Just wanted to know what some of you guys pay your operators? We have a thinning/ logging job and we pay our skidder, loader, and sheer operators all 150.00 a day, that goes for the truck driver as well. Now if the sheer operator is really good he'll get paid 180.00. Thanks.
I am speaking just for myself but when Ive cut timber for other companys they pay me $120.00 a day . A I usually get a retired fellow to drive my skidder and pay them $100.00 a day but 7/8 hours is a long day for me anymore, this summer it is noon and Ive had enough
wow that's cheap. Cost of living must be nothing in la and ohio.
That's what I was thinking! In Alaska a decent faller still gets $300.00 a day (6 hours). A shovel operator still gets $25 plus an hour, etc. I can't imagine asking anyone to work for $150 a day. I'd get hit with a roundhouse faster than I can blink- people would be really insulted....
. It all depends on what state your in, where your at in that state, and how many people are out of work in that area. Some people pay by the day and some by the hour. Most small companies hire the operators who can do the work required at that job, for the least amount of money. From one state to another pay can vary from as much as 10 to 15 dollars hr difference. In some state operators are almost like a dime a dozen, and you can take your pick from a bunch who are unemployed in the area, and in some states you can't afford them. .
I'm a 1 man operator,laborer,account receivables[payables],truck driver,estimator,mechanic,chief procurement officer,and my favorite position of CEO---Chief Excavating Officer,all rolled up in one,and that's the way I like it.I'm priceless---LMAO. Seriously,by me,my friendly competitors pay $25-$30 an hour,non-union.I did do a gig for a friend over at West Point for a day this past Dec.where he had to pay ''prevailing wage'',which is union scale. He paid me $500 for the day.
Yea, the cost of living would have to be considerably different here then some. But that is our going rate here for a 12 hour day, not too bad I think for everyone to be sitting in air conditioned machines. And if a guy sticks around for atleast a year and is a good worker he'll get a 10.00 a day raise.
Harvester, and porter operators get $180 to $200 a day here.
Operator pay...sad part is i wish i was making some of the pay thats shown on here. I run a dozer building roads and setting logs out for 2 skidders in the mountains for $105 a day. Skidder guy gets 100 and timber cutter gets $105 a day.
I pay anywere from 18hr to 22hr depending on experience.And versalitiy
I draw more on unemplyment than that.
expierienced hands make 18-25 at the moment. some of the other guys pay close to 30. labor 9-15. problem is, there is hardly any work different biz but i thought i would share
My Yarder operators are clearing between 200 to 300 if there any good at the moment in NZ.
Trust me i wish i could make more but the guy i work for is such a tight ass wont let go of any more money...Its not like i have no experience i been running dozer for a while and actually been logging for several yrs
Hi friends,I´m from Spain,I have worked 1 year with head harvester,here a good operator more or less about 2.500 € monthly,10 hours, deppending place from your home,diets,or plus by productivity.Anyone offers me a job?
I pay $20 for all operators except skidder which is $17.
In the BC interior, i would say that the average wage for most operators in the bush is $25-$27/hr. The exceptional buncher and processormen are up to $30/hr. Good handfallers are at least $500/day (8hrs). The benchmark used here are the Union wages.
Most of our Cat-skinners and the guys on the skidders make around 20 an hour plus good health benefits and a 401K. If the cat-skinner is a good blade man and can grade out roads and landings he gets paid a little more. The loader makes around twenty five and he also gets the most hours of anybody on the crew. I think the truck drivers get about 18 and they also work a lot of hours. Everybody, except the fallers, make time-and-a-half after 40. Fallers, working for day money, average around three hundred for six hours. They're expected to put quite a bit of wood on the ground for that. If they're busheling it usually works out to a little more but almost everything we do is by the day. They're considered contractors and have to supply all their own stuff. One thing to remember...a good crew doesn't cost you money. A good crew makes money for you. A lot of employers lose sight of that and it always bites them sooner or later. I think our wages are about average for this area. We have very little turnover and haven't had to break in a rookie in a long time.
So very true.
New statewide average for Oregon out today, skidder operators is $17.23, Loaders @ $18.79, choker setter @ $15.37, cutters $30.28
Apparently we are getting the short end of the Doyle scale around these parts, otherwise I cant see any way we could pay some of the wages posted here in this thread! Trust me, I see every end of this business and the wages you are making are about all a logger around here can afford to pay. I pay my men anywhere from 100 to 120 a day. I do all my own cutting, so that wage isnt factored in. I honestly wish I could afford to pay what this profession is worth, but when it's all said and done, there are some weeks my men clear more free money than I do.
