"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "bnd777" contains these words:

Boy is the cost of living cheap in your area
Quote down south would be at least £100

Per hour? £4,000 per week, £200,000 per year?

No wonder you can't get enough teachers and nurses down there, they must
be leaving the profession in droves to qualify as tree fellers.

Janet

Quoting time, Office admin time, travelling time, vehicle running costs,
vehicle depreciation, dead time between jobs, rained off time, cost of
equipment, cost of disposal, cost of public liability insurance,
professional indemnity insurance, equipment insurance, sickness insurance,
pension plan......................

£15/hour sounds astonishingly cheap!

Jobbing contractors will have billable hours of 50-75% of their working
time.

£15/hour for 1850 working hours (normal employed working time) x 75% =
£20,800 top line income before any business costs are taken out.

About 6 years ago, I was doing jobbing work in Wimbledon Village and
charging £10/hour to a client in 1.5 acre garden, 6/8 bed house in the
centre of the village. (Value then??? £5M??) They went off for a weekend and
came back telling me that their "friends in the country only pay £4/hour for
their gardener", and clearly expected me to reduce my rates : Our
relationship did not survive very long.... about 30 seconds!

Why is it that because hobby gardeners do it for love in their own garden so
many of them expect to pay a pittance when they have work done for them?

pk

The message
from "PaulK" contains these words:


£15/hour for 1850 working hours (normal employed working time) x 75% =
£20,800 top line income before any business costs are taken out

That would be an above average wage here. In Scotland as a whole,
plenty of people do skilled and responsible work for far less. For
instance, the back of public buses in Glasgow carry an advert which says
"PSV licence holders wanted as bus drivers; £6 per hour". On Arran, many
jobs in tourism, public services and care homes, pay under £6 per hour.

Janet.

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "PaulK" contains these words:


£15/hour for 1850 working hours (normal employed working time) x 75% =
£20,800 top line income before any business costs are taken out

That would be an above average wage here. In Scotland as a whole,
plenty of people do skilled and responsible work for far less. For
instance, the back of public buses in Glasgow carry an advert which says
"PSV licence holders wanted as bus drivers; £6 per hour". On Arran, many
jobs in tourism, public services and care homes, pay under £6 per hour.

Janet.


Two points:

First on topic: Even so you have to allow for all the additional cost of
running a business £20k top line does not leave too much on the bottom line!
Hourly rates for garden work are far below that needed to sustain a viable
business and family - hence it is degenerating into an unqualified labouring
market.

Second, so far off topic that I don my asbestos suit as I type: Your point
on differentials between regions is well made and just serves to highlight
the ridiculous policy of National Salary Scales for (eg) public servants
like Teachers and Nurses. (Pray allow the cross border issue for sake of
argument?). A head teacher on Arran on £32k is very well paid, a Head
teacher at a local primary here in Wimbledon on £32k = London weighting of
3k is poorly paid!

pk

in article , PaulK at
wrote on 19/12/02 9:48 pm:

snip
Why is it that because hobby gardeners do it for love in their own garden so
many of them expect to pay a pittance when they have work done for them?

Wages vary enormously in different parts of the country and I don't know
anyone in this part of Devon who would pay 18.00 per hour to a gardener! One
fully qualified gardener/garden designer we know doesn't charge that!
OTOH, in Jersey where I used to live, there is a rich population among the
finance workers and that would probably be near the going rate there.
Certainly, the last I heard, a painter/decorator was getting 16.00 or more
an hour there and that was a couple of years ago. When I moved to Devon, I
had a pensioner who worked one morning a week in my garden. I asked *him*
what his charges were and he told *me* 5.00 per hour. He worked for me for 3
years and only gave up when I sold the house. It isn't possible to apply a
London 'going rate' to all the rest of the country.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, PaulK wrote:

Why is it that because hobby gardeners do it for love in their own garden so
many of them expect to pay a pittance when they have work done for them?

Huh! You want to be a musician! We are often told that we don't need to
be paid for our services because we enjoy what we do so much!

--
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: ICHTHUS (Reading) +44-118-946-1466 | Reading, UK |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

Care home staff etc in the south £6 per hr too !!!!!!!!


"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "PaulK" contains these words:


£15/hour for 1850 working hours (normal employed working time) x 75% =
£20,800 top line income before any business costs are taken out

That would be an above average wage here. In Scotland as a whole,
plenty of people do skilled and responsible work for far less. For
instance, the back of public buses in Glasgow carry an advert which says
"PSV licence holders wanted as bus drivers; £6 per hour". On Arran, many
jobs in tourism, public services and care homes, pay under £6 per hour.

Janet.

PaulK scribbled:

About 6 years ago, I was doing jobbing work in Wimbledon Village and
charging £10/hour to a client in 1.5 acre garden, 6/8 bed house in the
centre of the village. (Value then??? £5M??) They went off for a
weekend and came back telling me that their "friends in the country
only pay £4/hour for their gardener", and clearly expected me to
reduce my rates : Our relationship did not survive very long....
about 30 seconds!

Thats because those who can afford to pay want something for nothing , but
having said that they also pay their child minders less than their
gardeners.

I am an aircraft technician, due to the lack of thos jobs in my area I have
been working for £5/hr for the last six months through an agency and some of
those jobs have been paying me more than permanent staff. Ho hum!

Steve R
North Wilts

When I was between jobs (i was a computer contractor), I cut grass, hedges,
and general tidying up. I charged £8 an hour. What customers didn't always
understand were the overheads. It was operated as a legit business, in that
I paid tax and national insurance. On top of this I paid for fuel in my
mower, van and petrol hedge cutters. This £8 didn't take into account wear
and tear and usually travelling between jobs.

If I was employing someone else I would be the employer so have to pay
employers NI and tax and could be charging VAT on top of that if my turn
over was high enough. Don't forget to add on third party liability, and
business rates for the premises that the business operates from, oh and
don't forget NPTC training courses to keep you up with the latest techniques
& legislation.

If I was a cowboy I wouldnt charge any of these, that's why their rates are
probably lower and they'll under cut you.

If you pay 4 quid an hour (I don't mean Steve R) - you get what you pay for.

Simon

"Essjay001" wrote in message
...
PaulK scribbled:

About 6 years ago, I was doing jobbing work in Wimbledon Village and
charging £10/hour to a client in 1.5 acre garden, 6/8 bed house in the
centre of the village. (Value then??? £5M??) They went off for a
weekend and came back telling me that their "friends in the country
only pay £4/hour for their gardener", and clearly expected me to
reduce my rates : Our relationship did not survive very long....
about 30 seconds!

Thats because those who can afford to pay want something for nothing , but
having said that they also pay their child minders less than their
gardeners.

I am an aircraft technician, due to the lack of thos jobs in my area I
have
been working for £5/hr for the last six months through an agency and some
of
those jobs have been paying me more than permanent staff. Ho hum!

Steve R
North Wilts