What do you start your helpers pay at?

Im only interested in an answer from the ones who pay taxes and insurances as well. Also how do YOU go about raises? Im seeking someone with NO experience as I dont need another know it all...I want to teach MY way.

I pay percentage, not on upsells but percentage of the job total.

Ive found in these years and in our market your employees need to be able to make close to 200/day which will keep them happy, which is super important to success. If they are under paid they quickly will appear unhappy to the customers after a few months and quality will never stay high... steps will be skipped and in general they wont care much about the job.

If they are capable of going out completely on their own, doing a great job on 2-4 jobs which bring in 200-400each then they are easily worth 200 bucks a day. This is great money for someone still in school or someone who didnt have a chance to go to college so they will take it seriously.

I stole my guy from UPS, thats a great place to find an on point tech. He was working 5hrs/day and ending up with 74bucks and some change, sitting in traffic, starting at 4pm-9pm, wearing a silly brown uniform, and dealing with a crappy environment where bosses be-little you and talk down to you.

Any massive company like that has people who are paid to figure out the exact breaking point of what one worker can handle in a day, and they ride that line hard... actually they ride it just over the edge.

Now he starts at 9am many days can finish up by 3 and makes a much better income.

I only have one that is on the payroll...on-call though only. He gets $22 per hour along with transportation and meals paid. He hasn't seen a raise in 2 years, but his hours have been increasing and he has a full-time job as well.

I don't think he would stick around long if cleaning full-time for $22 without a good benefits package and a share of the jobs. Cleaning is hard work and you can make $200 per day delivering pizza with tips which appeals to more people.

Good info! AC...I would be curious to hear your percentages if you wouldnt care to share them....you can pm if its easier.

200 delivering pizza might be on a really good day.     Here they get 9.35 or so an hr

then tips are usually about 4-5 bucks per delivery.        8hrs is about 75bucks,   then they would need to run around to 25 houses if they were getting $5 on every delivery and many people only give a few bucks.  

minus taxes and wear/tear on their car Id say 200 would be on a great day.      

I dont know many pizza delivery guys that make 4k/month, plus when they arent out delivering they are scrubbing dishes and counters etc so they are on the go for the entire shift.

Carpet cleaning is tough but you get nice breaks in between each job, and its not uncommon for my guy to get a $40 tip.. many people tip him over $20

Honestly with inflation being so high....$200 a day for "fair" seems good.....anything less will invite just that.

Pizza guys making $200?.....dont know but they wont deliver to me or they would make $300+ a day!....im in the woods. They only deliver in town.

Tips here are not common....back when I pushed it we would see a tip maybe every other week if that....$20 was a big deal....$5 and $10 more common. When I was in California we seen big tips though.

Well, $200 would be on a good day.

I used to deliver for Godfather's Pizza in a college town and again near a military base. Making $300 a day on a military base was automatic around payday and I never made less than $150 per day off campus on the weekend.

Those were ideal situations though, a standard weekday in the city probably gets you $75 - $80, but you get to listen to the radio and not have a boss yelling at you. For some, it is hard to compete with that when offering manual labor at any price.

Dam no wonder I cant hire any help

Mo...finding help and hiring an employee would be two seperate situations for me. Help would be more of a younger guy with a sideline job and maybe in college with an odd schedule. An employee would be someone who is full time and has needs for his family, and, with a desire to meet them needs.


I want someone who can be trusted as well and good pay helps get that person.

That' s right Devon. I think that's one of the reasons I've never hired employees. I can trust help (son, nephews) besides I cant afford to keep employees employed the whole year.

Mo wrote:That' s right Devon. I think that's one of the reasons I've never hired employees. I can trust help (son, nephews) besides I cant afford to keep employees employed the whole year.

Right there with you Mo.

That problem is probably more between my years than anything else.

Mo wrote:That problem is probably more between my years than anything else.

"Years" or "Ears"

It's between my ears........although I'm really getting to the point where I wish I had some help......or could even find some.

Me too Mo, not busy enough for permanent employees. Casual workers when busy $ 15 p/h. Most of the time o/o here.

