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?

[quote LaBellySausage]@Junobug I view it in the same way as a cleaning job which people have to travel to. My cleaner charges £13/hour. The skill level is no different and the labour is of a similar intensity.[/quote]
Is the skill level the same? The knowledge level certainly isn’t the same. I could clean a house (unwillingly mind ) but let loose in a garden I could really do some damage as I have no knowledge of plants, which shoots are weeds and which are not, don’t know how to prune etc etc. I guess you’re asking people who do have those skills and are not willing to lower their rate for a job even though it is not challenging. The £26 an hour is a lot but the £18ph sounds like an unsurprising hourly rate for a skilled gardener.

I agree with others, you’re asking in the wrong place. I’d probably put a request on a local community FB page or similar and see if someone is interested in a “a simple weeding job - £10ph, such and such hours per week”. I think a lot of people would bite your hand off at the moment.

[quote LaBellySausage]@VinylDetective I get about £9.50 per hour for being an FY1 doctor in the North East. I would get more in London yes.[/quote]
I quite deliberately didn’t say London. You’re paid the same as someone doing the same job in a more expensive part of the country so location is irrelevant, no?

@CandyLeBonBon yes but the minimum wage for a young person aged eg. 20 is £6.45. I said £10 for someone young and inexperienced, £15 for older with experience. When I worked min wage jobs in uni I still had to pay to get there. You don't get free travel for working minimum wage.

It still remains a huge amount of money per hour, twice what a junior doctor, teacher, social worker would earn. Something a bit wrong when a bit of weeding is worth twice the value of someone saving a life.

You need to look for an old boy who wants pocket money to supplement pension and get away from wife. Keep looking.

@Panpig

You could always try and find someone who is training to become a gardener, and give them a nice reference, as well as minimum wage (and maybe a cup of tea!) I'm training to be a gardener, and often the difficulty getting your first proper position is not having a reference, so if they were reliable and did a good job the reference would be really valuable. Maybe you have a local college who have horticultural students you could approach

That could be a great idea, then you'd get people with some plant knowledge of what are weeds and what are the plants to want to keep.

[quote LaBellySausage]@CandyLeBonBon yes but the minimum wage for a young person aged eg. 20 is £6.45. I said £10 for someone young and inexperienced, £15 for older with experience. When I worked min wage jobs in uni I still had to pay to get there. You don't get free travel for working minimum wage.[/quote]
You are being quite obtuse. I suggest you roll your sleeves up and weed your own garden if that's too expensive. I landscaped my entire garden myself when my eldest was 6 months old. Save yourself a packet and learn some new skills into the bargain. Win win

I have someone coming for one hour a fortnight, I'm paying £22.00 for that hour. He does a lot in that hour. Are you sure you need 3 hours every week?

@Vinyl I don't accept that location is irrelevant. It costs more to live in Berkshire than here. Just because the NHS pays fuck all for all areas doesn't make that right.

I am in a fortunate position that I don't have to rely on my very low NHS salary but others aren't as fortunate. Of course it makes a difference if you are saving to buy a £300k house or a £150k house. It's silly to suggest otherwise.

@Loshad

It still remains a huge amount of money per hour, twice what a junior doctor, teacher, social worker would earn. Something a bit wrong when a bit of weeding is worth twice the value of someone saving a life.

If you were self employed, how would you set your hourly rate?

@Psychobobble

If you only want weeding in a generally well maintained garden you don't want an experienced gardener though, do you? That's like hiring an electrician to change your lightbulbs. You need a garden maintenance or odd jobber I think.

But you do need an experienced gardener. What if they pulled up actual plants rather than weeds - expensive!

I actually tried to employ a freelancer to work 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. It was the sort of job anyone could do after a day or two's training. I got someone quoting £22.50 per hour PLUS £5 travel (and one of them only lived 3 miles away!). That would have been over £10,000 per year for 2 hours a day work. Thats over £55,000 per year for no overtime and little responsibility plus your travel to work costs paid. Insurance was about £300 per year. None of them had any interest in a regular 2 hours per day (or more) job for a lower hourly rate.

It just wasn't feasible. Not all freelancers want to work hard, some of them definately want to have a lot of time off but do a few jobs with a high hourly rate. I can't think that would lead to anything but poverty as there can only be a very few willing and able to pay that much.

@Loshad

It still remains a huge amount of money per hour, twice what a junior doctor, teacher, social worker would earn. Something a bit wrong when a bit of weeding is worth twice the value of someone saving a life.

It's. It though. You get to pocket Les than half that. Why is that so hard to understand?

