Motivating Drywall Employees...

DrywallDog

My company pays 14.50 per hr for hanging and finishing. New employees make 10.00 per hr. Looking into options of paying employees per square foot rate...rather than an hourly rate. Any suggestions? Thanks. I WOULD LIKE ADD TO QUESTION , HERE IN UPSTATE NEW YORK ,I BID AROUND 23 CENTS PER SQ. FOOT FOR LABOR TO HANG . MY COMPANY CARRIES WORKMANS COMP, DISABILITY,AND THREE MILLION LIABILITY INSURANCE [ $5800.00/YEAR FOR JUST THE LIABILITY ]. 23 CENTS IS ABOUT AS HIGH AS I CAN GO AND STILL GET THE JOBS, THERE IS NO WAY I COULD PAY $25 /HR. , HOWEVER I WOULD AGREE WITH MUD MASTER, $7.00 PER 12 FOOT BOARD SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT FOR AN EMPLOYEE WHO IS COVERED UNDER MY INSURANCE AND GETS PAID ON THE BOOKS

Mud Master

Well most employees worth keeping will be motivated by respect, good working conditions and atmosphere, and having steady work. All my employee's are hourly, more so because of my type of business.

However, piece rate around here for an employee is around $7.00 or $8.00 a board to hang, $2.50-$3.00 per board per coat to finish and $1.50 to sand.

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andrewk

Anyone else having a problem with screw pops in blown in blanket insulation?

krobinson

Boy, I wish I could get hangers for 14.50 per hour. Around here everyone wants at least $25. So short of guys around here some "hacks" who have been hanging for less than a year are getting $25-$27 per hour.

Figure out how much footage they are putting out per hour (on average) and divide by the hourly rate. This will give you an idea of what they cost you now. Then I would give them a rate that would allow them the incentive to earn a bit more for a bit of speed. Remember to reward quality as well as quality hanging just saves taping labour.

Job we are doing now is paying the hangers .23 per foot. So your guys would have to average a 4' x 8' every 1/2 hour to make their wage. I am pretty sure anyone that can't average 64 sq. ft. an hour should find something else to do. I tell my guys if you can put on a 4' x 8' every 15 minutes @ .23 a square you are making very close to $30 per hour. Not too hard to average an 8 footer every 15 minutes.

Mud Master

All my guys are good hangers, but I gotta guy can hang between 85-90 sheets in a 8 hour day. I'm not to bad either but my speed has slowed over the years since I don't do it to much. I can still manage to get 60 or so done in a day, but nothing like I use to.

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dusty the taper

Mud dog......where are u from and where do u find these guys?

Mud Master

Mud dog??...you mean Drywall Dog or Mud Master??

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CheckmateOhio

My buddy hangs here for .22 a sq. ft. But if the mexicans keep comin in that price is gonna drop.
I do know that these drywallers here in Ohio must be gettin some kind of incentive, cause they are ALL fast as hell. Just wish I could have a crew as fast, without any screw ups.

plazaman

.55 a sq. ft to hang, tape, sand = paint ready. = NYC

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Hartsdale Remodeling Contractor
Ardsley Remodeling Contractor

In_Mexifornia

Pay em by the sheet. That'll motivate them. I've seen crews of maybe 4 guys do a 2500 square foot house in 3 days.

1KingOfDrywall

seriously though, I say piece rate is the only way to go.
I pay 1 guy the piece rate and 1 or 2 of his helpers hourly.
The hourlies come out of his budget. And I am upfront in telling them if I get a call back, they do it at their expense. I will not give them anymore work until the repairs get done. I do that to finishers and hangers.....works out for me.....If money can't motivate them....forget about it. They are worthless.

Kamala

In the NE Illinois area and NW Indiana area, most experienced tapers and hangers are making 25-30 an hour. No experienced drywaller would work for 14.50 in this area.

MJ

In_Mexifornia

but are they legal? I personally haven't seen a legal citizen hanging or taping drywal in atleast 5 years, but this is mexifornia. Maybe US citizens can still work for a living in your area.

mseneker

You would have to worry about footage hangers exceeding the 40 hour work week without paying overtime - or not.

I'm trying this out right now. Have a finisher making footage on some jobs he does and hourly on others.

Agree, money is a short term motivator. Agree you can also enforce quality standards easier if they are full time employees.

Labor productivity can be talked about for hours. I even tried bonuses for completing work under budget (gave the crew leader the bonus) but that did not work.