I can find either here....Im really good at finding that person who wants to work....you wont do it in a news paper ad or in an interview from an ad you put out....you need to seek him...he will be the guy working at a fast food place or some under paid situation and he is STILL making the best of it....working to please....yada yada, you know from here!

I see these guys all the time...I was once one. I hired a guy right in front of his boss once!.....his boss was yelling at him and he was the only one working.....I told the boss that and he said YES, I know! he really is the only one I can yell at because these others will quit......I said well then you will understand this....(Eric?...you want a real job? Yes sir!....call me when you get off.....the boss said Eric....you can go now! He knew it was better for Eric) so, it was the elephant in the room...everyone knew, from the boss, employees, to customers that Eric was a winner.

Today he owns a painting company and is raising two girls and owns his home he is 26. I can smile with that. Find that guy who gets it....Eric toughed out some bad weeks with me and never complained because his worst week with me was better then his best where he was.

I picked another guy from a homeless shelter....he did great for a few years but I learned he had issues that couldnt be fixed...but a great worker.

milspec6 wrote:

Mo wrote:That problem is probably more between my years than anything else.

"Years" or "Ears"

I think its actually both. Im too old to be baby sitting

I would stay away from the homeless shelter,   or if you want one of them just go to Labor Ready..  that way they are at least insured and you can blame Labor Ready for anything that happens

but I can tell you those guys are bums in multiple senses of the word,  98% of them are in their situation for a reason.        I tried Labor Ready back in the day and these guys they would send out were a joke,   never seen more worthless effort in my life.        I caught one sleeping back in the customers bushes when I ran to the sod farm,    came back and he was asleep curled up next to their house.    

This is outside work too,  I would never bring an alcoholic/drug addict inside a customers home,    there are so many clean and clean cut hardworkers out there that need a job just have to know where to look.  

UPS/FedEX/DHL   all those jobs suck compared to cleaning carpets and they have to hold a high standard daily.

Also a fastfood worker could be a good one,   or anyone working for a large construction company...   out in the pouring rain digging ditches and doing road work,   have to show up at 7am wake up at 5am  

those guys would love to get indoors for some carpet cleaning and be able to wear some clean shoes/clothes.  

plus to them the work isnt even hard labor,   they would laugh if you called it hard labor...  same with most any landscapers

The homeless shelter here is more of a helping hands type place....the guy I got had a very clean background check and was a little  slow in the sense of being abused as a kid.....he was a great guy but unfortunately his abuser still does it as an adult. I did all I can do. if his abuser would have left him I could have saved the day.....his mother would be who Im talking about. He was just so in care of what his mother wanted that it put him on the streets,.....actually both him and a brother work and give her the weekly checks and nearly starve. I dont understand it but tried to fix it...I wont help someone who wont or cant help themselves. The guy was very clean and well spoken....he was a bit jumpy and very jumpy when "mom" was around. sad!

That sounded bad...I will help someone who cant help themselves but when it comes to what we are talking about I cant.

Back at the Prison I was monitoring an inmate at the local hospital who was a diabetic and developed gangrene in his feet. Each day his Mother would be allowed to visit and she spent all the time tearing the kid down with constant insults and attacks. The kid would actually try to fall asleep by pumping the morphine bulb when she was around.

Every day he lost another toe, another few inches of the foot, then the lower leg, and finally died at the end of the week. All his Mother could do was talk about what a disappointed the kid was to her.

Seemed liked a nice kid, just very shy and controlled by a dominating Mother...we actually signed him into the hospital as Raymond after the character in the movie "Manchurian Candidate".

Sounds like your helper had the same problem...pretty sad.

That's jacked up the last thing you here before you die is your mother telling you that you are a disappointment. No wonder he was in prison

It was terrible, I actually tried to get permission to throw her out, but they wouldn't grant it.

The first thing the kid said was proudly telling her that he got a "B" in his math college course taken at the Prison library. His Mom just fired back how his Sister was getting straight "A's".

Even when the kid fell asleep, she would yell at him and lecture him on making her drive to the hospital just to watch him sleep. He was probably the only inmate that I ever really felt sorry for during those years.

Helper's usually 10% commission or $ 12 / hr.
Employees $ 20 / hr plus some added bonuses here and there, workers comps alone is 15% plus labor taxes, it's unbelievable how much costs associated with labor.