@GreenlandTheMovie

CandyLeBonBon You have job security, your Ni paid, employment rights, training, equipment, insurances, maternity/smp and taxes taken into account with your employed position. If you are self employed, all of that is factored into your hourly rate which is why it's higher than nmw.

Its a choice though, to work as self employed. I work in a job where a degree is essential and core hours and 5 days per week are required. I'm quite well paid but my hourly rate isn't £26.50 per hour. I'd quite like to work less hours and be self employed for £25 an hour or so, but the work isn't there. I also quite like the idea of charging employers for my travel costs and time to get to work, but thats not the reality of the working world for most people.

I can only think that all these people in semi skilled self employed work must not get that many hours and must rely on someone with an employed wage covering the slack. Outside London and the south east and a few footballers' wives territories, there just aren't enough people stupid willing enough to pay that for a gardener. Different of course if they have a Georgian walled garden with a range of exotic plants. But they will have really skilled, reliable full time gardeners, won't they?

What makes you think a Gardener is any less skilled than a TA?

Well, the second requires qualifications as a essential, with gardeners its optional. And of course, in Britain, the vast majority of gardeners are male, and a lot of people here seem willing to assume that alone entitles them to be vastly remunerated for semi skilled work.

All jobs are a choice, you chose yours. You could have a career change and become a gardener! Why not, if its so easy and so well paid?

@GreenlandTheMovie

I actually tried to employ a freelancer to work 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. It was the sort of job anyone could do after a day or two's training. I got someone quoting £22.50 per hour PLUS £5 travel (and one of them only lived 3 miles away!). That would have been over £10,000 per year for 2 hours a day work. Thats over £55,000 per year for no overtime and little responsibility plus your travel to work costs paid. Insurance was about £300 per year. None of them had any interest in a regular 2 hours per day (or more) job for a lower hourly rate.

It just wasn't feasible. Not all freelancers want to work hard, some of them definately want to have a lot of time off but do a few jobs with a high hourly rate. I can't think that would lead to anything but poverty as there can only be a very few willing and able to pay that much.

Blimey I'd bite your arm off!!

I bet the price went up when you came out with the words candidate or similar talk.
You do sound posh.

I would @EggscellentEggplant but I have chronic arthritis and already have a successful self employed career - but thanks for thinking of me

Blimey. Is that the going rate? I think that's too much.

@LaBellySausage

I wish people would stop saying I wanted to payminimum wage. Minimum wage is £8.72 if you are over 25. I was expecting to pay between £10 and 15 per hour. £10 for someone young with little or no experience, £15 for someone a bit older who has seen a nettle before.

Neither of those are minimum wage.

Nmw is usually for employed unskilled workers

Not a professional

Who has probably trained /done courses /pays for pli

I don’t know anyone who is self employed abs runs own business who charges nmw

@chomalungma

Well, the second requires qualifications as a essential, with gardeners its optional. And of course, in Britain, the vast majority of gardeners are male, and a lot of people here seem willing to assume that alone entitles them to be vastly remunerated for semi skilled work

So become a gardener then and earn more money?
Or undercut them?

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.

Do you really not know this stuff?

@CandyLeBonBon I'm not lazy- it's 4 acres and I made the whole thing myself with a spade and a lot of cuttings and propagation. I'm very proud of it. I will still do a huge amount of it myself I just need help with weeds. I work part time on top of having a baby and I was unwell last pregnancy. I'm not sitting around fanning myself and eating peeled grapes shouting down orders to the labourers from my battlements.

I asked if £26.50 was unreasonable and it would seem 2/3rds of voters think so. Lots also clearly think it is reasonable.

Slightly off topic but I believe good soil health reduces weeds. I encourage my customers to put a mulch of shredded manure on their gardens each year. Once the soil condition improves you might be able to just hoe over the beds every couple of weeks rather than intensive weeding

[quote LaBellySausage]@CandyLeBonBon I'm not lazy- it's 4 acres and I made the whole thing myself with a spade and a lot of cuttings and propagation. I'm very proud of it. I will still do a huge amount of it myself I just need help with weeds. I work part time on top of having a baby and I was unwell last pregnancy. I'm not sitting around fanning myself and eating peeled grapes shouting down orders to the labourers from my battlements.

I asked if £26.50 was unreasonable and it would seem 2/3rds of voters think so. Lots also clearly think it is reasonable.[/quote]
Where did I call you lazy?

@Blondeshavemorefun but I'm not intending to pay nmw. I said £10 for young/inexperienced. £15 for more experienced and older. Why is everyone banging on about nmw- I have never suggested nmw.

I assume not but do you have a street or neighbourhood WhatsApp group, I am on one where these kind of requests are often out there and if there was a teenager looking for some income their parent would ask them? I have known people get teenage babysitters this way.