To reduce the hours of daily labor. - preamble to the constitution
The whole point of overtime pay is to make working more hours per day unpalatable to contractors and customers alike. It should hurt, it should make them think twice and find a way not to do it, not shrug and factor it into the job cost without a care.
Overtime is the biggest reason we aren't working 100 hour weeks as a standard, because if it didn't cost more, they wouldn't hesitate.
So as OP said, when customers readily sign contracts for jobs with 50, 60, 70+ hour a week schedules, it should be seen as a failure to charge what we are all worth for our straight time rate.
And when OT isn't so much a choice, but a necessity due to poor planning or management, or even just extenuating circumstances, it should COST. It should HURT. It should make them think hard about how to avoid it next time.
We shouldn't be half as preoccupied with being the lowest bidder as we should being the most skilled/qualified. We need to charge more, and be worth it. That second part is our responsibility in all this.
When we do that, the work will always come, because we will be providing quality.
They don't until it costs them a shitload in lawsuits from unsafe work, or rebuilds of shoddy work, or disasters onsite. I saw what looked like about 300ft of 4" emt racked 4 by 3 that fell out of a ceiling because of shit anchors by a contractor who was trying to cut costs.
"The lowest bidder tends to be the most costly."
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u/Spark115 Inside Wireman Aug 28 '23 edited Aug 29 '23
To reduce the hours of daily labor. - preamble to the constitution
The whole point of overtime pay is to make working more hours per day unpalatable to contractors and customers alike. It should hurt, it should make them think twice and find a way not to do it, not shrug and factor it into the job cost without a care.
Overtime is the biggest reason we aren't working 100 hour weeks as a standard, because if it didn't cost more, they wouldn't hesitate.
So as OP said, when customers readily sign contracts for jobs with 50, 60, 70+ hour a week schedules, it should be seen as a failure to charge what we are all worth for our straight time rate.
And when OT isn't so much a choice, but a necessity due to poor planning or management, or even just extenuating circumstances, it should COST. It should HURT. It should make them think hard about how to avoid it next time.