Determining Wages & Rates for your Employees

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Determining Wages & Rates for your Employees

By Cleaning Peers & Advisors

Part 1 of a series

Are your employees paid a flat rate per job or an hourly rate?

Rick:

We now pay by the hour. We have done it both ways in the past but had difficulties when adding on to a cleaner’s workload for one or two nights when being paid a flat rate. They felt that they were not being compensated for the extra time even though it was part of the general cleaning program.

Terry:

Most of our employees our hourly with an exception for the salaried supervisors / managers. We stopped paying a flat rate per job as the cleaner’s would rush to finish early in an attempt to drive up the hourly rate. Many times skipping or missing details on the job. This resulted in complaints causing us to end what should have been an equally profitable system for both employee and employer.

How do you determine your starting wage?

Rick:

Because of the competitiveness for employees with other industries and the competitiveness within our own industry on bidding jobs we have found that we determine our starting wage on a job by job basis. We set the rate fairly while allowing ourselves to make a small profit. There is always the starting rate and the rate they can attain by consistently getting the job done within the budgeted time without complaints. Most new hires attain an increase within 30-45 days from their starting date.

Terry:

Our starting wages are based not just on the job and budget but also the cleaner’s work history. We look at their previous cleaning experience and determine if we need to pay a higher scale in order to secure this person as an employee. Good employees that demonstrate a desire for success can also get increases.

CleanPeers would like to thank the following people for participating in this interview and providing the above information.

Rick VanderKoy

Secure Clean Building Services, Inc.

Marengo, IL

815-568-1410

Terry Zastrow

Zastrow Building Maintenance Company, Inc.

Watertown, WI

(920) 262-9471