To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

I hate this attitude that paying cash means no tax paid. Lots of small businesses prefer cash. I have a business bank account and other than BACS there are charges for everything. All that needs to be factored in.
What do you feel would be a decent rate?

This...

And how did you find that plumber?

My DH is in trade, granted he owns the firm but his advertising alone costs more than a teachers salary.

You get paid holidays
You get a decent pension mostly funded by employer
You get paid when you’re off sick
You don’t have to buy your own classroom, works equipment, materials
You don’t have to pay for insurance or accountants
You don’t lose money when a customer doesn’t pay you
You don’t lose money spending working time travelling and writing quotes
Need I go on.

You really can’t compare the hourly rates of self employed against a wage.

OP "Aibu?"
Most people on thread "yes"
OP "no I'm not"

Nothing infuriates tradies (and those who are married to/ have tradies in the family) than customers saying "oh this will only take 10 mins". How do you know? I also equate this to your line of work when people say "Oh teachers, such an easy job, finish at 3pm everyday, all those holidays" when you know that's fundamentally not true, and it probably really annoys when people make that assumption.

If you weren't happy with the quote you should have shopped around.

Considering you are a teacher and attended university you sound incredibly ignorant.
Skilled trades do cost money especially if the trades person is good. Training doesn't come cheap.and usually if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Why do people still not understand this.
It's no different than paying a vet 80 pounds to look at your pet for 5 mins.

They don't get paid loads more than you, you need to take into account no holiday or sick pay (break a leg as a tradesman and you're without income for weeks if not months), a private pension that needs paying, overheads, insurances, travel time, the cost of running and maintaining a work vehicle. You're already saying your hourly wage is less than £30 because of the prep work don't you see that's how their work is too?

You are paying another person to do a job you can't/ won't do or aren't qualified to do. Some jobs can only be done by a qualified person, so that person has trained, passed exams and has to comply with regulations. If you are a teacher then that's what you did.
That's the way it works.
BTW, emergency plumbers are just that, they deal with the emergency. Make it safe, then they either return to do the actual job, or you get another plumber to sort it out.

Maybe learn to do it yourself but then you would have to buy some tools wouldn't you

Absolutely what other pp are saying.
You're also paying for the fact that when they're on holiday, their income is ZERO. They don't get paid leave be that for holidays, sickness etc.

You mentioned how your hourly rate for tutoring is less because you have to prepare, same for tradesman. For some reason when discussing your work you can reduce your 'actual' hourly rate to allow for time spent around the job doing other things, but tradesman it's just the straight hours they are there.

Presumably you called them and explained the job and they quoted. They ordered and picked up materials. They then travelled to your home to do the actual work. All of that time is time they couldn't spend doing another job, so the complexity of the job itself isn't really here nor there. Don't forget the tools they use they've bought themselves and they would have been expensive.

Quoting takes a lot of time and not everyone who gets a quote goes ahead. So they have to charge high enough for their direct work to cover all the unpaid parts. They also get no paid holiday or sick leave, unlike a teacher. Hurt your arm? No money for you, tradie.

I think we are developing an issue where everyone went to uni sold the promise that's the route to earning well, there's a lack of trades so prices can be high, and people with no practical skills resent the money people without degrees but with skills can earn.

You're not paying for the hour, you're paying for the years of training and experience that mean it only takes an hour.

For the tools that make it a simple job.

For the admin and travel.

Else you'd have done it yourself with your shed full of tools, right?

My late brother was the same. He had been an aerospace engineer but retrained and founded a small building company. He had two degrees including an Oxford MBA.
One of his greatest legacies was training all the kids in the family. His daughters and my son were his labourers each summer. My DS is currently doing our bathrooms and will then start on his own house. My DS works in Westminster but would always have his building skills to fall back on.

They are all jobs you could do yourself, why would you pay someone to change a light pull string

There is another thread at the moment moaning that the minimum wage is too low but on this one people moaning that trades prices are too high, you can't have everything

Doesn't matter whether you pay cash or not - request an invoice. Cash is legal payment, the invoice means you can demonstrate you paid for work.

How many quotes did you get, I find they vary wildly and it's not always the case of trades undercutting each other or the most expensive being the best.

The venue was in a city centre where even if he’d been able to park he’d have been charged £12.50 a day to use his work van so I ferried him backwards and forwards.

Good grief OP !

All the jobs you described can be done, by yourself, by googling and watching videos !

It's not rocket science, it's DIY ffs !

That’s why you get a couple of quotes. Although the price would likely be similar.

You’re not just paying for the time. You’ve got insurance, parts/consumables, vehicle expenses, vehicle insurance, tax etc..

On top of that, you’re paying for their experience so it won’t fall apart afterwards and convenience of not doing it yourself.

My tradesman husband spent three weeks before Xmas helping out a friend of a friend at ridiculously low rates because he felt sorry for her. Needless to say he still hasn’t been paid and additionally out of pocket for materials he provided.

Why didnt you just do it yourself! Didnt know how / have the tools, knowledge or experience? Ahh..
Should have spent 4 years training to become an Electrician, upto another 4 years to be a plumber, practiced for months/years to get really good at tiling on a day rate of £2-£350 then.
Not even mentioning the costs of tools/van etc

Maybe the grandiose "I spent 5 years at University" doesnt read so well next to the list of relatively simple jobs you make sound so easy but the reality is if you couldnt do any of them, so you had to have someone else to do them for you, and they obviously wanted paid.

Whether you think they have been to university or not 🙄