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[Richard Turner]

A simple but blunt question on labor rates

What does day labor go for in your area, for stage hand, technical operator (audio, lighting or video) and actual engineer (as in you have your actual degree behind you) and weather union or non union. Do you work on a day rate straight hourly rate or minimum show fee plus hours after 4 hours?

I'm askng this as the discussion has come up once again. I'm so used to just running as solo man plus equipment on a flat rate for shows and Full DJ service with lbrary and equipment I have no real idea of a fair price for just labor only. If you dont feel comfortable posting in forums a OM would be appreciated.

[Art Welter]

Do you work on a day rate straight hourly rate or minimum show fee plus hours after 4 hours?

A Google query of "IATSE hourly rates" gives a lot of documents like this with local rates:

http://www.usa829.org/Portals/0/Documents/Contracts/TV-Film-Commercials/IATSE-Area-Standards-Agreement_2009-2012.pdf

Ran into an old friend recently who had worked as a case pusher on a rock show in California, got around $750 for the day because the callback was midnight.

I'm "lucky" to get that much here in New Mexico with a full system...

[Tim McCulloch]

A simple but blunt question on labor rates

What does day labor go for in your area, for stage hand, technical operator (audio, lighting or video) and actual engineer (as in you have your actual degree behind you) and weather union or non union. Do you work on a day rate straight hourly rate or minimum show fee plus hours after 4 hours?

I'm askng this as the discussion has come up once again. I'm so used to just running as solo man plus equipment on a flat rate for shows and Full DJ service with lbrary and equipment I have no real idea of a fair price for just labor only. If you dont feel comfortable posting in forums a OM would be appreciated.

Holiday pay is 1.5X regular pay for the first 8 hours between 8am and midnight.  Premium pay does not "pyramid", i.e. overtime after 8 worked hours on a holiday remains at 1.5x, rather than becoming 2.25x... or at least that's what our Local has in its contracts with SMG (private contract managers of public facilities) and our City-managed PAC.

As an "entertainer" your fee is based on whatever your client thinks you're worth and they may or may not consider performing on a holiday to be justification for a higher fee.

Good luck and let us know what happens, and you might want to post this in the DJ forum as well, since it will have an affect on what they might do.

[Steve M Smith]

and actual engineer (as in you have your actual degree behind you)

I don't understand this bit.  Why is a degree necessary?


Steve.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

A simple but blunt question on labor rates

What does day labor go for in your area, for stage hand, technical operator (audio, lighting or video) and actual engineer (as in you have your actual degree behind you) and weather union or non union.

It pays the same if it rains or not...

[Ray Aberle]

It pays the same if it rains or not...

Ohhhh Dick, thanks for coming up with the weather pun. I was trying to think of one earlier, and failed.

-r

[Steve M Smith]

It pays the same if it rains or not...

'It pays the same whether it rains or not' would have been the smart answer,  Don't use 'wether' though!


Steve.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

'It pays the same whether it rains or not' would have been the smart answer,  Don't use 'wether' though!


Steve.

You're correct, sir, but the next time you edit my humor/sarcasm I'll have to kill you.

[Lee Buckalew]

I don't understand this bit.  Why is a degree necessary?


Steve.

He's asking about rates for an actual engineer as in structural engineer, electrical engineer, etc.  There's no such thing, as far as I know, for audio engineering.  Although there are engineers who do also mix audio.

Lee

[Lyle Williams]

... No, I don't think he's asking about B.Eng types.

[Steve M Smith]

the next time you edit my humor/sarcasm I'll have to kill you.

That's a risk I'm going to have to take.

He's asking about rates for an actual engineer as in structural engineer, electrical engineer, etc.  There's no such thing, as far as I know, for audio engineering.

I asked because I am employed as an electronic design engineer but I don't have a degree.  It's not essential.


Steve.

[James A. Griffin]

He's asking about rates for an actual engineer as in structural engineer, electrical engineer, etc.  There's no such thing, as far as I know, for audio engineering.  Although there are engineers who do also mix audio.

Lee

The typos, grammatical errors, and run-on sentences make it difficult to determine what he's really asking.   

[Ray Aberle]

A simple but blunt question on labor rates

What does day labor go for in your area, for stage hand, technical operator (audio, lighting or video) and actual engineer (as in you have your actual degree behind you) and weather union or non union. Do you work on a day rate straight hourly rate or minimum show fee plus hours after 4 hours?

I'm askng this as the discussion has come up once again. I'm so used to just running as solo man plus equipment on a flat rate for shows and Full DJ service with lbrary and equipment I have no real idea of a fair price for just labor only. If you dont feel comfortable posting in forums a OM would be appreciated.

I was in the same boat as you, Richard. I started and grew my business based on Mobile DJ services, and I am really really good at pricing my DJ service side of things. I started getting into live sound production, plus rentals, and that's where I am doing most of my work today. Because I was so used to the DJ side of things, though, it took me a bit to figure out how to properly price both my gear and my labor. Even today, I still screw up sometimes as to how much labor it will take to do an event. (I "worked" for "free" a few times last year, because I quoted and billed a certain number of hands, but then ended up getting one more last-minute, and using the money I would have "paid" myself to pay the extra pair of hands. Not what I WANT to do, and not good for the short-term health of my business account as well as myself-- but I would rather have a successful event (and let the client know that next time it will cost more due to the extra labor required) and thus the repeat business.

What got me on track for appropriate labor pricing was what another company charged me. One of my regular events asked for a major production increase three years ago. We did it, but I had to bring in another company to assist with flying speakers (both the speakers that could be flown, the lifts, but more importantly-- the people who are qualified to do so!). When they gave me the quote, sure enough, 4 hands, A1 and A2s-- $300-$325/day rate. So, that's the rate I started using when billing labor charges to clients.

Now I am comfortable billing labor to clients, but it did take a while to get used to the concept. [I still remember a show I did in '08, 2 days, two stages, JBL SRX, EAW wedges on the main, 450s (haha) on the second stage, Soundcraft at FOH, Mackie on the 2nd stage, 4 people total, but two were my parents so I was able to skimp there... but only billed out $3400 total. I was charging day rates for the gear, and not line-iteming the labor separately. The gear rates were carryovers from rentals or DJ events, where it was a fair price for that service... but going to an all-day festival with bands coming and going-- I really screwed that one up. ]

-Ray

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