2023 Contract Climber Rates?

I suppose that's the conundrum isn't it. "Good on you" for making as much as you can ONLY of course if you're not the business owner. Then it's just greedy isn't it. Maybe there is a middle ground that both should abide by.

I hope the business is making money too, if not then it’s not sustainable for anyone, contractor included. You are assuming the owner is getting taken for a ride. I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of reasons why this guy could be making this much because I don’t know, but I can think of a bunch of examples that are plausible.
 
I will say @Chief , I suspect that we do have a big pool to choose from around here, as I know lots of folks that wanna come live in CA and have never met anyone who said they were moving to Minnesota. I don't personally know anyone who's ever lived there, but when I looked at houses in St. Paul, they didn't strike me as cheap, so make sure you get yours
Median house cost St Paul MN 284k. Median house cost Boulder CO 950k. Median house cost for CA 600k. National average 320k.
 
Your market is very different obviously. Most full day crane jobs here are in the 4k to 6k range gross. Sure you can bid higher but you will not stay busy consistantly. I've never seen 10k days doing crane work and I have done so much of it I own two cranes and a 28 ton boom truck.

From a percent viewpoint we are pretty close. Our good contract guys are $500 to $750 here and our gross is about half you guys market. Ive never seen a contract climber with workmans comp here. We are one of three tree services in our area with it. There were 112 in the phone book last time I looked. It’s not required in our state until a business has 5 or more employees. This definitely drives down our market. Also zero professional requirements doesnt help.
Interesting and understandable to see how much it varies depending on the market of the area. Having worked in an area where the median home price is over 3 million and working on crane jobs in the 10-20K range.
 
At McD's where I live you can start at 22/hr. Most tree job listings are lower than that for entry level, plenty of climbing jobs in the 20 some dollar range. I saw a PHC job listed recently that started at 16/hr.
 
I would apply the term wage slavery to every job I had as a wage working employee. I was never owning any part of the means of production or gaining any equity in the business and it was not worker managed. The business setups that I worked in are exploitative to workers, in my opinion. I don't necessarily blame the owners but I think it's a flawed system. That's why I started working for myself.
 
We're mostly all hostages of capitalism. Most at the top can't fix the problem as individuals, and those below them have even less power to wield. You can choose not to participate, but that's equally exhausting and still degrading.

Humans can change if they want to but humanity doesn't change course unless it hits an obstacle.
 
I would apply the term wage slavery to every job I had as a wage working employee. I was never owning any part of the means of production or gaining any equity in the business and it was not worker managed. The business setups that I worked in are exploitative to workers, in my opinion. I don't necessarily blame the owners but I think it's a flawed system. That's why I started working for myself.
How long were you enslaved at these businesses? I worked some shitty jobs to make some money but I didn't have any experience. Goty more experience, more responsibility, more money. Mostly was in it for the experience, which felt like equity to me when i used it to start my own business....... I never made more than 15 an hour as an hourly climber. Never would have considered it slavery. Just happy to be working with some cool guys and learning alot. A lot has changed even in ythe last decade
 
How long were you enslaved at these businesses? I worked some shitty jobs to make some money but I didn't have any experience. Goty more experience, more responsibility, more money. Mostly was in it for the experience, which felt like equity to me when i used it to start my own business....... I never made more than 15 an hour as an hourly climber. Never would have considered it slavery. Just happy to be working with some cool guys and learning alot. A lot has changed even in ythe last decade
I have a friend who I kind of encouraged to get into trees, he really fell in love with the work. I offered to get him a job with several different businesses in town, he told me he would never take a job. Because I was imbued with the slavish mindset I was offended, I thought he should have to pay his dues like I did. 7 years later and he's got a successful tree business and is a great tree man, I'm happy for him.
 

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