living wage

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henry

henry

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What is a real living wage for a plasterer in 2013 that's take home pay.

Myself no less £500 a week
 
minimum henry ! and only local and back home feet up by 430 ...........
 
full days DOLLAR for a good spread £150.00 day work ,price work up to you ! folks pay 4/500 pound for a carpet that lasts 10 years at most ? but quibble at £350.00 for the same room that lasts the best part of 30 years plus !! tell them that .....
 
and as for prices how long is a piece of string ! on day work i dont kill my self but do make sure my works bang on 1000%...
 
The truth Henry Is I do not really know, money comes in and then out, some weeks we have a good bit by but then a big bill or a one off item takes our funds.I am happy when everything is paid off,
 
henry said:
What is a real living wage for a plasterer in 2013 that's take home pay.

Myself no less £500 a week
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That's really a difficult one, Depends on what work you currently have, if you have plenty then it's not an issue, but if you have no work then £100 before tax per day is good even £80 per day is better than £0 per day, also depends on your current bank balance if thats plentyfull then you can hold out for more but if it's in the red then........
 
sometimes I have £30k to collect and £25 k is spoken for, sometimes just a weeks wage, sometimes 0000000
 
one thing is for sure that this industry we call plastering is now greatly under valued !!its a great shame ive read a lot of posts on hear and its clear we are a dying breed ,myself in the trade 30 years and family before me ......dont price up cheap value your worth !!!!
 
I dont know what a plasterers rate is on the books nowdays, it seems most rates on the net is about £12 an hour not change since 2006 when it was about 12 an hour then.
 
i give around £400 a week each to a couple of my lads per week on the books,before tax, plus hol pay plus one has one of my vans. labourers obviously less.
£12 is not an insult to lads on paye.
 
KevRM said:
£12 an hour to me is an insult but then to someone "new" to the game it's a life line
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The agencys will and have ruined the trade !!£25 pound an hour is more like it !!!next time you work on a dentists house who make £120,000 a year... filling a hole 2mm and charges £60.00 quid tell him you charge by the sqare mtr and charge the same :RpS_thumbsup:
 
owls said:
i give around £400 a week each to a couple of my lads per week on the books,before tax, plus hol pay plus one has one of my vans. labourers obviously less.
£12 is not an insult to lads on paye.
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fair play .........
 
Never been on PAYE ,£12 an hour is what agencies are paying handy men, not real trades people in my opinion. I could not envisage working for that amount, though obviously some do,London is more expensive to live in hence I require more than some living in less expensive areas as my outgoings are higher, sometimes reading these posts I am transported back into the 80s ,nostalgia ? No, but apathy for the future for a lot of those posting on here, you are essentially the masters of your own destiny...I know needs Must and all that but sometimes a job is just not worth doing...
 
if you self employed youd need minimum 600 a week id have thought,
but everyones circumstances are different, if your mrs earns decent money and/or you have a big mortgage or no mortgage, kids no kids etc etc.
 
one thing is for sure good trades men if and when the trade comes back will charge heavily or the sheeple that are now getting on the property ladder will be paying twice !! a good tradesman will always be needed and wanted ...........the chanchers will fade away .
 
I reckon I earn on an average year £20k gross. Less last year with all the rain and me being limited with my tennis elbow.

I have been looking for employment in the lettings agency field and the highest salary I have applied for is £15k and that is on the managing side not just a clerk. The lowest was £5 a week above NMW. Bit of an eye opener there. Screwfix was offering 65p over NMW per hour.

The really good lads will always be wanted but around here £120 a day max with a van and equipment subbing for builders. The jumped up labourers are under cutting and there are always customers willing to take a chance.
 
ok some think £12 per hour is fair some don't, my reasons for thinking it not are, i spent well over 5 yrs learning and perfecting my "Skilled Trade" like doctors, lawyers etc. 5 ******* years only to now be told "hey your only worth £12 per hour" by some jumped up areshole who hasnt done a hard days graft in his life, Don't insult my trade or intelligence
 
The problem we all face is that low empathy is ruleing this country just look at the deaths in staffs NHS and how wages have been driven down "Who gives a Fukc " am all right jack" is the order of the day.
 
