Are you worth more than a painter?

This might seem like an odd question and I don’t mean to cause any issues with painters. I was looking for a painter recently and was surprised at how much they charge. The most interesting comment was “I’m very good and I will do the work for $400 cash a day”.

Do the maths and that equates to $50 per hour for an 8 hour day. Are you worth that much?

I understand that it doesn’t just come down to an hourly rate but it still begs the question..

The main reason painters get this much is because they’re only at your house for a couple days or at most a week (unless it’s a big job). Plus they need to have all the painting equipment and a van to put it in. They’re also often working on a ladder and that adds a bit of extra risk.

The thing is that even though a painter can be a very educated person the work they do is not that complicated.

Most people I’ve spoken to only get a painter because they “couldn’t be bothered doing it themselves and don’t want to get dirty”.

The question this prompted for me was “How much should a contract bookkeeper or business admin consultant charge?”

To be a Business Admin Consultant you need to understand a wide range of business skills from office admin to bookkeeping and you need to be good with customers. Imagine the following scenario:

• You work half a day with a business each week (say 4 hours)
• You find source documents and match them to financial transactions
• You make contact with clients and suppliers about money owed and owing
• You create and interpret financial reports
• You reconcile bank statements to MYOB or Xero software

Surely this is worth $50 per hour, $200 per week?

I haven’t even mentioned performing payroll and superannuation tasks!

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