What do you pay your shovelers?

[kahuna]

I could not find any polls that discuss how much people pay their shovelers. Thought a poll to find this out would be interesting. I know every area is going to pay differently but just curious.



Kahuna

[Jon Geer]

I know a certain SPO in our area that runs alot of red trucks pays his guys $19.00-$25.00 per hour. His office is near the east/west runway.

Jon

[nick13]

i pay my guys 15.00 an hour even if they are not shoveling but in the truck

[hlntoiz]

I actually would pay pay $5 per house. Every house is different. some easy some more difficult. Most on the easy side.

Ended up being $20-$25 ph

[wmhlc]

Wonder who that is???

I know a certain SPO in our area that runs alot of red trucks pays his guys $19.00-$25.00 per hour. His office is near the east/west runway.

Jon

[Abes]

When I used to shovel for a large company I made about $15 an hour.

[Wizard]

My guys average about $35/hr. I pay shovelers by the job, so the faster they get it done the more they make. Good motivational tool and is working out well. Good for me since the work gets done and I'm not paying someone to screw around, take long "warm-up" breaks, etc. My guys also drive themselves to each job site, pay for their own blowers/shovels and gas. Only thing I supply is the salt, work, and a check! :D

[Pickering Snow]

When i could find them:rolleyes: 20 bucks a hour however FIND them becomes a word that is like they work for me but i dont know were the hell they are or Find them to work because there setting inside playing ps3 or something.

Told this story last year had a single mom do all of my work from her mini van no blower either she came to the salt shack when she needed salt otherwise i never seen her she would call in hours and i sent her check to her best dam person i had...

This year Denton did what walks we either a single stage or a stick plow when it was too heavy, told him in the fall if he wanted the good paying ones he had to shovel there walks has well ,, i wasnt gonna piss around trying to find someone this year.

The most entertaining shovler i have ever talked to was this year Mark O he sounded like he had just went 10 rounds with Pam Anderson :D and was making me tired listening to him in my truck....

[OSCLandscaping]

We pay a minimum number of hours per storm. If they get it done quick they make about $40.00 per hour. If they goof off they make less.

[kahuna]

I sure am glad i started this thread. I thought I payed well at $15.00 and hour. When I ran my large shop I just paid 10.00 an hour and had people lined up. Now that I run a much smaller business it is getting harder to get the shovelers. I thought I was being extremely generous and now I think extremely generous is not what I would call it, maybe a hair below average. You never know until you hear what everyone else is doing.


Kahuna

[mflah87]

I have one place we need to shovel, I pay the guys $20 an hour 8 hours no matter what. They always hustle and get it done as quick as possible. Our snow shoveling is by the hour though. We do a high end shopping mall.

[Wizard]

I sure am glad i started this thread. I thought I payed well at $15.00 and hour. When I ran my large shop I just paid 10.00 an hour and had people lined up. Now that I run a much smaller business it is getting harder to get the shovelers. I thought I was being extremely generous and now I think extremely generous is not what I would call it, maybe a hair below average. You never know until you hear what everyone else is doing.


Kahuna

Keep in mind, just like plow pricing, what you pay your shoveler will depend on your specific area, there's no "magic numbers" in any aspect of snow removal. If you advertise $40/hour and have hundreds of shovelers lined up, you may be too high and be leaving money on the table, but if you're not able to hang on to any shovelers at $15/hr, you're probably too low. How you pay and how much you pay will depend on the work, the demographics of your area, whether or not they're an insured sub running their own equipment, or riding along using your equipment, etc. Someone that needs to be babysat, picked up at his house and dropped off, using your equipment, will be worth much less to you than someone that can run the route themselves, supply their own equipment, etc. I'm happy paying $35/hr because I know the work is getting done, and with a high level of quality and attention to detail. At $20/hr I had a hard time motivating anyone to get out of bed in the middle of the night and go out in the cold and work their butt off...