I might move up North if you can live on the kind of money thats been mentioned, it all depends on personal circumstances mortage being the main one but generaly if you areS/E and live in London you need £1000 a week to run your house, van,car one holiday a year and a bit of life inbetween, not to much to ask for for working your nuts of unfortunately very difficult to get these days that why most are struggling to get by.
 
How many plasterers on here are on a grand a wk bet you can count on one hand how many. I will start it off Gibbo maybe.
 
A living wage is what you can get by on comfortably, pay your bills,go out for a pint/ meal when you want. I've never compared what i earn against others earnings/rates. Yes people will moan about paying £200 for days hard graft but think nothing of paying £250+vat an hour for a solicitor, but you can work for them or not, its your choice! If you want to earn £250 an hr train as a solicitor. If i needed to i would work for £40 to pay for some food rather than say i would'nt get out of bed for that! Fortunately i worked hard and semi-retired at 45 comfortable, i've started back up now has an handyman but leisurely. You can argue the toss about what you used to earn , but if you need money now you need to grab what you can, if you don't need the money stand by your principles.
 
Up here in the North property is cheaper. Fuel is not though and neither is food. You can get a good terrace for £100k in an average area. Give or take 25k for other area's. Semi's around £125-175k depending on area. The further towards the North East (Newcastle) you go the cheaper the property. Leeds to Harrogate is pretty good on prices and parts of the North West.

When you have your mortgage paid off, the kids have flown the nest and wifey is in a good well paid job then life is that bit easier. Since my financial independence in 2000 I have done well on an ordinary wage bearing in mind all my eggs are in 1 basket and I am in a 9 months of the year job.

I am looking for alternative employment because of my elbow problem but apart from the 15k job I went for (supplying your own car as well for that) the average letting agent job pays £280 per week (chucking your own car in). Thats with knowing quite a bit about lettings, the legalities and the book keeping (rent monitoring), managing maintenece. So while ever I can get £15k a year minimum I might keep where I am. I don't physically graft as much now, the others do it.
 
If I was still married, then by now I would have had no mortgage so could pick and choose my work and turn down the jobs I didn't fancy. As it is I am in rented with no pension having to try and get most jobs I go to see to pay the bills but to be honest I'm happier as a person. Worked for a customer recently whose husband got cancer which also reminded me that I wasn't that bad off, also about 7-8 years ago I was asked to finish off some work that a young lad had started but died in a car crash. I was really busy at the time but said I would sort it out on the Saturday, it was really spooky doing that work and the lad had done a very tidy finish also.
what a waste in so many different ways.
 
N8rbos said:
A living wage is what you can get by on comfortably, pay your bills,go out for a pint/ meal when you want. I've never compared what i earn against others earnings/rates. Yes people will moan about paying £200 for days hard graft but think nothing of paying £250+vat an hour for a solicitor, but you can work for them or not, its your choice! If you want to earn £250 an hr train as a solicitor. If i needed to i would work for £40 to pay for some food rather than say i would'nt get out of bed for that! Fortunately i worked hard and semi-retired at 45 comfortable, i've started back up now has an handyman but leisurely. You can argue the toss about what you used to earn , but if you need money now you need to grab what you can, if you don't need the money stand by your principles.
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Hate to say it mate but this is also the issue as well as our Eastern European friends, I would not ever go do a days work plastering for £40!! Labouring maybe. This is what is directly effecting prices etc, people prepared to do a tradesmans job for labs money!

if they don't want to pay a proper tradesmans money then let them go elsewhere! If you are that hard up go get a labs job for £40-£50 a day.

think about it if everyone charged a fair days wage then they would have no where else to go.
 
SpankySouthport said:
Hate to say it mate but this is also the issue as well as our Eastern European friends, I would not ever go do a days work plastering for £40!! Labouring maybe. This is what is directly effecting prices etc, people prepared to do a tradesmans job for labs money!

if they don't want to pay a proper tradesmans money then let them go elsewhere! If you are that hard up go get a labs job for £40-£50 a day.

