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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

This...

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?

I used the forum to find out if I was being unreasonable-I didn’t expect it to go any particular way. This was my understanding of the purpose of the forum. I have found out that it seems I am being unreasonable, so I’ve got my answer and I’m grateful for the explanations.

£40 an hour. So £200 for 5 hours work as no transport or tools were required (I provided them).

You provided all the tools for the job?

It’s like complaining that you’ve spent £35 on a steak in a restaurant when you could buy one in Aldi for a fiver.

Trades also don’t get sick pay, holidays or massive employer pension contributions.

If you had the tools, why didn't you do the jobs yourself or couldn't you be arsed.

In this instance there was no travel time as the tradesman is a friend who is a neighbour. I also provided the tools necessary which belonged to my late partner. There was no quote.

The hardest 12 years of my life was being self-employed in a trade, I now have a degree and use it. Both have very different skill sets and are not comparable at all.
Being self-employed was by far the hardest. All the responsibility is carried on your shoulders, you need knowledge of running a business, People management as well as the trade you're working in. You learn on the job, if you mess it up you lose your money, no employment rights, little backup from government for sick pay etc. Employ someone? no one teaches you or does it for you, you learn on your own, put them before you etc. Then there is the best bit....... ignorant people who have no experience of what being self-employed entails as they have never done it passing judgment like they know better.

I was pleased to get out of it and go back to being employed it's easy in comparison.

On another note, yes, cash in hand can mean they might be dodging taxes, it might not. Unless you know how they manage their books you don't know. I was very cash-heavy in my business - cash was an expensive burden sometimes at other times by just using cash, taking it and then using it to pay suppliers simply cut out trips to the bank and admin which kept costs down - taxes were still paid thought. This again often showed a high degree of ignorance in running a business, methods of payments and how tax avoidance can work or how books and taxes can be legit even when the business is run on a cash basis.

OP your degree qualifies you to teach - not to be educated in the running of a self-employed business, This is no disrespect to you but you have no knowledge of running a trade nor being self-employed, If you think you can do better leave teaching and crack on, then come back and tell if you feel the same.

I am not saying that teachers should be paid more, but I don’t think they should be paid less. It’s quite an assumption you make about my views on tradesmen.

Excellent points 👌

DH was a Part P electrician for a number of years. Never made a lot of money as he was a one man band. This was his experience:

• lots of quotes which came to nothing because the client's neighbour's cousin's cat said they would do a full rewire, for the price of a tin of whiskers.
• slow payers who thought that DH should have to wait a month or two to be paid
• clients who wanted to pay cash so as to avoid paying VAT (DH's turnover wasn't high enough to register for VAT)
• clients who expected a small, quick job and didn't want to know about the additional jobs needed for DH's work to be compliant with building regulations.

DH gave up being an electrician because of the clients. He now works in a supermarket.

Being a tradesman is not a licence to print money. Especially if you start when you are too old for an apprenticeship.

It’s almost like when people think teachers are only working when they are standing in front of a class…. What about all the other bits- marking, planning lessons, dealing with behaviour issues, playground duty, report writing, training, meetings, communicating with parents, whatever else you do.
A bit worrying you can’t see how the tradesman has a similar situation.

You are part of the reason why teachers get a bad name. My dad was a tradesman, I’m a teacher. Often tradespeople retire early as thier knees/back make them unable to work. During their working years they have to earn enough to put away a decent pension. I know I won’t teach until retirement age but at least I’ll be able to pick up another job without my body being knackered.

I mean, I assume nobody forced you to hire those people or pay those prices 🤷‍♀️

Haha at least you’re living up to the stereotype we all have of teachers: that you believe you were handpicked from the heavens and sent to levitate amongst us 😆

I am not saying that teachers should be paid more, but I don’t think they should be paid less. It’s quite an assumption you make about my views on tradesmen.

@Pomegranatecarnage

Why shouldn't you be paid less? Do you have the same outgoings in teaching as being a self-employed tradesmen?