How the comparison is worked out
Paying per hour makes labour cost follow the hours the job actually takes. Paying per job fixes the labour cost when you agree it, so the risk of a slow job moves to the business if staff are paid the same regardless, and the benefit of a fast job moves to staff. This tool shows both on the same job so you can see the gap.
- On-cost multiplier is 1 plus your on-cost percent divided by 100. Every pay dollar is multiplied by it. The percent is your own single figure; the tool does not know your local rules.
- Per-hour labour = cleaners x actual hours x pay per hour x multiplier.
- Per-job labour = cleaners x pay per job x multiplier. If you leave pay per job blank, it is set to pay per hour x estimated hours, the flat sum you would agree at the estimate.
- Business keeps = job price - labour - supplies - drive cost.
- Staff effective hourly = pay before on-cost divided by actual hours. Per hour, that is the rate itself. Per job, it falls when the job runs long.
- Owner effective hourly = what the business keeps divided by the actual hours of the job, counted once, not once per cleaner.
- Break-even hours = pay per job divided by pay per hour. Under that many hours, per-hour costs less; over it, per-job costs less.
Worked example
A 300 job, two cleaners, estimated 4 hours each, actual 5 hours each. Pay is 25 an hour or 100 a job per cleaner. On-cost is 12 percent. Supplies 20, drive 15.
| Per hour: 2 x 5 h x 25 = 250, x 1.12 | 280.00 |
| Per job: 2 x 100 = 200, x 1.12 | 224.00 |
| Business keeps per hour: 300 - 280 - 20 - 15 | -15.00 |
| Business keeps per job: 300 - 224 - 20 - 15 | 41.00 |
| Staff effective hourly: per hour / per job (100 / 5 h) | 25.00 / 20.00 |
| Owner effective hourly: per hour / per job (-15 / 5 h, 41 / 5 h) | -3.00 / 8.20 |
| Per job costs less by | 56.00 |
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The job ran an hour over. Break-even is 100 / 25 = 4 hours, so the flat pay wins above 4 hours. Had it finished in 3 hours, per hour would cost 168.00 and win by 56.00. A method that is cheaper for the business is not automatically right: staff earn 5.00 less an hour under per-job pay on the slow job, which is why the optional lowest-pay box exists.
What this does not do
Your pay rates, on-cost percent and minimum depend on where you work and whether the people you pay are employees or contractors. This tool does not guess them and does not give pay, tax or legal advice. It compares cost on the numbers you enter. Rules on how cleaners must be paid differ by place, so check yours separately.
Questions
What goes in on-cost percent? Whatever extra the business pays for each dollar of wages, as one percent figure you work out yourself or get from your accountant. Leave it at zero to see pay only.
Why is the owner rate per job hour, not per cleaner hour? The owner is not paid per cleaner. It answers: for each hour the job ran, how much did the business keep?
Is my data stored? No. Everything is calculated in your browser.