Stop paying your handyman helpers $25/hr, it's killing your margins

I've been running a handyman crew in the Chicago area my whole career, doing everything from drywall patches to deck repairs with DeWalt tools, and I'm done with the lowball helper wages. You pay these guys $25 an hour to swing a hammer on basic jobs like hanging shelves or fixing leaky faucets, and half the time they're slow as hell because they know it's easy money, leaving you to clean up the mess. Last week I had a helper botch a simple cabinet install using pocket screws on a kitchen remodel, cost me two extra hours to fix. Bump them to $35/hr with some performance bonuses tied to job completion, or subcontract the grunt work to keep your sanity. Saw a thread on r/handyman where guys were complaining about the same crap, and someone in Handyman Nation group said it straight: cheap labor equals cheap results. Don't believe me? Try it on your next fence repair gig and watch the difference.

man, i feel that. same bullshit with my part-timer who cant even level a door frame right.

Finally got my team to $40/hr base after scaling to three trucks last year. Production doubled, no more callbacks on installs.

Tie bonuses to customer reviews. Works great for our gutter cleaning runs.

Start with a skills test on day one: have them frame a mock wall with 2x4s and 16d nails. Weed out the weak fast.

ugh, dealing with lazy helpers makes every toilet install feel like a marathon. solidarity brother.

corporate handyman chains are ruining it for independents, poaching our guys with benefits we cant match.

For quoting, factor in helper efficiency: add 20% buffer if they're green. Saved my ass on a shed build last summer.

pisses me off when my helper shows up late for fascia repairs. Wasted half a day waiting around.

wait till one of em drops a Milwaukee drill from the ladder. then youre really screwed lol.