based on $40+ hour commercial work and $60+ an hour residential work. 30% after fully trained and can add a percentage as you see fit as a type of raise. An additional 2% every pay period for showing up to work on time and everyday and having no complaints from customers during that pay period.
isnāt 30% the cap off? Bonuses would seem to be the next step, not pay increases. What do you do, Chris?
[MENTION=1]Chris[/MENTION]
Hello all, this is one of my first postsā¦ this is all very interesting. I so far started my business doing commercial work (storefronts and auto garages) seeing as commercial work like that only brings anywere from 25 to 40 an hour, do you pay percentages for store front routes or only for residential? I am hiring my first employee this week and this is very important.
Thanks a bunch!!!
Hi there welcome!
We pay basically salary for route work and we did pay % for Resedential
Interesting thread. When we had our girls as subs they would be paid by the job. If it took them forever to do a job it was on them. Incentive to get better. We know how long, on avg a job should take whether it be a new home final or a simple move out. We did add extra if really bad or they adjusted if had to bring a helper like another sub.They agreed to a price and that was it. How subs work. Quicker work=more jobs=more money.
Once went to employees they almost work on same pay scale. Guess it is close to 30-40 % of the job price. They make, in most cases 10-20 an hour. If one is fast and goes by hour they will be done and earn less than the slow poke. Some folks are quicker at tasks than others.We pay them more than other places that go a bit over minimum or pay maybe 50 a move out and they get 100 .
Starbrite was pretty close with his percentages. We dont deduct if we are there to work. Only if we knew it was really bad and are there because of that and that would be factored into the estimate, 3 vice 2 workers . If in a crunch I come in but wife does not pay me anything. Guess finishing the job is MORE important than polishing my brass squeegee. Her priorities are way off. Just doesāt understand squeegee maintenance. Its a delicate science.:pā¦or does she?
Dont mean to be a pain but could you break that one down for me, what is basically salary for routes, because 95% of my work is route work and i want to make sure im getting the most out of the money im currently making since i am hiring someone. They are making more money then me in 1 day and i price competitively for my areaā¦As for Residential you say you DID pay % sounds like that has changedā¦how to you compensate your employees for residential.
@GreenNeighborWindowCleaning
I just sold my business but thats what we did when we did resedential. % pay 30% split between the workers
Our store front salaries range from $100 - 150 depending on the route value and size
I think that after training he got good.
I pay 35% to my commercial / route guy. He took in an average of $54.50/hr. this past year and he made $19.11 an hour average for the year. I pay 17% in payroll taxes which puts my total payroll at 41%. I have tried less over the last 20 years but am willing to pay this rate to retain good help. He is happy with the wage and it is worth the incentive for me to keep him. He is clean-cut, very good, very reliable and customers love him.
So that, in itself, is hard to put a price tag on these days.
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We pay commission up to 30%. If itās one guy, he makes 30%, if itās 2 guys, the team lead may make 18% and tech make 12% to add to 30%. Same principle if itās 3 guys. If you are using subs, the % of the job would be higher because they should be paying for their own taxes, tools, trucks, insuranceā¦etc. The real question is should those subs really be employees?
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Chris, I have heard that a lot about trying to keep your payroll at 30% of gross revenue. When you do the calculations for that, do you include your own pay as ownerā¦ in the calculation or is that something you leave out because as owner you are getting the net proceeds anyway?
Before figuring out you labor rates, check you billing rates for commercial and residential to make sure you are hitting the best numbers possible, then worry about employees.
Chris you should include yourself on payroll just as an employee, you can always pay yourself min wage but the tax folks like to see you engagedā¦
I just ran my numbers this week and we spent 85.66% on payroll!!! 
Iām usually closer to 60% with ALL payroll expenses accounted (me, taxes, employees, etc.)
Weāre in our slow season and Iām not working in the field to make sure my 3 guys get enough work to keep them happy/fed but this number is huge! I just paid cash to buy a friends business. This time of year I usually had the reserves to pay them with little worry because mid Sept-mid Dec are huge. I hope this slow season ends FAST!
I am going to go to percentage! I have 3 guys that work great together and move fast compared to what Iāve seen form others. I need to raise prices on my old timers and get these numbers up! Feeling stupid for not doing budgets and Profit First.
You only do window cleaning and powerwashing?
ideally, operations wages only would be 30% (the max cap from the āSimple Numbersā book), the other 20% for payroll burden, anything truck or supplies
it takes some serious attention to create pricing that can produce a desirable market rate wage at 30%
it takes some serious attention to all things marketing to draw people in at that pricing
its all interconnected
work it up on paper from an ideal perspective and then youāll at least know where the horizon is that youāre riding toward if you cant create it right now
when you work it up it might look crazy, but before you know it youāve reached that crazy and are working on the next crazy tier
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I pay about 40% for janitorial wages and the 3% pension contribution. Payroll taxes contributions, workers comp and bonuses takes it over 50%. I am okay with that as the rest of the janitorial expenses quite minimal and my 3 guys are stellar for reliability and attention to detail. I have contracts for 2 of the 3 banks in town and 4 offices. Those janitorial contracts also include additional billable items that have good $PMH: WC, gutter cleaning, carpet cleaning and floor waxing.
My son gets 20% off the top for 2 man jobs with me or 40% for solo for WC, GC, PW, CC and floor waxing. He also gets a 3% pension contribution, medical insurance, unlimited vehicle usage and medevac coverage.
I realize that the industry standard is closer to 30% for these costs but I donāt have call backs and other complaints. My business needs a lot of autonomy because I frequently have to be out of the loop assisting my wife with medical issues.
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everyone does this for their needs and wants. God bless you and your wife. @Jersey says itās your business, run it how your want-paraphrasing
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thatās been the majority. 95% WC 5%PW but the new business I added does a lot of guttersā¦ 
Did you create a new business for GC or is this a new service for your existing business?
