To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

[Pomegranatecarnage]

Just that really. I have had a few repairs needed and some DIY recently. I paid £130 to have a leaking toilet valve fixed (it took 45 mins), £75 to have a pull string light replaced (10 mins) and then £270 labour for 6 hours work putting up some shelves, a small area of tiling and replacing skirting boards. He arrived at 10, left at 12 for lunch, back at 2 then was finished by 4pm. I can’t help wondering why I spent 5 years at University to get paid far less per hour as a teacher.

Go and retrain as a tradie then....

You get paid for your skill, they get paid for theirs.
Retrain then .
What's your hourly pay?

They're perfectly reasonable rates.

Why on earth did you pay to have a pull string light replaced?
Or even any of the rest of the work you had done. You paid more because you didn't want to do it yourself. If you wanted it done for cheap, then get a mate to do it. Or do it yourself.

You are paying for their skills

nothing stopping you doing the tasks yourself ... or is there... 🤔

also, like most of us, the skills will vary in price depending on market conditions

Seems like the going rates to me.

I think many children would be far better off training for these jobs rather than going to university.

It's not just "10 minutes" anyway is it?
There's Admin time in arranging and booking the job in as well as invoicing. Then the travel time to the job.
Then insurance for the business, for the tools, for the work vehicle, professional insurance...
Then parts and upkeep of tools (which wear out a lot faster than you expect. A drill, for example, needs new bits fairly often)

I think we are entering an era when university as a vocational choice is going to start to be questionable unless you are doing very specific professional programs, or intend to be an academic.

I will not be surprised that within the next 40 years we see many jobs will start to consider more carefully whether they really need to ask for university degrees for their employees, or can train them in other ways, as they were in the past.

You paid £75 to have a pull string light replaced. They saw you coming. Fucking hell.

You could have gone on YouTube for guides for the smaller jobs.

That’s the supply and demand economy for you.

That’s a great question OP, make sure you remember this before beating the drum that the only path to success is university

This.
You're paying for a personal repair service within your home. There is a lot that comes before and after from your few hours work. My DH is a tradesman and you have no idea how much of that payment disappears to pay off everything needed. He needs some profit from that job.

That’s not their hourly pay though is it. Comparing it to your teacher’s salary is completely ridiculous.

The tradesman is paying for materials, van, fuel, tools, insurance, advertising, accounting, invoicing, office tasks, professional body registration and all the other overheads. Plus has significant unpaid time like travel, quoting for jobs never taken up, collecting supplies and the like. And then there’s just the value of their skill and knowledge. They don’t get your nice pension either…

You forgot about losses when people don’t pay for all that work that they could have done a lot cheaper themselves

I can’t help wondering why I spent 5 years at University to get paid far less per hour as a teacher.

I feel this comes across as you looking down on tradesmen and vocational careers.

If you don’t want to pay someone who hasn’t been to university to fix things in your house, then go on YouTube and learn how to do it yourself. I assume you’ll find it easy being university educated and all.

🙄

They take the piss because they can get away with it, because there's not enough of them.

I agree with you but I think you will be torn to shreds here!

It sounds like you don’t understand hourly rates and overheads. Trades overheads are:

• booking in work
• travelling
• insurance
• business admin
• tools
• time spent buying supplies…

if a tradesperson worked for a bigger company as an employee they’d be charged out at a day rate of £150 - £400 depending on what they did and where. And their take home pay would probably be a third of that.

It’s about the type of work they’re doing which includes LOADS of faffing around with customers and travelling hence a high hourly rate. They might have days where they charge just for an hour or two of work and some days where they can charge a lot more.

Actually £270 for 6 hours DIY work is a rip off, I take my previous comment back 😂. You’ve been had there sorry!

this hasn’t quite gone the way op expected has it…

Call out plus hourly labour and materials … it’s not cheap but it’s not that bad

@MillyGoat I was thinking the same thing

£270 is not a rip off. That is not a builder's clean profit ffs. Not sure why people don't understand this.

This.

Self-employed people have a great deal of overhead. It's not just the hours they are in your home.

Not to mention supply and demand. If it's all so easy, why don't people like you DIY, eh??

Thank you for enumerating this.

Snobs who think it should be cheap need to get a grip.