That £26.50/hour for weeding is insanity?

[LaBellySausage]

I'm looking for someone to come around for 3 hours/week to help with weeding the garden.

I was given a couple of names of local people who do gardening. I expected to pay somewhere between £10-12/hour, perhaps £15/hour if the person was an experienced gardener. I believe minimum wage is £8something but I don't think people can live on that.

The first person wouldn't give a quote til they came to view the garden and then was hesitant to give an hourly rate, preferring to give a rate for 'the job'. It's not a job that can be finished- it's like when I shave my legs the bastards on the other one have started growing back when I start the second. I just want a few weeds less per week. He eventually said £18/hour. I thanked him for his time but said it was a bit more than I had budgeted. The second guy said £26.50/hour!

This is simple weeding. Trowel and hoe provided. £26.50/hour is about £55,000 annually.

I worked jobs like this while in uni at minimum wage. For reference, we live in a very inexpensive part of the country- he would not be weeding Chelsea Flower Show. Both candidates were local so didn't have more than a 5/10 minute drive.

Am I being unreasonable, or is this a crazy rate?

Yes, gardeners, garden maintenance teams, weeders, pruners, lawn cutters, planters, hedge trimmers - whatever the OP or anyone wants to call them - charge £20-25 p/h here.

@LaBellySausage did uou find someone cheaper

You need a garden maintenance person not a gardener

£26.50/hour is about £55,000 annually No, it isn't.

Petrol/car expenses on the job come out of that. Something an employed person doesn't pay - it's not commuting

Insurances and assurances - again something an employee does not pay

Equipment, upkeep and replacement - you get the drift

Pension, medical insurance, advertising costs, training, office costs, phone, internet etc; Accounting and invoicing, all sorts of admin whether humans or Apps - all things and employee doesn't see.

Oncosts of an employee are anywhere between 20 and 50%, self employed people don't lose the need for any of this!

Now... think how hard your cleaner has to work to make a living!

But hey! It's only weeding!

And that doesn't take into account the fact that op is assuming that 100% of working hours are chargeable.

a) it seasonal work
b) that isn't taking into consideration time to do admin/bookings/quotes/accounts/travel between jobs/purchasing equipment and supplies/maintaining equipment/getting the van loaded and unloaded at the start and end of the day with what that day specifically needs etc etc

Where I live I have paid between £16 and £24/25 per hour.

They have overheads in terms of a van plus power tools plus cannot always work if weather against them.

It isn't as much as you might think all things considered.

Also some provide their own weedkiller etc.

Maybe the OP could get some youngish person maybe, a student to do it of £8+£10 per hour?

£20p/h here OP.

I doubt they want the work. Weeding isn't popular. I've tried to get gardeners to do weeding and edging. They won't. They may have deliberately priced themselves out.

My friend is a gardener running his own business. He reckons that he ends up with roughly half of his hourly rate as his wage. The rest goes on the unavoidable huge costs which include trailer purchase, van purchase, vehicle insurance, servicing, repair and maintenance, gardening equipment (loads of different tools, machines, items needed), fuel to power them, business insurance, petrol, loading/unloading time each day, disposal of waste, travel time between addresses, tax, NI, training courses, protective workwear, boots, a couple of holiday weeks, snow weeks preventing work, depreciation of all equipment, marketing... There are huge costs so you're being completely unrealistic.

You need a teenager to work for pocket money. They aren't trying to run a business.

Maybe the OP has solved this since it was posted in February 🤷🏻‍♀️

🧟‍♀️ Alert!

When you're self employed you don't always work 40 hours a week as you have quieter times and have to travel between jobs. You also have insurances, vehicles and equipment to pay for.
This. Plus self-employed people don't benefit from work pensions, sick pay, paid holiday etc. It is meaningless to say this rate equates to £55,000 annually.

I have to pay a mortgage, and therefore need a regular, reliable job. I don't have the luxury of not working when the weather is bad or in winter. I have to pay that mortgage. I also had to get the mortgage in the first place, which was only possible because I had a regular, salaried job. This is a really weird thing to say, and knowing some freelancers who you think are taking the piss doesn't make it any less
weird.
I am freelance and much of the time I don't have the luxury of being able to take a fortnight off in the summer, or a holiday at Easter, or a long weekend, or sometimes any weekend at all, as I would if I had a salaried job.

It's not the type of job that matters, it's their time. If they're doing weeding for you they're not doing something else that could be more lucrative, so better to just have a flat rate.

I'd expect to pay £25 an hour for a working gardener in NE Scotland. There's no real need for you to look for a gardener though - an odd-job / handyman type would be fine.

Our old house had a large and very mature garden that was a nightmare of weeds. I found a retired guy that came round and did a couple of hours a week in exchange for 4 cans of lager.

They probably don't really want the job, so quoting you that to get out of it. Weeding is back breaking work!

Weeding is back breaking manual labour.

Pour salt and boiling water on the little bar stewards. Repeat as necessary.

PS we have gardeners in UK and Spain, but I can certainly wage war on weeds, some tenacious, withthis method.