local detail shop hire me, a 16 year old?

Smoker said:
Thats all the more reason to give a kid that WANTS to work a break!



I understand where your coming from, I served my apprenticeship alongside 60 or so other kids, there being a few that thought it was all a big joke, never turned up for classes and really didnt give a crap about what they were sposed to be learning.



Of course they all got fired or quit, but O how I bet theyre regretting it all these years later, throwing away the chance to learn a trade and be set for life.



On the other hand don't tar all kids with the same brush, for every kid that doesn't want to work theres 2 'small businessmen' who want folks to work for nothing and keep all the profit.

A friend of mine always moans when his boss keeps the $20k 'Branch Performance Bonus' (thats sposed to be shared) all to himself.



I found out the same thing when one contract company actually tried to hire me on $8 an hour less than the Blue Book** rate for my trade.

Was I wrong to laugh in his face ?



Bear that in mind .....









**Blue Book is the Industry Set Minimum Wage for various trades in the UK (e.g. My trade is around $22/hr).

Any company worth its salt will START hiring at this wage and it should only go up depending on experience.

The mentioned company specialised in using 'Improvers' - basically non-accredited people who learned 'on the job'.

Needless to say their work, being in such a technical field was wildly sub-standard. [/QUOTE



I think you just basically said what I have been trying to get across. While I agree that an employee should (and at my company does) get paid exactly what they are worth, do you not find it ludacris to draw an analogy between a skilled tradesman who has completed apprenticeship training and school and a 16 year old? That is the point I am trying to make. If you can back it up than you can pick and choose who you work for and get a say in how much you should be paid. I hope this kid is as good as he says but I have my doubts. I get a hundred kids a month who tell me how great they are and yet can't even wash a car properly. Like I said in my first post, there is a profound difference between a clean up that looks good today and a clean up that looks good today and will not adversly affect the vehicle in any way in the future. I understand that this is an enthusiast site geared more towards DIY types and treat it as such.
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My point was if a company will try and underpay a skilled tradesman like me, they wont bat an eye at underpaying a possibly talented young kid who doesnt know any better.



My biggest bugbear is so called 'small businesses' that STAY small thru the greed of the owner.



All he can see is the $$$ rolling in on the backs of his overworked employees who are only trying to put food on the table.



Yes of course you also get lazy slackers who watch the clock, but to me they have no place in a professional dynamic business thats going to get somewhere.

The boss is just too busy playing golf to have a grip on whats going on.



As for 'unskilled workers' - its called turnover, Walmart (now the biggest company in the world) has something like a 60% staff turnover.

The difference is they pick out the shining stars and look after them, pay them well and expect them to perform.

Too many businesses keep the stars on the shop floor because they do 'too good a job' to promote them.



Short sightedness .......



I hope its a little clearer now.



If it was up to me I would give the kid a go.
 
Smoker said:
My point was if a company will try and underpay a skilled tradesman like me, they wont bat an eye at underpaying a possibly talented young kid who doesnt know any better.
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I know exactly what you are saying. I once worked at a body shop that charged $55/hr and paid $8/hr. I did about 3-4 jobs a day(small dent and large scratch repair) at an average of 3 hours shop rate per job. Raises were pretty much out of the question as well.
 
Try being a paralegal. We get billed out at $90 - $120 bucks an hour and get paid less than $20. Someone makes an awful lot of money off the backs of their employees.



You know, if I hired someone to do washes for me then I'd probably only pay minimum wage too since its not a very technical job. Besides, if they do a good job then I'd let them keep any tips they make. Unless they are using a machine or something that requires some real skill then I don't see why they should make more than min wage for a job that any upright biped could do. When Smoker and I are doing these cars onsite we are barely making twice minimum wage and we are the ones who bear the responsibility for the equipment, supplies, and lining up the jobs. Someone we hired would definitely not make more than minimum wage.
 
Say what you will, if the kid is really getting the money he says he is, then I say the market has decided in his favor.



The way I see it, he didn't like what he was offered and had the cojones to go out and make his own way. What can anyone possibly say is wrong about that? As I recall, Bill Gates started out similarly. You may think that laughing at being offered a low paying position was arrogant,and perhaps it is, but what I see is that he didn't go home and cry about how unfair life is, but instead went out and took on the responsibility and is making some nice change for himself.



I don't believe there is a rule written that we have to be satisfied to work for crummy wages ($6/hr is pretty darn crummy considering you could make more money flipping burgers) under the guise of "learning the trade, regardless of age. According to a survey I saw in Professional Car Care Online, the average wage is on $9.55. Doesn't sound like a worthwhile bet for a kid to "apprentice and attend training school" so he can look forward to making $10/hr.



