Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $80 hr

It sure sounds like complaining

You think that is bad, last July I walked into an emergency room at a local hospital about 5:30 PM Friday afternoon for a blood clot in my leg. I got several test, MRI, etc. spent the night for observation, walked out around 2:30 PM Sat. afternoon with a couple prescriptions for meds.

Bill to the insurance company was over $20,000. So close to $1000 per hour average

Thats why its tough for a legitimate business to compete with a guy working out of the back of his pick up....but God forbid if some thing major goes wrong and he phuucks up your house cause he doesn't have insurance

My electrician charges $55 per hr. My plumber is $ 75 and I am $38- 42 per hr. I'm the General carpenter. Carpenters are a deal for some reason. Noone knows how I do it but I've never gone without paying a bill and never ran out of money. Plumbers are over paid. There isn't any more to it than carpentry. These are S.E. Wisconsin prices.

I estimate where I work. We figure that each guy in the shop total is about 2.5x what his actual hourly wage is. The rest of that goes into insurance, workers comp, unemployment etc...

Given those parameters - you're getting it cheap!

I live in a town with a metro pop of 200k, no island, lots of infrastructure and a low cost of living and 80 an hour for those guys would be a bargain.

Sounds to me like you picked the wrong profession

That's a good price for a general carpenter. Wish I could get you up here to redo the interior of my boat.

To answer your question, there are a number of reasons. Licensing, start up money, knowledge, confidence are some of the main reasons. Lots of guys work their whole career without learning how to estimate or manage jobs. Those aren't hard things to learn, but require someone willing to teach you and many owners aren't keen on teaching their employees enough to go into competition with them.

Personally, I'm very close to making the leap. I've stagnated at my current job and have a lot of frustration at how a bunch of trade ignorant paper pushers demand things be done. I'm pretty much topped out, wage-wise and need to be thinking seriously about retirement planning, something that isn't possible if I stay.

I have the knowledge and licensing, but not the $$$. My plan is to start small and avoid competition with my employer and see where it goes from there.

I'm curious, but can't a guy with a van get bonded and insurance? I understand that if you maintain a storefront, a gal at the front desk, etc that you are paying out the ass for things. Seems the way to go would be a van.

Nope, and in Alaska where I'm told the cost of living is high I'm surprised that's all he's charging.

So you're self employed. From that $80, subtract 15% for social security (self employment taxes) and another 20 to 30% for income taxes. Depending on what your trade is, you could have a shop to pay for or maybe a truck and fuel. You need to figure costs for tools and probably a bookkeeper or an accountant. You have health insurance to pay for and, unless you're a fool, some kind of retirement.

A former hunting partner of mine died about 5 years ago at 70. He was a chiropractor and still practicing. He didn't leave his wife hardly anything. He charged low rates because he wanted his services to be available to everyone. I told him many times to increase his rates a mere %$5/visit and put it into a retirement program. $5 wasn't going to bankrupt anyone and it would make for a decent retirement after 20 years or so. He never did it, though. Now his wife is paying the price.

Yeah, don't even get me started about that scam. If I had my way, every price would be listed on a menu, like when you went into MCD's. Then, you could make choices based on what you can afford. Not wait for the bill to show up. For what they charge to be in the hospital, I'd rather go sit in the outside in the parking lot, and have my wife wheel me in if something started to go wrong again.

Once you become legit the over head sky rockets and so does the cost of doing business and making a profit. Insurance and workmans comp is big$$$

Well, that's pretty much anybody who is self employed, or anybody working in general. I fit in the fisherman/farmer category.

Believe me, I think it's great they get $80 an hour. I was commenting on how good things are, that a plumber can demand such wages.

Things aren't that bad..

You gotta admit that it's funny. A person pays $80 an hour to have a $10 an hour employee show up and do work..(grin)

My forman makes $25 + benefits

Not really but that's the way it is.

Agreed. In my trade I've had to put in a number of years to qualify to take the state journeyman exam, then at least 2 more before being eligible to take the state Master's exam. On top of those tests I have to take and pass a state plumbing contractor's exam. All these tests cost money to take, then there are fees to pay for the actual license on a yearly or 3 year basis, depending on the license.

The fly-by-night operators duck a lot of these requirements and can work for less, but often doing shoddy work not having jobs inspected.

You are assuming that guy has a full book with no slowdown. And no operating costs. I have a good friend with a one man excavating business. He charges about $125 an hour. If he worked 60 hours a week he would consider himself lazy. I think he is lucky to clear $30/hr. at 40 hr. rate.