230 for a ten hour day then a case a beer
do you know of anyone who needs operators in Wash, Ore or BC?
There are about 6 outfits looking for operators in SW Washington currently. All pay $19hr or higher.
Why cant I start a new thread?
You have to post 3 times, then logout and back in.
I guess I am moving to BC. $500 a day? I'm there.
That's close to my pay out here. But... I also live in a work camp for months at a time. All depends on your experience level as well. Also can get a $100 per day allowance for using my own vehicle to work. Room/board/fuel all payed for.
Even paying good bucks, we are having a hard time filling jobs here on the Island. Loaders,truck drivers, chuckers and fallers all in short supply. chasers and hooktenders too.
-> Example of what we are having to pay to get operators. Taken off one of the job boards up here. Order Number : 14905 Date Posted : 8/24/11 Full/Part-Time : Full-Time Industry : Forestry Job Title : Grapple Yarder Operator Location : Gold River Salary : $32.50/ hr Details : O44 madil tag line system. We provide accommodation only. Have a good hooker to make things work. Team player is a must. Additional Info : Apply as below. Contact : Phone 283 7444 and leave name and number. Email [email protected] . Cell 6044838020. Fax 6044856513 Company Name : Malaspina Enterprises
As of today they still are looking for an operator
Are you kidding me?? Nobody has jumped on that! WOW. I guess they just don't make people like they used to! If I lived in Canada, I'd be on that like ugly on ape! Even though I don't know a thing about grapple (or line yarders) for that matter. I'd sure as hell learn. That's 3 buck's less than I make now. But to be be in the woods, it's more than well worth the pay decrease.
Hell yarder engineers in the northwest are lucky to make $22hr.
The long down turn forced alot of people out of the industry. You just cannot live on five o six months work, alot of them went into the oil and gas fields, and they making big bucks up there , So no need to come back into logging, Where I work we are training people to fill our vacancys, but it takes time and money. Things are only going to get worse as guys my age start to retire in the next few years. I hear that some camps on the coast are paying five hundred dollars or more a day just to get off highway truck drivers, free room and board, and fares too.
How much are they paying GOOD cutters??
Some pay day rate, some by acre, but with Fallsafe now calling the shots, on who can fall it is hardly worth it.You have to be certified which can cost up to $10,000 to get certified now, and you have to be recertifed every year which is $140 or so. A pretty big cash grab in the name of saftey, which is only keeping the young out of falling.
$500 per day for off-highway drivers. Now you're making ME want to go North! Unfortunately, I doubt that my body could take it at my age.
as a log processor operator I get approx $450 a day here on Vancouver Island, I leave my house at 3:15 am and get home around 6:00pm, it's really hard to find guys so I usually work 6 or 7 days a week, even poor operators can't be found, it's like the guy from Port McNeil said with all the ups and downs in this industry all the young guys have stayed away for the last 10-15 years, not many guys around under 45 years of age, but I hear the guys up north in the oil fields are getting $600 a day plus living out allowance.
075 You are right on the money!!!! No interest in the logging industry anymore. Between Weyco and the Government and all the BS with private lands and crown lands and stumpage it will never come back --Remember the Forest Practices Code That sure went sideways in a hurry.The WCB was tough enough but now we have Forest Safe. Just another bunch at the trough we have to support. Right now its balls to the walls but that is a short term gain for workers Come end of next year the bottom is going to fall out again! Lots of work in second growth seven days a week but even New Zealand is going flat out. Wont last!!!! I know guys here that are just waiting for an excuse to pull the pin so they can head to Ft McMurry Remember a few years ago when we all just HAD to go to shift scheduling 6+3 4 on 4 off and all those other retarded shifts All that did was break up families. Guys working when the kids needed a dad.This sure had a terrible toll on families but nobody in management seemed to give a dam--after all you had a job didnt you --if you didnt like it you could quit and believe me lots did so there went the good experienced guys never to return.
I would not pay a tower operator as much as a grapple yarder operator.
