We have a large pile of mulch for our swing set that needs to get moved and I was curious what people thought a reasonable rate might be for a high school aged boy to move it? I was thinking of offering him 100bucks, but maybe I should do hourly?
I vote pay a flat rate for the job not by the hour. If it's by the hour...the time might (not saying it will) get stretched out a bit...if you get my point ;-)
$100 bucks sounds like a lot but then again I have no idea how big this pile is?
I think a high school student would be glad to receive 100 bucks, but if you want hourly, min. wage (at least in MI) is 7.25, so I would do at least 8/hour.
My older high school age nephew got $10/hr in the midwest for lawn work and felt that was fair. I would let him know when you would like to have it finished by so the job gets done. Ask your husband how long it would take him to do it and let the young man know.
I would do hourly with a minimum. How long do you think it will take him to move the mulch? How far away is the pile from the swingset? Anyway, I would offer $12/hour and tell him that you'll pay him at least $100. That way if it takes more than 8 hours (which it could), he's paid fairly, but if he can do it faster, he's still got the $100.
Hi J.,
I vote by the job. It always motivated our kids to get it done quicker, sometimes they even subcontracted help from their friends and paid them out of the job money.....what kind of hourly rate are you thinking about paying him? If it's a low one, he may not be motivated to do it at all. If it's high, then he might think he can drag the job out and make more money. Sometimes my husband asks the kid he's hiring "what do you think the job is worth?" Some kids think they're not worth much. An hourly wage is what you think the kid is worth. A job rate is what the job is worth.
My two cents...
M.
