Am I paying my construction crew properly?

Question

7 years ago when I started rehabbing homes I hired  GC's who subbed out a lot of the work and I paid a premium on my rehabs. Even doing this I still had to deal with all the headaches so I decided to cut out the GC and do it myself. Over the years I have learned a lot and the last 3 years I have been running my own crews - each week I have 4-8 guys working at 2-3 properties. I find these guys through Craigslist - I put an add in the job section and I have to dig through a lot of bad guys but eventually you find a good one. A few have been with me for 2+ years and some of the other positions are revolving doors but they always get filled.

Can you review what I pay these guys and let me know if its in line? I understand pay is regional...

• I pay 2 of these guys weekly - one gets 1300/week and the other gets 1200/week. These guys are my horses. They work 40-50 hours a week and they can do everything from bathrooms to jacking up houses.
• 3 guys get 18/hour. They do all my drywall and finishing/light framing & carpentry/painting.
• 2 guys I pay 14/hour. They are the laborers that clean and demo
• The rest of the guys I take bids from

I find issues with hourly and with bids but I have a good mix of both and for the most part number seem to work. I just find myself always pinching pennys and getting on certain guys about what they did to make sure my money is being put to good use. Sometimes I wonder if I am getting such good wages that I should back off a bit.

My guys are happy for the most part but I could use a lesson on hiring/managing/ and retaining employees. I want them to be incentivised to work and I want them to feel justified with pay.

Uriah D. · Answer

@Adam Craig I hear you there! I would be doing the same! Do you feel that the more your team can do - the Moreno you do than in the past?

Adam Craig · Answer

I have 2 guys that do most of my drywall at 18/hour. They can do framing/hanging and finishing and it really has come in handy - I replace more walls and ceiling then I ever used to :)

Uriah D. · Answer

@Adam Craig

That seems pretty solid to me.

I have a PM that’s on salary (~41k)

1 hourly guy that’s a laborer 13/hr we trained him up from only being able to sweep floors to now doing our carpentry and window installs

1 hourly guy that’s highly skilled at 17/hr he can do almost anything.

We sub out a lot more than you it sounds like. I’d love to have a paint/drywall crew (maybe 2 guys) how do you like having them on your team? It seems we have drywall and paint going on at a job constantly.