Salary vs. hourly

[gogetter]

While I'm a ways away from hiring an employee, I'll ask now anyway.

What do you guys think about paying salary vs. hourly? Here's a scenario, tell me where the flaws are, if any.

Say I want to set up a guy to go solo (as discussed in the March issue of Turf magazine). Truck, trailer, equip. Give him say...10-12 residential lawns a day, Mon thru Fri.
Now lets say that I could do these same lawns in 8 hours when I do them myself and hustle.
So rather then pay a guy say $12 an hour and he takes his time and and it takes him 10 hours to ge the job done, costing me $120 per day.
Seems better for him (and me) if I give him $100 for the day and tell him he can get the work done as fast or slow as he wants. If he gets it done in 8 hours (which it takes me), then he earns $12.50 and hour and has more free time for himself and family.
If he takes 10 hours to get it done, then he earns only $10 per hour and has less free time.

Of course, quality of work would still have to be there. And to make sure this happens he would be told that he won't be paid any extra if he has to go back to finish/fix any mistakes.
So he would be sure to get the job done right the first time.
I've seen these things discussed in the magazines and wondered what you guys thought.

I just know that I delivered furniture for 14 years and we were paid hourly. We had many guys that we reffered to as "milk men" because they milked the time clock sooo much and got tons of overtime every week. I personally was only interested in working 40 hours. And what would take me 8 hours to do, would take other guys 10, 12 hours and more to get done!
Thoughts? Thanks.

[bobbygedd]

if i were the employee, i would opt for the $100 a day, this way i can get a system down for each route and maybe only work 5 hrs a day. i have a guy now who works so good, we r saving 2-3 hrs a day compared to former employees, i always throw him extra at the end of the week.

[David Haggerty]

I used to pay a percentage of the account's bill to my employees. (my sons). It seemed to work better because it gave them more of a perspective on the customer closer to mine.
They were a little more careful on the profitable accounts, and wouldn't waste any time on the poorly bid accounts. They'd also handle any "extras" better with an eye for profit.
Dave

[Kent Lawns]

You're really at piece-meal vs. hourly.

Why not do it exactly like the article you're referring to?

They explained it in pretty good detail.

[Richard Martin]

The problem with paying non-management employees a salary is you still have to pay time and a half once they get to 40 hours. Management and non-management employees are treated totally different from one another. Consult your accountant before proceding.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Try and do a commission route

Set some ground rules

He could go as fast or as slow and with the quality you want

Then no over time. NO BS

I thought about going to commissions, but a lot of my routes would kill a solo operator

LGF:blob1: