5 ms·
The employees in the US are probably making closer to $30/hr than $70/hr, but their time is being billed at the higher rate, with the difference going into "ove
by pwinnski 6y ago
The employees in the US are probably making closer to $30/hr than $70/hr, but their time is being billed at the higher rate, with the difference going into "overhead."
- nickthemagicman 6y agoCha ching. Here's the issue. That 70$ 'overhead' charge.
- winter_blue 6y agoThat sort of overhead should frankly be illegal. It's exorbitant. To pay the worker $30/hr, and charge a $70/hr overhead on top of it is daylight robbery.
- nend 6y agoIs it really? In my experience the overhead for salaried software developers working for contract shops is greater in both raw amount and percentage that that. This was 10 years ago but I knew developers making $60/hour in salary while being contracted out for 3 times that amount.
- winter_blue 6y ago> making $60/hour in salary while being contracted out for 3 times that amount Those devs should have listened to patio11 (Patrick McKenzie)'s advise, and directed built a relationship with the companies they were being contracted out to.
- s1artibartfast 6y agoUnfortunately both California and can the contracting companies are opposed to this. Most companies are not interested in working with sole proprietorships due to the legal liability.
- renewiltord 6y agoReally? If you're familiar with rate cards, can you read this http://www.local14funds.org/forms/NewForms/Wage-Scale-082018.pdf http://www.local14funds.org/forms/NewForms/Wage-Scale-082018... and tell me what portion actually makes it to the person doing the work?
- vonmoltke 6y agoThose wages are what the union members actually receive.
- renewiltord 6y agoThanks. What would someone who utilizes this union labour actually end up paying? A little more than this? I'm sure it varies but I'm curious about ballpark. Like 50% more? 250% more?
- yboris 6y agoSeems like you're familiar. Could you share the answer too?
- renewiltord 6y agoI'm not. I just use that source for me to determine how construction jobs (specifically crane ops) wages are priced. I am not especially informed.
- burntwater 6y agoI regular work with and PM projects using union labor in NYC. The rates here are about what I would expect for take-home pay. I.e. they take home (pre-tax) closer to $70/hr than $30/hr. One thing not made clear in the article is if the hourly rates they quote are pre or post benefits. When I budget out projects, my spreadsheets have two columns, hourly wage, and hourly + benefits. Depending on the particular union, the benefits can be as high as 60%. So the real cost to me, the PM, is $70+$42 = $112/hour straight time.
- pwinnski 6y agoWow, seems like I was misinformed, then. That seems unsustainable to me, but I guess time will tell.
- burntwater 6y agoIt can certainly be painful from a management standpoint. But actually the biggest pain point isn't the hourly wages -- we all love to earn money, after all. The biggest pain point is labor minimums. If you need to hire from Department A, you need to hire a minimum of 3 people even when only 1 is needed. Or if you need to hire from Departments A and B, then you're required to also hire Departments C, D, and E (all with their minimum crew requirements). It makes for accomplishing smaller projects near prohibitively expensive. And typically you can't gang together multiple projects in order to optimize labor usage. Honestly, I have very mixed feelings about the arrangements I have to work with.
- skeletal88 6y agoSo this is the real reason for high costs in construction in the US. Absurd "labor minimums" ? Haven't heard about anything like this here in Europe..
- someguydave 6y agoAre those labor minimums union rules or are they imposed by government regulation?