Hourly wage for self employed worker

[Werzle]

This is where it’s all wrong, you supply your own dog, truck, drive expensive machinery and have responsibilities to rear somebody else’s livestock or operate big expensive machinery and have to fork out for your own insurance and no paid holidays yet you could earn £10-£12 per hour stacking shelves in supermarkets or buy a lawnmower for £500 and cut grass for £20-£25 per hour.

Nobodys stopping them stacking shelves or going lawnmowing though, there doing it because its what they like doing .

 

[Bullring]

Nobodys stopping them stacking shelves or going lawnmowing though, there doing it because its what they like doing .

No but no wonder a lot of people don’t want to work in the agricultural sector when the pay is poor in relation, there isn’t a day goes by when you don’t see adverts for staff wanted in farming on Facebook, ok some people don’t want to work the hours but it’s a sad state of affairs when your supplying the country with food on their table yet it’s one of the lowest paid jobs going.

 

[Mur Huwcun]

If you’re not getting at least £150 a day then it’s not worth it and you might as well go mix cement and labour for a bricky/builder/plasterer from 8-4 and do your own thing on weekends really. You still need a work life balance plus put a lot away for a pension as SE. Will you be able to do the job when 55,60,65 etc and still earn a decent wage?

 

[Gulli]

You can't base it on pounds per hour.
Turn up for 2 hours work at £10=£20. Travel cost to farm in fuel and running costs £5. So your only making £15.
Turn up for 8 hours and you make £75.
You need a fixed amount of money or guaranteed hours to make it worth going. You could say your first hour is £30 and then £15/HR after that so you cover vehicle costs and dead time traveling etc

Just charge from when you leave home/ yard.
They are paying for your time

 

[Young shepherd]

What are you charging ?

Not enough by everyone’s replies

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

I would say it needs to be £15 an hour for when you leave home for self employed

 

[betweenthelines]

This is where it’s all wrong, you supply your own dog, truck, drive expensive machinery and have responsibilities to rear somebody else’s livestock or operate big expensive machinery and have to fork out for your own insurance and no paid holidays yet you could earn £10-£12 per hour stacking shelves in supermarkets or buy a lawnmower for £500 and cut grass for £20-£25 per hour.

Like I have said, getting enough chargeable hours in is the biggest problem if you are S. E. £25/hr cutting lawns is fine in May but not quite so many hours between October and March!

The S E guy is by the nature of the job, the first to go when the weather isn't right, money needs to be saved etc.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

No but no wonder a lot of people don’t want to work in the agricultural sector when the pay is poor in relation, there isn’t a day goes by when you don’t see adverts for staff wanted in farming on Facebook, ok some people don’t want to work the hours but it’s a sad state of affairs when your supplying the country with food on their table yet it’s one of the lowest paid jobs going.

No one wants to work anywhere, restaurants doing 3 day weeks as they can't get staff , supermarkets can't get staff

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Not enough by everyone’s replies

Depends where you live ,as you have not put a location in your profile we don't have a clue

 

[lloyd]

Depends where you live ,as you have not put a location in your profile we don't have a clue

You've got a point I would want more per hr to be a
shepherd in wet Wales than sunny Oxford.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Me and dog(s), and handling system or quad if required, are £250+VAT/day.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You've got a point I would want more per hr to be a
shepherd in wet Wales than sunny Oxford.

My house is worth around !£600 thousand here. In Sussex it would easy get £3 Million , House Rents and Poll Tax are 4 times what we pay here , that's why wages are a lot higher
I can get a Hedgecutter in for £28 hour . What would you have to pay

 

[betweenthelines]

If you go by house prices, the self employed in Cornwall should be £250/hr!

 

[Young shepherd]

Depends where you live ,as you have not put a location in your profile we don't have a clue

Based in Sussex

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Based in Sussex

£30 an hour for that lot ,

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I doubt if many SE agricultural workers can guarantee getting anywhere close to 40 hrs/week 52 weeks of the year.

Unless they are a relief milker, they will be the first to be told "Don't come in today" when it's peeing down.

Never a problem in SW livestock area.

 

[tepapa]

Just charge from when you leave home/ yard.
They are paying for your time

But on that basis, half hour travel £10hr/2=£5
Travel costs £5.
Your still not getting paid for your time

 

[Norfolk Olly]

Self employed tractor drivers seem to be around £12-15 p/hr here in Suffolk currently. Don't forget to account for deprecation and costs for the pickup and dog if you're using them. They will need replacing at some point so they should be a cost on top of your labor IMO. If I took a tractor with me to do a job I would be charging more than just labor!!

there’s plenty of farms paying more than that on the books

 

[Al R]

My house is worth around !£600 thousand here. In Sussex it would easy get £3 Million , House Rents and Poll Tax are 4 times what we pay here , that's why wages are a lot higher
I can get a Hedgecutter in for £28 hour . What would you have to pay

It wasn’t that long ago I was having someone in at £16/hr with a £20k hedge trimmer plus tidy tractor it was a lot of work plus he did all the trailer work for a fairly big arable farm for £14/hr with his own 20t trailer..

Location is key though, not many jobs around here more than £14/hr regardless of what your into except for builders and other tradesman

 

[Bullring]

If you go by house prices, the self employed in Cornwall should be £250/hr!

Would be nice, then the locals would actually afford to buy their own house instead of half the county being second homes.