How much are you worth an hour?

[QuarterMillionMan]

I'm salaried in government but when I calculate my hourly rate it comes to $35/hr. What's your hourly rate? In my previous career as a plumber $45/hr but at 56 no longer possible physically but I can do personal jobs just not industrial work at my age.

Plumbing $45/hr was in 1999 when I left the trade. Today an electrician friend told me he makes $60/hr.

[disneysteve]

How much am I worth or how much do I get paid?

At my current position, I get $125/hr for my regular scheduled shifts. If I pick up extra shifts, I get $140/hr M-F and $154/hr Sa-Su.

[ua_guy]

It's never enough, I'll put it that way.

I'm generally good at arguing, and it occurred to me that maybe I'm in the wrong profession. Perhaps I might have been a good lawyer. We've had to retain one recently, and he bills $430/hr for his services. I don't get to bill that much for my time, that's for sure.

[disneysteve]

We also occasionally get bonuses when staffing is short. I think currently there is a $25/hr incentive in place for weekend shifts so I'd actually make $179/hr.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My lady friends in Tijuana make $80 - $120/hr. In USA multiply that by 4x - 10x that of Tijuana but I no longer patronize USA services. Pahrump which is a 4.5 hour drive from Los Angeles has 2 legal brothels that I used to go to. Tijuana a lot more closer at 2 hours drive has about 5 legal brothels and a mere fraction of the costs. I'll leave it at that (lol).

[Fishindude77]

One business I'm close with asks me to help out with their construction projects.
My rate is $100 per hour for putting the projects together and overseeing things.

[kork13]

I'm salaried in the military. Officially, with the 9hr/day that is our normal/minimum expectation, my hourly would work out to about $60/hr. However, in my leadership role, I'm effectively on duty at all times (calls on weekends or at weird hours (say 5am or 10pm) are not uncommon, especially if one of my folks has something go sideways. Not to mention deployments, where 12-16 hour days, 6-7 days a week are the norm.

Effectively, it's probably closer to $40/hr. But whatever.... I'm happy doing what I'm doing, and I'm not in it for the money (though the promise of the generous retirement pension/benefits certainly helps).

[jenn_jenn]

My hourly rate based on a 40 hour work week is $100/hr.
I actually work less than this so my effective rate would be higher.

I often think of my time in terms of dollars, especially when deciding what to do myself versus hire out as we renovate our house. I’ll still gladly do tasks that I can hire out to someone for $30/hr. My time is worth much less then but I saved $30.

[kork13]

I often think of my time in terms of dollars, especially when deciding what to do myself versus hire out as we renovate our house. I’ll still gladly do tasks that I can hire out to someone for $30/hr. My time then is worth much less then but I saved $30.

I always laugh at that philosophy of deciding what to hire out vs. DIY. It's a logical fallacy. That comparison is only valid if you would otherwise be working, and the DIY project is keeping you from earning income from your job. Like if you're a contract graphic designer, and rather than finishing a design project, you go mow the lawn. Or you do gig-work (Uber driver), and fix the fence instead of driving people around. But if you're taking PTO to paint a room or fix the car, you're not losing any income from the DIY. Same story if you're salaried with no consideration for the hours you work. And if you do the project during your off-time, you wouldn't otherwise be earning any income, so the time you spend or your normal hourly wage is entirely meaningless. The project doesn't prevent you from earning your normal income in the slightest.

Just me... But I laugh.

[rennigade]

I always laugh at that philosophy of deciding what to hire out vs. DIY. It's a logical fallacy. That comparison is only valid if you would otherwise be working, and the DIY project is keeping you from earning income from your job. Like if you're a contract graphic designer, and rather than finishing a design project, you go mow the lawn. Or you do gig-work (Uber driver), and fix the fence instead of driving people around. But if you're taking PTO to paint a room or fix the car, you're not losing any income from the DIY. Same story if you're salaried with no consideration for the hours you work. And if you do the project during your off-time, you wouldn't otherwise be earning any income, so the time you spend or your normal hourly wage is entirely meaningless. The project doesn't prevent you from earning your normal income in the slightest.

Just me... But I laugh.

Yep. Typically the people I see who always insist their time is too valuable to be doing x or y are the same people who will farm everything out then sit around and watch TV. It's ok if you're afraid to lift a finger but don't make excuses.

[jenn_jenn]

I always laugh at that philosophy of deciding what to hire out vs. DIY. It's a logical fallacy. That comparison is only valid if you would otherwise be working, and the DIY project is keeping you from earning income from your job. Like if you're a contract graphic designer, and rather than finishing a design project, you go mow the lawn. Or you do gig-work (Uber driver), and fix the fence instead of driving people around. But if you're taking PTO to paint a room or fix the car, you're not losing any income from the DIY. Same story if you're salaried with no consideration for the hours you work. And if you do the project during your off-time, you wouldn't otherwise be earning any income, so the time you spend or your normal hourly wage is entirely meaningless. The project doesn't prevent you from earning your normal income in the slightest.

Just me... But I laugh.

I absolutely agree with you that it’s a logical fallacy if you’re comparing your hourly rate at your salary job versus what to hire out / vs DIY. My point was when I think of the value of my time per hour, it’s not just what I earn at work because, as you point out, that’s a finite opportunity / amount of their time for most people. My time is just worth less than my salary job when I do those things (bc I could hire it out for $X dollars).

[corn18]

My ending base salary was $139 / hr. Total comp was 3x that.

Before I retired, I paid for lawn service. Not because I was lazy, but because I didn’t want to spend the little time I had off mowing the lawn. And they were more reliable. Didn’t really consider the dollar value of my time. More of a what do I want to spend my limited non working time doing?

whole different story now that I am retired. I mow the lawn now. I enjoy it and I have more time. But now we want to travel more and the yard still needs mowing when we’re gone. So we might still get a lawn service.