Damage to City property, invoice received

[jlee]

Imagine if the roles were reversed and city property damaged your car, you'd get laughed in your face if you tried to charge them double your hourly rate for lost work time.

The city's insurance would likely cover repair + rental.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Actually civilian matters require 3 invoices here by us so the people won't over charge each other. Since the council are paying their workers a monthly salary I don't see why you get invoiced for labor.

 

[zanemoseley]

Geez $80,000/yr for a maintenance supervisor and that's hourly with some OT probably. Sign me up lol.

 

[sjwaste]

It's either OT or a fully burdened rate (inclusive of benefits, time off, admin/overhead). It's always more than the pay rate. Think about your job and the non-monetary portion of your compensation.

 

[Bignate603]

I know private companies mark up costs but I figured since this is public, they wouldn't try to profit, or at least profit by that much.

You misunderstand, they are not profiting. They are charging you the full cost of keeping a person in that job which includes their benefits, insurance, equipment, the building they work in, etc.

 

[IronWing]

Street sign? Was it a stop sign? With stop signs, yield signs, and other "vital" signs the city has to dispatch a repair crew regardless of time of day or day of week to get the sign back up quickly.

 

[3chordcharlie]

It's either OT or a fully burdened rate (inclusive of benefits, time off, admin/overhead). It's always more than the pay rate. Think about your job and the non-monetary portion of your compensation.

No one ever does this. There's also a bunch of overhead - they could have itemized the scheduling secretary's time to write up the work order, etc.

That's why there are guys making $25/hr, being billed at $50-100/hr, who think they're getting the shaft. In most cases they aren't.

 

[rh71]

If I actually got what my company charges clients for the work I do... I'd have already bought my own small business by now. My last mini-project was the price of a car and it only took me a week or so of dev time.

 

[alent1234]

other than the benefits and taxes you have to pay for the materials to fix whatever you broke

 

[rivan]

what people 'get paid' and what they 'bill for' on invoices is not the same
that is about right

This, exactly.

If nothing else at all, your "max pay" doesn't cover the total cost of the employee or the overhead for having that employee.

Those employees get health insurance, have an office, maybe a public vehicle, SSI, etc.

 

[her209]

The city's insurance would likely cover repair + rental.

But what about billing for time lost/wasted?

 

[Phoenix86]

You misunderstand, they are not profiting. They are charging you the full cost of keeping a person in that job which includes their benefits, insurance, equipment, the building they work in, etc.

Actually those rates would include profit, as other mentioned it's about what a contractor would charge given the pay rate.

A contractors billing rate covers employee pay, benefits, admin costs, etc. AND profit.

 

[marvdmartian]

Can't say for anywhere else, but where I work, we mark up 26% above the hourly wage, to allow for the cost of benefits. We then charge the average of everyone's wages + benefits per hour. So you're probably lucky they're itemizing each employee individually instead.

 

[1sikbITCH]

But what about billing for time lost/wasted?

You can't bill a private person for that time so why would you be able to bill the city?

If a person (or the city) hits your car (property damage only), you can get reimbursed for the cost of fixing the vehicle. That could be widened to include rental, towing, and storage fees but it's not going to cover you for punching out early to go pick up the car, cellphone bill for time on the phone spent dealing with it, or any other extraneous costs that arise.

 

[Gibson486]

What you the city pays the employees is not what you pay the city. You need to cover the employee AND the equipment, the support, the overhead and the time. As for profit, why not? If they are charging you double the rate, then they are profiting, but not by much at all.

 

[3chordcharlie]

What you the city pays the employees is not what you pay the city. You need to cover the employee AND the equipment, the support, the overhead and the time. As for profit, why not? If they are charging you double the rate, then they are profiting, but not by much at all.

The rates he quoted seem a little on the low side for a mobile crew, at the wages he figured.

The city might have made a something, but I doubt they made a full $20.

 

[MotionMan]

I caused some damage to City property.

I received an invoice, itemizing the individuals who worked to perform the repair, and their hourly rate.

My concern is that when I check out the City's current pay scale online, it's about half what they're charging me.

Examples:

1 Maintenance Supervisor for 0.5 hours @ $73.78/hr (max pay for this position is $39.38/hr)

1 Office Support Specialist for 1.0 hr @ $52.56/hour (max pay for this position is $25.20/hr)


I've got the pay scale sheets printed out for each individual and I'm planning to go tomorrow and argue that I shouldn't be paying almost double their hourly rate. I can't imagine any real justification for this...unless I'm expected to believe that the City can choose to profit on a repair, which sucks. But then I ask, why aren't the profit margins consistent for every individual?

Help...

Research the concept of "overhead".

MotionMan

 

[Bignate603]

Actually those rates would include profit, as other mentioned it's about what a contractor would charge given the pay rate.

A contractors billing rate covers employee pay, benefits, admin costs, etc. AND profit.

It sounded like the city was billing him for they time of city employees, not a contractor.

 

[pmv]

You should have just sneaked back under cover of darkness and put the sign back up yourself. Bit of quick dry cement - how hard can it be?

Then deny you ever knocked it down in the first place ("what do you mean its now facing the wrong way?").

 

[lupi]

There's an interstate on ramp where I work with a long steady curve and a short sharp curve at the end. Can't tell you how many times I've seen the metal guard rail right at the beginning or the sharp portion get real dinged up then swapped out within a week. It never seems enough to redo the support post so assuming the can ticket the majority of people that hit it, should be a decent money maker for them.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

1 Maintenance Supervisor for 0.5 hours @ $73.78/hr (max pay for this position is $39.38/hr)

1 Office Support Specialist for 1.0 hr @ $52.56/hour (max pay for this position is $25.20/hr)

Help...

Those hourly pays are different than the hourly rates.
Don't forget to include health care costs, pension, vacation, sick time and a buffer to fight people fighting the rates.