Gas And Employees

genecarp

Has anyone else given extra $ to your employees for gas? we travel at most 35 minutes, most of our stuff is closer, the gas is really impacting them, so i now pay for travel time, anyone else make changes?

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George Z

Regular gas allowance, paid every two weeks to full timers.
$25 after 3 months, $40.00 after a year

50% payment of transit pass, for painters using transit.
75% after one year.

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Mike Finley

What do you mean you pay for travel time? Do you pay for travel time between jobs after the day has started and they have been on the job, or do you pay for travel time from home to the job site and from the job site to home?

SelfContract

Time for goofing around, snooping around, & stopping for snacks, cofee, etc. too? Traffic/cop stops anyone?

pfelber

I've paid guys one-way travel time. So their time clock starts when we leave from the shop. When I first started out way back when my first boss did the same.

Phil
http://www.roofing7.com/

genecarp

both, i have always paid for between job travel, now i have included one way travel time to the job.

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Forry

My guys first stop is the shop, and they use my truck, so they get paid starting at the shop, until they return at the end of the day. They subtract lunch time, and they don't much like to take breaks.

nap

if they are to report to the shop, per your direction, they MUST be paid travel time to the job. Once an employee is "on the job" whether it be the shop or jobsite, they are on the clock. If you require a return to the shop, they get paid for that too.

Double-A

Must this, have to that...

What agreements in accordance with the DoL do YOU have with your employees? They can be paid in a myriad of ways, not the least of which is via salary based on annual production rates with bonuses based on completion status and profit.

Check with your attorney. We have recently bumped pay across the board due to the increased costs of fuel and food and will again before the end of summer I'm sure. I don't like to pay anything for 'gas' money, because it breeds the notion that gas is a more valuable commodity than my employees are. It is not. Its a cost of doing business and I treat it like overhead just as every true business should.

If you have to have it to do the job, its a fee, labor, material or a supply. Simple as that. Fuel falls under the 'supply' banner and therefore is treated as such. Don't confuse your business with a bumper sticker from the 1970's and don't let your employees drive the Magic Bus, either.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Mike Finley

Unless things are vastly different in your state, you have to pay them from starting from the shop.

Damn, that is very generous of you.

Not sure if I'm reading that correctly, but construction workers don't qualify too easily as excempt employees, so salary isn't an option.

nap

You don;t have to be exempt to be able to be paid salary. Being exempt and on salary means you do not get overtime. Being non-exempt and on salary means you get overtime.

George Z

Tough to find and retain good employees, right?

What do you think sounds better:

a $0.50 cents per hour raise,
or a $40.00 per paycheque travel allowance across the board.
It is not job related, so it is really a raise.
This was the most celebrated $0.50 cents raise we have given out!

Finding and keeping employees starts with marketing to them.

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RPortinga

We've got a college kid starting with us for labor for the summer... been debating on the fairest way to cover him.

We have one job goin on right now that's bout two hours away... he's riding with someone else, so we are likely going to pay for that drive time. It's not his issue that the job is so far away.

For local stuff, we're looking at a milage option. Say it's a 30 mile round trip for him to go from home to the office, but it's 40 for him to get to the job site for that day... we'll pay him 10miles worth of milage.

But it may be worth checking with employees.. if you don't reimburse them, they can claim that milage as a tax deduction I believe... and some may prefer that depending on their situation.

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Rob Portinga - Bauer Bros. Construction, Inc.
Design/Build - General Contractor - Construction Management

genecarp

40 per paycheck sounds better!

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RCPainting

My accountant told me not to pay gas allowance on payroll, you both pay taxes on it. I give him a gas credit card and he drives a company vehicle, I use it as an expense deduction.

Cdat

Ditto...

MakDeco

I like that idea as well but as with most small company my guys drive the site in there own vehicles.. I was thinking of giving them a gas card (gift card type not credit) based on where the job is for the week and how far they have to drive.

I didn't like the idea either of making some sort of payroll deduction or bonus etc. I figured i would try and make it a expense on my part.

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MAK Deco

Mike Finley

Yes, then what exactly would be the point? You are still paying them by the hour 40 hours base and time & 1/2 for every hour over their "salary". What's the difference?

nap

Actually, no, you are not, at least as if they were hourly. I didn't make the rules, I am merely the messenger here. Did you go to the link and see how OT is figured on a salary paid employee?

appaently there are benefits to salary an employee, even being non-exempt. There are enough situatiuons where it is a pay method so somebody has founf them.

Hardly Working

When I started I was aware that I get paid from the time I hit the jobsite or leave the office. As a norm if I was told to come to the office first then go out to the site I get paid mileage from the office to the site. If I start at one job and then told to go to another one I get paid mileage from one to the next + my hourly rate. Recently all employees at are company got a 6% raise for cost of living. When I worked in the office world (Gen. Mang. Blueprint Co.) they didn't pay me to drive to work. Thats pretty much what I expected when I started in construction. Want me to run all over picking up materials in my truck then yes I get paid mileage. If your not getting paid mileage then start a mileage log and take it off from your taxes at the end of the year. If I'm using my rig to P/U stuff and travel job to job and your not paying mileage I must be nuts to stay with that guy. Price of gas these days a guy will go broke real quick. Two guys on our crew gave up their trucks to swap out with the wifes car (Saturn & Toyota). They figure their saving $140 a month in fuel. Me I still drive my truck.