[szorno]

I am pretty much with Brendan. I figure out how much time a given job takes working but not busting your behind. Then pay $25/hr based on that time. Then I pay that fixed price for 2-6 inches. When it is light, they hustle and make super money. When it gets near 6" they make a little less or have to hump to get done in the time allowed. Over 6" I just pay a flat $25 per hour worked. Breaks are on their time. But in deep snow you can only hustle so much. I will often bring my Toro blower over when it is over 8" to just speed things up a bit. They workthe blower for the same pay perhour. The job just gets done a little faster. I leave a little $ on the table doing that but it helps with customer service and subcontractor relations. Generally money well spent. :D

[Ford fan]

I think I was the king of not being able to find guys to either plow or especially shovel. I was paying 20 bucks/hr for shovelers. I had probably 150 calls once I ran the ad for shoveling at 20/hr but I think 4 people actually filled out an ap and out of those 4 non worked thru the entire season. This year we're subbing it all out to a sidewalk snow removal company.

[Ford fan]

My guys average about $35/hr. I pay shovelers by the job, so the faster they get it done the more they make. Good motivational tool and is working out well. Good for me since the work gets done and I'm not paying someone to screw around, take long "warm-up" breaks, etc. My guys also drive themselves to each job site, pay for their own blowers/shovels and gas. Only thing I supply is the salt, work, and a check! :D

Wizard, I went to this type of paying system this year. I hope it will keep them coming back every storm. Mine on a slower average comes out to 27.50/hr and some one who is remotley husslin' can make 37.00/hr realisticly. So far so good, at least they called back to see when we were going out to stake lots.

[Wizard]

Wizard, I went to this type of paying system this year. I hope it will keep them coming back every storm. Mine on a slower average comes out to 27.50/hr and some one who is remotley husslin' can make 37.00/hr realisticly. So far so good, at least they called back to see when we were going out to stake lots.

Good deal, hope it works out well for you. I crunched the numbers from last year, the minimum anyone made was $24.93/hr including drive time. The highest average for the whole route with drive time was $58.06/hr, of course that was on a little 1.5" clipper storm, so they flew through the route quick. Not including drive time, the highest average at any one property, based on what I paid "per time" and how fast they got it done, was $152.17 :eek:... Might need to adjust what I'm paying at that site a little... Best part about this strategy is the customers pay per time, and I'm paying per time, so there's less variability and it's easier to figure costs and profit.

I had to hire another guy this year. I posted an ad on craigslist, outlining the "per job" pay, etc. In a 2 day time frame, I received 34 unique inquiries, from which I had 6 very good candidates to choose from, a very good problem to have. :D

[Turbodieselwagon]

I could not find any polls that discuss how much people pay their shovelers. Thought a poll to find this out would be interesting. I know every area is going to pay differently but just curious.



Kahuna

$25.00 hr.

[Firstclasslawn]

Don't hold back please!

I know a certain SPO in our area that runs alot of red trucks pays his guys $19.00-$25.00 per hour. His office is near the east/west runway.

Jon

Is this the same "spo" that cuts everyone else's pricing in half? I still have a few advantages over a company like that:
1. I pay cash for as much as possible
2. My customers know who I am and see and talk to me quite frequently
3. I will never brag about a $500,000 addition to my building in the local paper.
4. I will actually make money while working.
5. I will have friends in the business
6. I will never walk around as if I am Gods gift to earth
7. If we do not get 1 flake of snow this winter, I will still be financially set in the spring.
8. I will have friends outside of business too!
9. My employees enjoy working for me. We pay well and treat them well
10. If I get in a bind, I can always hire the person who plows for 1/2 as a subcontractor. Its like a win - win! I make 50%, he makes what he would have anyway. We would both be winners right? Its like choosing "the red corvette or the blue corvette" Who cares, either way I win.

So if there are any companies around town that would like to do all my work as a subcontractor please call. My secretary will answer, and if your lucky you may even be able to speak with me. Or on the other hand, perhaps I will send ones of my peons for you to preach to. Whatever works I guess. I will gladly give you 50% of every contract.

[todddude]

Ipaid my shovelers $25.00 per hour, minimum 4 hours pay. The job was typically 4 hours but light snow was 3 tops & the occasional 6" or more took 5-6 hrs. I supplied a truck w/ cap, salt, trailer w/ snowblowers & endless supply of gloves. If they get it done quicker, good for them, but if they have to fix something I made them do it @ 1/2 price.

My best ever crew was a 2 girl crew, one single mother & her friend bith in early 30's. They never missed a storm and I very seldome had a quality issue call. The only problem was getting the big snowblower in the trailer, they prefered little toro power curves. Wish I still had them! Don't ever shun the women, they have always been some of my best employees. Never had a woman wreck a plow truck or blow up a snowblower!