think about it if everyone charged a fair days wage then they would have no where else to go.
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I see what you say ss, i' m not saying i do go around or that its right to go around working for £40, IF i had to though to keep my family in food etc i would, i'm very fortunate not to have to do that. IF people did pay the proper rate that would be brill but they don't or won't but they will hold onto their money till someone will do it for what they want to pay, theres too many people chasing too little work or at least good paid work. Any fool can work for nothing,but when needs must.........
You will never convince anyone to stick together and charge the going rate, even on this forum of plasterers. I used to charge £180 for bathroom swops, people would ring 'i've got soso to fit suite for £120 can you beat it? Nope but call me whens its bodged £250 to put right. Its in almost every trade and will never change,even if you got rid of all the foreigners. It is bad when sols get paid 250 an hr for pushing a pen an reading a law book and pass the work to someone on £8 to do it and the same person who pays this won't pay 250 for a tradesman a day for work, but there it is.
 
I consider a living wage to be enough to raise a family, pay the rent/bills and have some left over as savings. I shall not single out any particular ethnic group but it is the case that some of them share a room with four other people. This is not what I consider to be a good standard of life. For short and immediate returns, they are willing to undercut our prices and compromise the stability of our trade.
 
There are Albanians who work for a merchant near me. They are grafters, certainly not lazy and work for the same rate as their british workmates along side them.

One when he came over here got trained up in landscaping and did my drive 2 years ago. I didn't ask him for a price he heard I was obtaining prices and came round. I would not have thought of asking him because he was Albanian and I keep work for the British.

But I also knew he was good at his job. For the last 15 years I have seen him do some pretty good expensive landscaping jobs for a local landscaper. Anyway, he priced for the job as was the most expensive but only by a bit.

The reason I employed him was because of professionalism and availability. The local block pavers didn't seem to bothered and it was a 3-4 month wait but he could start in 2 weeks and worked over Easter. Did a fantastic job in 4 days. He is still landscaping and also runs a hand car wash. Investing in property and making a mint. Married a local white girl a few years ago and doing well.

So although if i can I do not encourage employing foreigners lets see it from another angle. They are usually available! Work when you want want them and in my experience not cheaper than a local Brit. I can get dole dodgers for £40 a day easily and they are grateful. I do not think I could get an East European for any less. Lets look at the hand car wash. All East Europeans. Paid by the car and work dawn till dusk. Yes cash in hand and probably no tax being paid. But I know of only 1 white car wash that is still going but they work to strict hours and some work some days and others take their place on their days off (understandably) but can you imagine any Brit doing hand car washing on a paid by the car basis and working all hours?

Some of these foreigners know how to make money. I see them at property auctions and believe me they are going to be tomorrows millionaires. A man I know from Pakistan who came here in the 70's and worked on the taxi's is now buying pubs and converting them into flats. All his workers are brits although he pays them £80 a day cash they only do 6 1/2 hrs and take their time so not bad. He doesn't know he's getting fleeced but thinks he has a bargain at £80 a day lol.

This Asian has lots of properties and all in good order. He is making a mint! All from not knowing how to speak English in 1977 and doing 70 hrs a week on the taxi's. So if we study these foreigners a bit we could maybe prosper just a bit.
 
Rigsby said:
Up here in the North property is cheaper. Fuel is not though and neither is food. You can get a good terrace for £100k in an average area. Give or take 25k for other area's. Semi's around £125-175k depending on area. The further towards the North East (Newcastle) you go the cheaper the property. Leeds to Harrogate is pretty good on prices and parts of the North West.

When you have your mortgage paid off, the kids have flown the nest and wifey is in a good well paid job then life is that bit easier. Since my financial independence in 2000 I have done well on an ordinary wage bearing in mind all my eggs are in 1 basket and I am in a 9 months of the year job.

I am looking for alternative employment because of my elbow problem but apart from the 15k job I went for (supplying your own car as well for that) the average letting agent job pays £280 per week (chucking your own car in). Thats with knowing quite a bit about lettings, the legalities and the book keeping (rent monitoring), managing maintenece. So while ever I can get £15k a year minimum I might keep where I am. I don't physically graft as much now, the others do it.
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Harrogate district is the 2nd priciest place to live in the north [-my part of the world] after some town in cheshire, so it said in the paper the other week, an average terrace is around 250k. i guess its all relative, my mortgage is over a grand a month, and i dont live in some sort of castle.
Days like today are good for keeping up on bookwork when were off due to snow, otherwise its a pain in the arse working all day then doing it when you get home.
 
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