How much do you think he brings in per hour versus how much he puts out? There is no absolute ceiling. If he can make you $300 profit, you wouldn't think twice about paying him $100/ hour. Very arbitrary numbers, of course, to make a point. $20-25 into his Gross Pay...remember how you pay him 25, costs 40. He earns 25/ hour, gets $21.63 net, or whatever. Its the $21.63 that pays his rent, and the $40 that comes out of your pocket. The other numbers are just a base number, IMO.
If he is not one to delegate, or record hours, high level blah blah blah, and you have a 4 man crew, what are his best strengths, and what can be done to use those to his best ability, along with removing challenging tasks? What about an actual punch in/ punch out time clock for everyone? My old boss used one, probably a hand me down from a family business. Don't know if its useful. We had to hand write in things, like lunch break, or if someone arrived directly at the jobsite from home. Cross referencing others' time cards helps everyone fill in the blanks. Or maybe a timeclock app on your phone????
Is there a guy that's better with the daily checklist/ inspection/ prep (whatever you do in your morning), while Brawny does brawny stuff? Play to his strengths. Is he really good on maintenance of anything in particular (saws, chipper, trucks?) or is he just brawn?
My ex-employee Harvey was just brawn. Safe enough. He grunted a lot... I couldn't of taken using the Sena comms with him. Haha.
Do you think he has a learning disability or something else going on that he doesn't do the adult stuff well?