Labor Burden

Labor Burden

• Cutting Costs

  By now your 2009 budget should be nearly complete — how does it look? Are you making the money you, as owner, need to make?

   

• Opening the Books, Fortifying the Bottom Line

  Don’t be afraid of open-book management, says one remodeler whose profits, productivity, and staff cohesiveness are stronger as a result of showing his employees the numbers – right down to his own compensation.

   

• Finding Employees’ Hidden Costs

  Industry consultant Leslie Shiner shares tips on how to add labor burden into your employees' hourly rates.

   
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  Tracking Labor Costs

  Over the years I’ve asked clients and colleagues how they estimate labor costs. The answer is usually the same: They define one number that represents hourly labor costs, including burden, and apply it throughout their estimates, no matter who does the work or what the tasks are.

   

• Overhead Keeps the Business Running, Even When There's No Business

  Variety can be a good thing, but remodeling companies that want to measure their performance against standards need to be on the same page.

   

• Labor Pains

  Tracking direct costs looks easy, but labor presents some sticking points. What, for instance, is to be done with labor costs for a production manager who spends part of each day on more than one jobsite?

   

• What Not to Include When Figuring Gross Profit

  We write a lot about gross profit in this magazine, but judging from some of our survey results, a lot of readers are still fuzzy on the concept. The calculation is simple — gross profit equals revenue minus direct costs — but as with so many other financial concepts, the devil is in the details.

   
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  Overlooked costs of employees cause profit leaks

  When remodelers fall short of planned margins, it's usually caused by labor overages. Some of the problem can be traced to things like having to replace work that wasn't done right the first time, or employees who take 45 minutes for a 30-minute lunch. But underestimating the cost of labor is the...

   

• Web Extra: Would You Like Insurance With That?

  It's inherent in the concept of total compensation that the cost of employee benefits will limit employee wages. Health insurance, in particular, is so expensive that the hourly cost to most remodelers is equal to as much as $4 per hour. So what do you do if an employee declines coverage and then...

   

• Computing total compensation

  Do you know how much you really spend on your employees? More importantly, do they know? In the final installment of our benefit series, REMODELING explores the idea of total compensation -- the true cost (and value) of employment at your company.