looking for lead climber/ crew leader

thattreeguy

thattreeguy

TreeHouser
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
1,939
Location
Humboldt County CA
I'm thinking it's time to go for it and make a hard run at it this year
my elbow hurts like never before

and i want to do more sales work...or fly a boom

i'm looking for a good climber, who can prune and rig
i'd like to see isa cert tree workers on staff

cant find anyone here with certs
too many knuckle heads
the arbs ive interviewed are book guys
and scared to do truly hazardous trees

im thinking about wage and not set on anything yet
i guess a range depending on experience level
$15.00-$18.00 an hour
possibly better for a real leader

i know as an arb at bartlett i got $21.00 an hr
and i could get close to paying that,
after some time, on staff, understanding the operation
and maybe helping sell a bit more work to justify a higher wage

any ideas?
i need someone who will stay on, that i can depend on

i shoulda kept inbredjed when he was here

just was scared about keeping a guy busy all the time
still am,
but i cant do all the cutting alone anymore
a young go getter that doesnt have a big family to support would do well here

lots of recreation here
rivers, mountains, beaches,redwood forest's, and seclusion

i was thinking about running an ad in t c i 's magazine

ideas ? comments?
 
Yeah, I have a minimum of 150 bucks per job. Before i went out freelancing its was better pay than that though.
 
I think that a more detailed post online here, or elsewhere is a good start. With all the people THers know, and the info on the day to day at your operation, you would have a good start.

(I used to have elbow pain) For your elbow, what have you been doing to help it, regardless of getting a climber. Icing? massage? prescribed PT exercises and stretching? Somebody said B vitamins helps joint pain. Shouldn't hurt to take a B complex. Great hydration? Handled ascender on your climbline, foot propulsion. warm-up/ cool down. I know sometimes it was doing something around the shop that I did before getting going for the day (warmed up and stretched) that would aggravate it.


I pay my current groundie $15/ hour with zero climbing and no ISA Cert, and he'll probably get a raise soon. Roping, pruning some small ornamentals, driving pick-up or chip/ chipper. Lots of bucking, some spar falling. The latest he's been is "on time" instead of 5 minutes early.

I would imagine a CA isn't going to go for less than $18 to start as a climber if he's good, without crew lead responsibilities. $20+, maybe $22.50 with those responsibilities.

At Bartlett, was there a benefit package to go with $21/ hour? How long ago was that. IIRC, you've been running your own business for a long time.

IF you are starting out lower, and spell out the steps to getting a raise in clear increments (as in, show proficiency in your supervising your vehicle and equipment maintenence/ monitoring tasks = $0.50 bump, show proficiency in paperwork system $0.25 bump). I worked for a company in a different industry with a proficiency system like that. People advanced as quickly as they chose to learn to be proficient. A clear goal and measurable objective with a clear incentive. I was planning to do that with green groundies based Jepson's TCC skill checklist in the back of the book, but then chose experienced groundies only, and better pay. Skip the training. Less hand-holding, less work for me.

Paying more, will save your elbow more.
Good luck with the search and jump.
 
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I don't know of anybody competent who would be willing to work for that amount of money. You can't survive comfortably on that pay rate. You can get by, but it's a dead end job with no way to advance into a decent salary. The only people you will hire are people who are willing to work a dead end job.

And pay rates are a lot lower here in FL than in Cali.
 
40 hours per week times 50 weeks is 2000 hours per year for a full time job. Tree work is a long way from being a full time year around gig, so let's just throw out a number of about 1500 hours per year. This is fairly accurate for this area, based on my experience working for small owner/operator tree companies.

1500 hours times $15 per hour is $22,500 per year. In this area $30,000 per year is a survivable pay rate, but you're not going to ever get ahead at that rate. $22,500 is damn near poverty level.
 
$18.00 per is CA prevailing wage and Asplundh pays that also I believe up here. You will find it hard to get credentials for that kind of money IMO Dave. I top out at $17.50 for a grounds man that worked his way up with me. No climbing. Light saw duty.
 
Whole different gig up in Canada but you'd be lucky to get a knuckledragging brush hauler up here for that money.
 
Times are tough. Everything I buy today is half again as much as it was 6 months ago, and the income gets more scarce. My days as a working man fared much better than the working men today. I feel fortunate and sad about both.
 
Amazing how one of the richest state (was anyway :lol: ) in the union and the worlds 7th largest (was anyway :lol: ) pays some of the worst wages. They really want wage slaves here. I live in a pretty impoverished area so hard to compare to like SF or LA... But jeeez.
 
Quite probably....
And WC.

Most up here make min wage. You offer them 10.00 an hour to start and they about jump up and down.
No illegals up here though. They are moving this way however.
 
When I was 16/17 in the very early 80s and decided to start my own landscaping business, I called up a friend and former boss at a big landscape outfit where I used to work. One of the things he shared with me over lunch was that the prevailing rate for commercial lawn care was about $35 per man hour (I think I had made about $3.50-$4.50 per hour there).

Jump forward 30 years and guess what? The prevailing rate for commercial lawn care is about $28-$30 per man hour and 90% of the employees do not speak English. It's a frikkin joke.
 
Pretty much sounds like around CA too Brian.
BTW... Our 35.00 per man hour landscaper went under over a year ago. We had two.. Now none. The last one went under last year. Now they come up from the valley and have bidding wars in spanish.
 
Illegal or not, immigrant labor keeps the wages down for the working blue collar in this country. And we can't forget about how outsourcing cuts white collar jobs too. It's a conspiracy I tell ya.

Either way today it's coming to the point where a blue collar needs more that one line of work to get by. My hat's off to the young men that can make it work and raise a family in all this.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20
well comp here sucks..big time
and yeah that is cheap i guess, but we arent in the bay area
and the jobs are going for less and less, and are further away
if i could get a good groundie that would stay i'd pay 15 no prob

but find one that will stay more than 6 months
wasted time and $ on training
so i start out low till someone gets a feel for what we do bump
then 1st aid cpr cards bump
learn to maintain chipper on own and maintain saws..bump

i had a climber that was a hied gun 400 a day
if i pay a guy 200 a day he costs 300 and some change
same with groundies, 100 a day equals, 180 ish

if i could get better $ for the jobs sure i'd pay more
but ya gotta start somewhere
i hired a driver /brush humper for 12 an hr today, as long as i have 30 to 40 hrs a week

i'll see how i can raise wages and beat state fund comp

i wish i could find some good illegals
they work harder than anyone i know
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #23
well since e verify came along, it's harder to get guys social numbers in,
meaning if they aint legal it will tell you
where you used to just take the id and social card and that was it
now you have to e verify
and that cuts your illegals from getting a check
so people pay cash
they (most of them) are seriously hard ass workers

if i could find 1 that was a ctw id be in heaven

till then i guess i got to bring up the wages to draw in some talent

so i guess the average daily rate for a climber is 150 to 200 a day
a touch more for really good climbers

sound right?
 
Look for a Minnesotan that wants to go to Cali.

So hard to find good employees.

A program that encourages them to stick around for a while, like annual bonuses, though will still likely to be WC "taxable" might help with longevity of employment. A carrot on a stick. If they leave after six months, you aren't out as much.
 
Seems like the only way to get and keep good people is to pay good wages and provide a good working environment. If the biz doesn't generate income enough to allow the business owner to offer that, then he's doomed to a miserable life with lousy employees.

Which begs the question...why wouldn't a business owner bail if that's the economics of their business?
 
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