I have to lean towards paying all hourly and treating them like a professional. Get rid of the bad ones as soon as you find them. Hire for attitude and not skill when you can.

#1 way to keep good hourly help and pay just a little under market is to have work for them 40 hours a week.

Like reading these postings because I need help with the same issues.

Jason Whipple

Sorry to pop in late, but you might want to work on incentives with just your lead guys. Talk with them and work out a plan to increase productivity and include a plan for production bonuses. That will keep your key guy's focused on you're master plan and ultimately improve your bottom line.

By the way, if you have more than 20 employee's you need to start charging about .27 SPF to hang.

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Jason E Whipple, General Manager
Historic House Restoration, Cincinnati, Ohio
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dryrocker27

I agree, they decide how much they make. If they do not want to work, you do not need them.

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Robert

Capt-Sheetrock

I wouldn't hire anybody by the hour, I really hate baby-sitting. I hire em by the piece (when I sub out a job), its up to them if they make any money or not, I'm 54 and they have a hard time tellin me that they can't make a living by the piece, when I do, and I'm 20 or so years older than they are. Man I get tired of hearing 20 and 30 year old men whine about haveing to work hard. The guys that work with me I pay by the day, my incentive plan is this,,,, "okay guys, this is what we are going to do today,,,,,, its up to you guys, what time you want to go home,, if it takes us till midnight to get it done, then so be it, if we get it done by lunch time , we go home at lunch time." I use alot more mexicans these days than in the past, for the very reasons mentioned before, It seems that the majority of young american males think that a construction job is just a place to go and get high and fart around for awhile, I have zero tolerance for drug use on the job, I don't care what you do after you knock off, but dern if I'm gonna pay you to get high. the mexicans show up and are ready to work, they aren't taking our jobs, wer'e GIVING the jobs away. If you notice, most times someone mentions a mexican crew, its like, "they hang a thousand sheets a day". Mexicans aren't super human, they just show up early, and WORK, What a concept!!!!!!!

mseneker

I like the idea of paying a piece price for the main guy and sending him hourly people which come out of his budget. That way you can control the cost and influence the quality. You are left with a good footage guy and hourly workers for remodels, service calls and such.

"If your help is not writing the checks to pay for their help then they will not understand the value of labor".

My full time (employee) footage finisher is very high skilled. He works by the hour for some tasks. He has a pay schedule, both footage and hourly, whereby the labor burden is considered.

I also avoid putting to many hourly employees on a job so they don't have time to take those smoke breaks which cost our company $5 a cigarette.

When I was running a good hourly finish crew I discovered the footage contract crews were costing me 22.7% on average more per board foot. Some how you have to convince your full time footage guy you will not be paying the market rate paid to outside contractors. I loaded my hourly guys costs with all the labor burden and overhead expense to make the comparison so the contact crews net profit, I felt, was somewhere around 22.7%. That's pretty good on their part if they can keep guys hired and find work all the time. Taking away some of the risk for your full time footage guy has to warrant cutting the footage rate.

I still have very big issues in this area. My gross profit after cost of goods is about 26%. Appears an average should be closer to 45%. Of course, you then take out expenses from that gross profit to get your net profit. I've been able to improve net profit by controlling expenses. My lack of gross profit suggests to me that I'm paying to much for materials and still need to improve labor productivity. Perhaps I am to quick to put contractors on the job rather than demand more from my full time employees. Perhaps I pay too much for footage labor. Paying more for labor means paying more labor taxes and workmans' comp.

We are a middle bidding company and there is a need to pay a little better than the low bidders and that is the dilemma with the pay rates.

My step father started a drywall business 46 years ago. His formula is to pay hourly men less and pay the contract crews slightly higher than the market, telling them he will not negotiate adds for anything like high work or bull nose corners. They get easy jobs and hard jobs at the same price. He keeps them around by getting lots of work for them.

Hope that makes sense. Would appreciate any ideas anyone else has on ways to motive with unique pay schedules.

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email: Alliancedrywall@hotmail.com

rodeo

"....the majority of young american males think that a construction job is just a place to go and get high and fart around for awhile. ..."

" ...the mexicans show up and are ready to work, they aren't taking our jobs, wer'e GIVING the jobs away. ..."

No truer words have been said.

CrazyTaper

I agree 100%. The majority of young punks out there just want to work to get high until the next payday. They don't see construction as a career. Just short term money for pot and booze. They have little or no respect. Go figure. When I started in drywall 15 years ago I worked for $6 an hour and kept my mouth shut. I guess we were all from a different time and breed of worker.