so its not down to the lads its down to you. If your slow then they will be slow if your quality of work is bad then theres will be bad. From a worker i want a duplicate of me or as close as possible. and that is how i train them and that is how i get at least 200 pound of work per person.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: jdemarco on October 30, 2007, 03:38:46 pm
were do you get lads that earn you £200 aday here in south yorkshire that would be a weeks wage some figure quoted on here  ::) .lots of residential WC in this area do 60/40 split 60 to employee
I also sometimes do a 60/40 split but its 60 for me and 40 for the employee. 60 to employee sounds a bit too generous!
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: NWH on October 30, 2007, 05:25:07 pm
Paying £50-60 a day will work for a while but mark my words it won`t last forever,if your looking for someone to work for you for 1-2 years and make a lot out of them in that time then it would work,but if you want a reliable worker that will give you respect then you`ll be out of luck.The time will come when they will realise what there earning you and if there not on a fair wage or % they`ll be off if out of spite of you,i`ve known of people that have jacked in there job and have had no work to go to just because they found out they were earning the guvnor a fourtune and paying them pittance,out of spite.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: xxmattyxx on October 30, 2007, 05:30:25 pm
10 years ago we were doing £75.00 a day (a 5 hour day) working for someone else.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Ian Rochester on October 30, 2007, 05:44:02 pm
My office cleaners get £6.50/hour!!

My window cleaners are on a percentage and will earn on average around £18K - £20K each this year.

I expect them to be able to do a certain amount of work on an average day, with very few exceptions they achieve this and more.

I put new starters on £6.00/hour until they are up to speed (generally within a month) and then they start earning percentage
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: NWH on October 30, 2007, 05:56:53 pm
After a month,is that just after a month of working with you or from scratch,a month is nothing if he or she is having to learn from zilch.
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: Russell Macdonald on October 30, 2007, 06:36:50 pm
were do you get lads that earn you £200 aday here in south yorkshire that would be a weeks wage some figure quoted on here  ::) .lots of residential WC in this area do 60/40 split 60 to employee
I also sometimes do a 60/40 split but its 60 for me and 40 for the employee. 60 to employee sounds a bit too generous!

Obviously not very often as you think 15% & 85% is tooooooooooooo much.  ::)
Title: Re: How much do you pay employees?
Post by: haggis on November 03, 2007, 10:07:19 pm
I get 80% of what i clean as a subby for a guy that has no idea how to run a widow round, It's supposed to be a 4 weekly round and he's had rubbish window cleaners working for him in the past that have only made 40 quid a day now I'm making 100 quid a day. he has streets that are split in two 20 on one side and 18 on the other it used to take two men a whole day just to do one side now i can do all of it in one day. He's also leaving some houses for more than six weeks but sending me to other streets a week and a half early, guess who gets the grief, when  i mention it he says he'll talk to the customer but he never goes then its up to me to explain to the customer why we've been 6 weeks since the last clean. never mind poo happens he's making crap money and I aint. tee hee :D