Sounds to me like he doesn't have to pick and choose who to work for, because he figured out the game and understands that he can command a higher premium for his services marketing himself directly to the consumer.



If the kid can do a good job and build a solid and loyal clientele. then I would say that the market has decided he is plenty professional. If his work damages his client's vehicles or isn't up to par, then the client base will abandon him for someone who will do a good job. If he is really getting a couple hundred dollars per car for a detail, he must be doing a decent job. If not, he will fail.



Let the market decide.



I wish I had done the same at 16.
 
What's a person worth? What they're willing to accept in payment for work. Sam (I'm assuming that's his real name) thought he was worth more than $6/hr. If what he says is true - he's damn right, and the guy that wouldn't hire him for more lost out. I think Sam learned more about the value of hard work and patience in his venture than he would have at $6/hr working for somebody else. He's gonna do just fine in life if keeps those lessons close to his heart. Wish I knew those lessons at 16...
 
Nagchampa said:
I know exactly what you are saying. I once worked at a body shop that charged $55/hr and paid $8/hr. I did about 3-4 jobs a day(small dent and large scratch repair) at an average of 3 hours shop rate per job. Raises were pretty much out of the question as well.
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If your boss did that that's BS. Employees should be paid how much they earn and if your work was good enough that your boss could charge $55 p/hr for it then you definitely should have gotten more. My typical employee takes home 33% of what they earn for the shop.
 
ShineShop said:
....................... and if your work was good enough that your boss could charge $55 p/hr for it then you definitely should have gotten more. My typical employee takes home 33% of what they earn for the shop.
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$55/hour was the shop labour rate. That was what the client paid regardless. I would usually do a typical job in 2 hours and the client was charged the book rate of 3 hours for the labour. The shop would get $165 just for labour and pay me $16 out of it! A typical day for me I would get about 9.5 - 12 hours worth of work orders done by the end of the day. There were 2 other guys doing the same job. That really helped me realize that I was working on the wrong side of the business. Needless to say I didn't stay very long for those peanuts.



The funny thing was my boss would drive an old beater and dress really grubby and wear cheap suits sometimes. He always acted like he was broke even though he was quite busy.
 
Uh oh ..........



ejecting.jpg
 
waxhouse said:
If i hired somebody to washes i'll just pay them minimun wage..... wow.... you sure going to get a superstar!!!!!!
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If they wanted the experience and they were 16 and could only work a few hours a week then why should they make more than that? At least they are getting paid by the hour and not by the job. If I charge $20 to do a wash and vacuum and it turns out to be a beast of a job and takes me an hour and a half total between bringing the car around, getting the car cleaned out, doing the job, collecting the money, and putting the car back on top of having to pay for the supplies and setting up the job in the first place, then I'm not even making minimum wage at that point. At least the kid made an easy 10 bucks for his time and I had to eat the rest. Its not a job that warrants more than min wage.



In all honesty, if we hired a young fella to come help us out we would probably pay him X number of dollars per car instead of an hourly wage. That would motivate him to work faster and not milk an hourly job. If he is making $7 per car then he is going to try and bust out his part of the work as quickly as possible so that he is making more money per hour than if he takes all day. Its the way we get paid and it motivates us so why not pass the motivation along?
 
Jngrbrdman said:
If they wanted the experience and they were 16 and could only work a few hours a week then why should they make more than that? At least they are getting paid by the hour and not by the job. If I charge $20 to do a wash and vacuum and it turns out to be a beast of a job and takes me an hour and a half total between bringing the car around, getting the car cleaned out, doing the job, collecting the money, and putting the car back on top of having to pay for the supplies and setting up the job in the first place, then I'm not even making minimum wage at that point. At least the kid made an easy 10 bucks for his time and I had to eat the rest. Its not a job that warrants more than min wage.



In all honesty, if we hired a young fella to come help us out we would probably pay him X number of dollars per car instead of an hourly wage. That would motivate him to work faster and not milk an hourly job. If he is making $7 per car then he is going to try and bust out his part of the work as quickly as possible so that he is making more money per hour than if he takes all day. Its the way we get paid and it motivates us so why not pass the motivation along?
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Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if only that was all there is to it. Good employees are few and far between and if money were all it took to motivate people then every business would be succesful. I wish a systemlike that would work for me but all you get is people trying go rush through jobs and being really sloppy so they can get you for more money.
 
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