What does it say if your wages were lowered?
I’ve been thinking about that.
My original thought was that I have several accounts that are an hour’s drive away. I figured I would pay them to sit for an hour on the way there and they could sit for an hour on their own time on the way home. I’d pay for lunch and drive time while out.
But, you may be right. It’s my problem that the accounts are an hour away, not theirs.
I may end up paying commission based. But, if I do pay hourly, I’ll suck it up and pay them both ways for the drive.
It SCREAMS that your nickel and diming me!
Ive never had any problems w/ my employees complaining about clocking out at the completion of a job. I also dont make them clock out for lunch, which i usually buy, they get bonuses for Christmas and birthdays…I think thats more than fair…jmo tho 
Then you would be fired. It’s my business, not the employees.
I say go for it. Ive been doing it going on 4 years now. Best thing I ever did. Guys are making money and I couldnt care less if they are dragging their butts as long as they are showing up to jobs on the scheduled start time. I am GUARANTEED profit. Hourly cant guarantee that. I pay more-I make more. I know this sounds rediculous but its true. There is so much time wasted in the day that it cuts through profit bigtime. Like Seth mentioned, employees will drag A$$ if they need to make more money. Throw your worries out the window along with your time clock.
Eh, I’d probably quit first if my boss lowered my wages for no other reason but to save himself costs through his existing employees.
I’ve struggled for years contemplating commission VS. hourly. How do you pay for the little things like washing the trucks or returning screens to customers? An average hourly?
And you still need to track hours, yes?
When commission was first introduced into the company, we had a trial period of about 3 months. It had to be a win win for both sides. If not it was scrapped. My guys were at $12.50 an hour when we switched over. That was the base pay I used on their vacation pay and holiday pay. I am dead serious when I say that your bank account will grow bigtime! If you have crew(s) that go to job sites without supervision, chances are they arent as efficient as they could / should be (its just comes with the business).
Guaranteed 70% gross of the job is awesome. I got sick running daily time scenarios in my head all the time. When my guys were hourly, my expectations seemed to be too high on when a job could be completed and at times and it stressed me out bigtime. It also weeds out the cry baby whiners that couldnt make you money regardless of how they perform their job.
As for hours, my guys jot them down on their daily commission sheets and they get logged into the system.
If you do add ons like gutter guard for example, I pay the commission minus the cost I pay for the material.
winderwarsher: how do you split the commission with between the guys on the same job? and do they care that the drive time is on them? do they drive far?
sethfenster: I feel like I owe you unemployement 
It’s just that I had an employer way back when that changed our pay structure so we actually made less for the same hours. I was young and dumb and took it, but I was sure disgruntled. I wouldn’t stand for it now.
I will have to seriously contemplate the commission VS. hourly thang this Winter.
PS- I’m still dumb, just older now.
yeah, I’m also seriously contemplating commission too.
[QUOTE=Acclaim;60552]winderwarsher: [B]how do you split the commission with between the guys on the same job?[/B] and do they care that the drive time is on them? do they drive far?
Our most frequented service area (where the nice homes and big spenders live) is about 30 minutes away with traffic. 15-20 miunutes on a Saturday. I havent had one complaint with any employee about drive time to and from the shop. Employees get paid well on the commission scale and how profitable my jobs are. They can take their lunch whenever they want for how long they want as long as arrival times are met and the work is completed in a timely manner. They love that freedom- I would too. Wouldnt you?
If your pricing is too low on jobs you will have to raise them up or get rid of those customers. Your employees will let you know when a job isnt profitable right away (humm they never did that when they were hourly:D).
As for paying a crew of 2 guys, I split the commission 20% each (40% of the gross). I know that some would argue that this amount is too much labor but if you split commission of 30%, it ends up being too low and the guys start complaining. When I was running hourly crews, my labor would run nearly 45-50% in some weeks. Schedules werent always getting done and was paying for what was done through the nose.
Run your gross amount you made for the week and what you paid out in labor and you will see how good your guys/jobs are. If your labor and jobs are outta whack, changes need to be made as soon as possible.
[quote="“winderwarsher,post:33,topic:6425”]
Thanks a lot for the information. Good points to think about.
You’re welcome. If you would like to chat about it more over the phone PM me and I can call you some evening. Steve
I’ve always paid percentage. This job pays x dollars. If something isnt done right and there is a call back the worker isnt paid for the call back. He must fix it the way it shouldve been done the first time. This DOES work!
[size=“7”]+ 1 ![/size] Accountability is key whether you are paying hourly or commission scale.
I dont know how i missed this post lol. Anyway I pay when we get on job and leave job. No pay for driving. But then again I pay a little higher then the average starting pay $15 per hour. I also give bonuses all the time. If we work a large job and the helper does not slack they get more pay at the end of the day. Example. If we are working a $1000.00 job an they pull a full 8 hour day. Their pay is $120 gross. I will toss them an extra $20 or $30 bucks not to include the breakfast and lunch I pay for. But that’s me. I can see employees getting upset about not getting paid for drive time. I used to get paid mileage at an old job. Something like $0.07 per mile back in the late 80’s. I never cared about it back then. Now I would be upset if it was my own truck, gas and I was just getting paid on the job. I don’t think I would take a job like that, sends up the CHEAPO red flag for me.
