someone in another thread reckons their son is on $25 a hr as a first year apprentice, i dont believe it what do you think any builders on here. stevo?
stevo2,
Jul 5, 6:06pm
Mate he's dreaming. 1st year around minimum rate unless he's on contract rather than wages. If so add another $7/hr or thereabouts but he'll get No holidays, sick pay, stats or anything.
krames,
Jul 5, 6:09pm
26ph hammer hands in queenstown
loud_37,
Jul 5, 6:31pm
If your working for a good company then yes this is possible.
cagivachick1,
Jul 5, 7:48pm
would you as a client be happy being charged $50 a hr for a 1st year boy?
ianab,
Jul 5, 8:33pm
What you don't know is what his actual experience is. My BIL is completing his "apprenticeship" in his 30's. He's as good as most qualified builders, and is paid accordingly, just has to work "supervised" until he completes the paperwork.
So is it some some spotty kid just out of school, or an "adult" with some actual building experience, that's now doing an official apprenticeship to get fully qualified? And is able to do 99% of the builders job.
loud_37,
Jul 5, 9:17pm
I only accept quotes for the full job not hourly, so if i'm happy with the quote and the job is done well I don't care what the hourly rate is.
cagivachick1,
Jul 5, 9:29pm
so the quote is $900 plus gst , you are supplying the materials and a tradesman and a first year boy are there for 4 hrs, you will be caring about the hourly rate then
loud_37,
Jul 5, 9:36pm
As I said I don't care about the hourly rate, but I would expect alot to be done in that 4 hrs for that price, I don't think they could do as much as I would expect so I wouldn't except the quote. Most jobs I can do myself so I know what to pay.
loud_37,
Jul 5, 9:40pm
If I think a job is worth $1000.00 I don't care if its done in 10hrs or 40hrs as long as it's a good quality job.
cagivachick1,
Jul 6, 6:20am
sure
survivalkiwi,
Jul 6, 6:34am
Wouldnt it be great to find an aprentice whao was worth paying him $25 per hour. The last apprentice I had ,at 9 months in I worked it out he worked at quarter tradesman speed. Not so much he was slow but he continually cocked things up. Also cost me a fortune in damaged materials. He was all good untill rugby season started. If we are going to train up more apprentices something major needs to be done to make it easier for tradesmen. I never had as many problems 20 years ago but this current generation seem to be drama queens.
" I never had as many problems 20 years ago but this current generation seem to be drama queens" Yep I know it well. Youngest son groans as if he cut his leg open but it's a surface scratch just deep enough to find a tiny weep of blood.
Caught myself on the back of my hand with the tip of a brand new stanley blade, muttered a nasty word (or 3) under my breath & carried on with the job.
cagivachick1,
Jul 6, 3:42pm
i have 3 sons, one a carpenter, one works in finance and youngest in the army all good hard workers, plus all the young fellers i run into on jobs all good hard workers, havnt come across any drama queens
danchop,
Jul 6, 4:41pm
You say they're charging the boy out at full rate $50 p/h? 2 people are there for 4 hours,which equals $400 plus gst,but you get charged the quote of $900 plus gst? Doesn't make sense. Did the quote have the hourly rate and number of hours estimated to do the job in it?if not,where do you get his charge rates from?
cameron-albany,
Jul 6, 6:15pm
It's a bit of a minefield and I can see it from every angle really. But at the end of the day, paying customers are entitled to have a job done which meets their expectations in terms of value and quality. If an apprentice is being paid $7 or $10 or $15 or $25/hour, it wouldn't really bother me provided that the builder is on site supervising him or her. They have to learn ! I recently had quite an extensive job done by a LBP and he had his son on site doing most of the work. Son was NOT licensed and I'm pretty sure they thought I wasn't around most of the time so didn't actually know what time was being spent by whom. His Producer Statement reflected that the LBP had done all of the work, which wasn't technically correct. I could have challenged it but didn't. I assumed that the LBP would take full responsibility for any issues in the future. But it does raise a question about what we're truly paying for. I paid full LBP cost for my job, but he gave most of the work to his labourer (who he pays $25/hour or whatever) and is meanwhile off doing another job at full cost. Anyway I don't know what the going rate is for an apprentice but assuming he/she is really enthusiastic, energised and willing to learn then surely you'd expect them to get a decent wage. But not left to do a job unsupervised!
loud_37,
Jul 6, 6:38pm
So if you get 3 companies to give you a quote for a job and they all come in at $1000.00 and you think thats a fair price so you accept, now do you care if they take 1 day or 5 days to complete the job to a high standard. I know in my industry I can do a job in less time then my fellow worker and it gets charged out at the same rate.
ianab,
Jul 6, 7:12pm
Thing is a Builder with a GOOD apprentice can likely get 2X as much work done than he could alone. "Just hold this while I nail the other end". "Pass me the "thingy"" "Go get the widget extractor from the van".
That means both the builder AND the apprentice have to have their act together, and work as a team. Some builder don't know how to teach, and some apprentices don't know how to learn, so it not always the case.
Now just as an example, I have a hobby portable sawmill. I can operate it alone, but it's slow as the mill sits idling as I move the last board to the stack. If my 11 year old daughter is there (with her safety gear of course) we can saw 2X as much in an hour, as she can carry a board while I set up the next cut, and get right back into it. Suddenly you are cutting 2 boards a minute, not 1. But it's 2X the production by adding one low skill worker.
But a GOOD worker can be hard to find, but worth their weight in pies at lunch time.
stevo2,
Jul 6, 9:35pm
In building. A tradesman and a first year apprentice CANNOT do twice as much as a tradesman alone. In fact a tradesman and 2 1st year apprentices could not output as much as 2 tradesmen. Trust me on this. Apprentices cost in their first year and start proving worthwhile in their second year
cagivachick1,
Jul 7, 7:00am
it was hypothetical
calz14,
Jul 7, 8:58am
I know of 2 1st year apprentices on more than $25 an hour. Me being one of them. Might help I'm 45 and have had a lot of home renovation experience. The other one is in his 30's.
krames,
Jul 7, 9:06am
it depends on location.In invercargill an experenced qualified licenced carpenter will be on 23-27 ph (based on experence , employers disire to keep there employees.) In queenstown the same carpenter will be on at least 30+
cagivachick1,
Jul 7, 10:26am
if your hourly rate was somewhere in the 30s and you were qualified/licensed would you expect a first year boy to be on 25. bet that wouldnt go down well on site
andrewcg53,
Jul 7, 10:48am
Yes very likely and I know of someone that also got a company ute after 6 months
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