# Self-employed Q's



## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

hey all, 

Have a few questions about being self-emplyed. Well i already am self empoyed and have been for about 18months, but just recently work has been.. well crap. And i'v been thinking about different things. I'm a dryliner (build stud and plasterboard walls/ceilings, and hang grid ceilings) i havent got a GNVQ, but get on with everything i get given, and i'm on price for most things, or daywork for the odd bit here and there. 

But the last few weeks i've been on a job where its hard to cover your money, not just me others are aswel. So last week a lad who is trained and been there abour 4 years got something like £215 (top-line, normall weekly figure is £600) for a weeks work. Which is below minimum wage, and thats my first question, by law is there a minimum wage for those who are self employed?

Also out of that you get tax which is fine but then retentions, they hold 5% of your wages untill 6 months down the line then you are allowed a week back, so basically they always have 5% of 6 months wages on you, thats my second question. Is that legal? Alot of companies do it so i imagine it would be but a lad at work says they shouldn't be able to hold our money.

and before this starts turning into a massive rant about work i'll stop as i can feel myself getting peed off over it all

thanks for any help


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## wookey (Jul 13, 2007)

Bloody hell what price and work did you get given where you'd only earn £43 a day!?

Personally I wouldn't have stayed if I couldn't make it pay or negotiate the price up.

I'm not sure how minimum wage applies to price work, that's a bit of a grey area as there are no set hours as such.

As for retention, if I'm on job where there is retention involved, I stop the retention on my men's wages. But everybody knows the score before anyone starts.


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

lol the reaction i was expecting, well it was metalling and boarding, but the prices are low, but workable really, if and thats a big if the walls were decent size but there very small walls and we work on a square metre rate.

and lol thats £43 a day to travel 40 miles to work for 8 hours work. a joke isn't it?

i really have had it at the moment, when you have a good week you can more or less guarentee you won't the next, and there excuse is you had a good week the week before, so it even's out over 2 weeks. 

and i thought so on retentsions, i have no problem with it really because it's like a savings account for me lol

and negotiating the price, yor having a girafe, they way they're talking they're doing the job at a loss (which is complete utter crap!)


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## wookey (Jul 13, 2007)

Sign of the times I'm afraid Ant. Less work, tighter prices and I bet a high turnover of men?

My job was at £11.00 per m² (£8 for metal, £1.50 for each skin) If I'm not covering at least £120 I won't be on site.

What's your price? Have you got problems with penetrations or just small areas?


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