I'm just looking at an invoice for work carried out by a joiner and a plumber. For 2 days work each to fit a kitchen the labour cost was £600. Is £150 a day per tradesman excessive? Work was carried out in West Yorkshire.
hi my husband is a furniture maker/joiner and he charges around £150-£180 per day, so i think that is the going rate. we are in milton keynes hope this helps
these guys are probably self-employed. If you work out the figures, it equates to a salary of £36K ( allowing for hols ), but bear in mind they will have to pay public liability insurance, paying all his own travel expenses etc, which I can assure you adds up ! And, it is also assuming they are working 5 days a week, every week.
skilled 4 and 5 colour printers earn about £25/26000 a year and have to work shifts and very unsocial hours for that as well.They pay PAYE so pay the full whack in tax unlike the self employed who shall we say can manipulate the amount they pay.They pay to get to and from work and cant claim for the petrol they use.Also you are very lucky to get an employer who pays a decent sickness benefit as well so that stops the usual cries of "oh your so lucky to work for an employer as you get paid if you dont work"
So all in all I think the tradesmen are very well rewarded..
Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough. I, too, am self employed, and have annual overheads of £10K, so if I worked flat out every day, every week, I might end up at the same type of salary as those printers. However, I am not guaranteed a pay packet at the end of the week, and I have to spend evenings chasing new business, doing my book-keeping, and looking after all the other things it takes to run a business. If you think the grass looks greener from your side, why don't you take the plunge and take up a trade ? It's also true that good tradesmen are hard to find, and are in demand, so why shouldn't they charge a premium ? After all, if you go to a solicitor / doctor ( consultant ) / accountant, how much do they charge, and why should they deserve any more than other specialists ? I think you'll find their "professional fees" are rather more than the figures mentioned in this post, and they're just as likely to rip you off as cowboy tradesmen.
Just what are your overheads?presumably they include a means of transport which you use to get to and from jobs just as anyone else needs a means of transport especially when starting work at 6am. Only the means of transport for most isn't tax deductable.All the self employed I know have a van and a shed as their only overheads.Printers aren't guaranteed a pay packet when companies go bust as they often do due to cut throat pricing in the trade,a pity that lots of other trades aren't a bit more competetive that way Joe Bloggs wouldn't be ripped of and messed about big style every time he wanted a job doing. Last year I had to pay a heating engineer £380 for a day and a half work and paid a plasterer £150 for 4 hours work.I consider these to be rather extortionate rates for working class people to charge.
Forgot to add that I think it wrong that trades people consider they are as important as doctors,lawyers and accountants.These people have spent years at collegeand university and then doing on the job training and exams lasting years.I understand that good tradesmen have spent time doing an apprenticeship or they should have,but I think your analogy to the above is misplaced.
I think £150 per day is a fair rate for a tradesman.
Wayne, I think you need to refrain from this kind of discussion on this forum. I feel you are being very dismissive with no knowledge of self employment and overheads aswell as skill levels. Brainsurgeons earn more than most of us, but do they deserve it... of course they do!
I live in West Yorkshire (Halifax) and have just finished totally revamping our house. All the tradesmen we used charged in the region of £150 a day, so I'd say it's pretty standard.
im replying on behalf of my hubby who is still out working doing client consultations ( as a qualified furniture maker and self employed)) it seems you are unhappy in your chosen field of work, but dont slate hardworking,skilled ,buisness minded self employed, making a future for themselves and family i think you underestimate exactly what being self employed involves my husband may charge his day rate , but also runs a workshop with overheads as well as normal outgoings.
1. VAT returns (unpaid tax collector) 2. No holiday pay entitlement 3. No Paternity leave 4. No garunteed salary 5. No basic minimum Wage 6. Cheap tax...but hefty accountant fees 7. No time off (no work = no pay...so you always work) 8. No unions 9. No working time directive (it doesnt include us!) 10. No contract of employment (a legal right for all employees)
....should I continue or have you got the gist of it yet?
Waynezab, I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of the self-employed. If you were to go into business of any sort, you would discover that there are numerous hidden overheads that don't immediatley come to mind. In order to trade legally, we must have public liability insurance, contractors all risk insurance,personal accident insurance, tools and equipment insurance, workshop insurance, car and van insurance, then there are business rates, and that's before you start to use telephones, faxes ( yes , I still use one ) , mobile phone....the list goes on. Maybe you know some who don't bother working legally, but most of us do, and we have to pay NI contributions, tax , and a percentage of our turnover to the Government training board to help fund apprenticeships. And YES, it does come to over £10K a year. Oh, and by the way, I also went to university and got a degree, so why shouldn't I charge the same for my services as some "professional" people. I often tell the story of my plumber, who had to take his wife to a consultant . He charged £150 + VAT for a ten minute consultation. My friend thought it a bit steep, but had no choice but to pay. A few months later, this same consultant rang my friend at 11.30pm on Christmas Eve, in a panic because a pipe had burst in his roofspace. My friend went round, fixed the leak, and when asked how much, said £150 + VAT. At which point the consultant nearly had a heart attack, but when reminded about his charge for his services, and emergency treatment, he thought for a minute and replied, " you're absolutely right", and promptly paid. Are you going to tell me one was worth more than the other ?
Well I seem to have touched a nerve here,Iam sorry if my opinions have upset anyone.
Iam not unhappy in my chosen field at all Iam just trying to make people aware that very highly skilled people working in industry dont earn anything like the money earned by some self employed.
Again apologies,I suppose my posts may seem a bit confrontational