I live in Hawaii and I pay my crew $200 per day for 7 hrs, the cost of living is high over here. Aloha. Kalai
I love the Islands we go there often, which one do you work on? Love to come see your operation next time I am over. Scott S
Hi Scott, I am on the Big Island of Hawaii, just outside of Hilo. Your welcome to stop by if your in the area. Send me a PM if you need my contact info, aloha. Kalai
that's how it is here in north dakota too
What. Theres no trees in NoDAK. But there is black gold.
do the logging co. out west use knuckleboom loaders,just curious I ran my own hardwood sawmill and logging business for 20 years finally got tired of loosing money so I sold out
Everyone in my Dad's crew earns $74,000 a year. And we're experiencing the same problems as everywhere else, everyone because of Australia's huge resources boom, is quitting logging and go to work in the mines for $200,000+ !! Now because of the men leaving, there are quite a few trucks sitting idle in Yards everywhere, with no drivers. And for the next gen, why would they log? you can $200,000 doing nothing in a mine all day. That's how they see it.
So your saying they go down in a dangerous mine and do nothing until quitting time, and the boss says it's ok.
Not quite but around where I'm at here in Alberta labour is tough to find of any kind. Oilfield operator is $60,000-125,000/year with a one year training program Coal mines (open pit) are running at around $80,000/yr starting and more with experience. Forestry...seasonal work and lower wages....can't find people interested. Most government jobs are tough to recruit for as they pay low compared to the local market....but again it's boom and bust economies. Or for comparision for truck drivers Log haul $110-130/hr Gravel haul $130-150/hr Oilfield haul $150-180/hr That's an informal price I got off one driver last fall for the cost of running his truck...he just didn't have the trailers to allow him to shift industries. Also some differences on speed of payment, hours of work etc..
Here in South Florida unless you're working a Davis Bacon Act prevailing wage project you're not making much. If you're on a DBA and you operate an excavator you're making $35 an hour. Dragline and Blue Toppers used to reign supreme but that was when there was construction on every corner. Nowadays you're lucky to find work at all.
Okay, I'm in the wrong line of work...
yup we just lay around drink beer and get paid crazy money
Open cut mine.
I understand that sounds like a huge amount of money to us here in the U.S. But you guys pay a hell of lot more in taxes that we do right? Dont they base your tax upon how much you earn..i.e. the more you make the more you pay? What is the take home pay on wages like that? 74 g's is 2 years pay for most of the loggers I know, and 200 g's working in mines, not unless you're an engineer of some sort. I only worked 1600 hours last year. About 500 of that overtime, and made $68,000 before tax, and paid close to $26,000 in state and federal taxes.
The wages here in montana are worse than the were 15 yrs. ago that for sure.Then i was cutting and rigging for $275 for 6 hrs. Just accepted a job in Colorado for $25.00 per hr. but they are supplying everything. thats just to start. Oil field work is over rated .I am a top hand in the brush and thats were i am happy. For me its not all about the $ though. $25 hr. to start aint to bad in my book. Missed a chance to go to new south whales to cut heli logs in '91 . Regret that one for sure. $64,000 in 9.5 months is the best i ever did cutting as an employee. Had to lease a 518 swinger and 225 slide boom to top that but after i factored in the extra hrs. required and the time lost from doing what i love outside of work i still wonder if happiness vs. work was worth it. I left the woods for about 4-5yrs. and am going back at it for the sake of happiness.The $25 hr. isnt the reason.
I wonder if some of you coastys would let me work for the duration of our mud season here? A couple months to see how coastal logging is done? Sounds like a perfect vacation to me! I can fall timber (our hardwood anyway) and run a processor full time for the last four years.
Some of the agricultural harvesting personnel drive equipment in both hemispheres' harvesting seasons. I wonder how feasible that would be to do for logging. There are forests in NZ that are 'summer logging ' -probably November through April. When does your mud season occur ? Now/ Possibly in the future Australian mining staff that are not fully utilized on the mine site will probably be returned to Perth/ other places HQ to drive mine site trucks remotely online. e.g http://youtu.be/s0RCSX95QmE (Aus mine- remote control trucks driven from long distances away)
Mud season typically lasts mid march to mid may. Somtimes we are able to work right through, but not always. I like to take a working vacation of some sort during that time.
I was making $18 hr runnin delimber and processor in No. Cali......moving to washington here in a few months lookin for the same...
Guys , logging down south is totally different from logging in the eastern mountains regions, that is different than western mountains logging, also logging in Alaska and Canada is another animal in itself. So there noway to compare wages. A desent salary in Ga. Is not same for a clearcut crew than a thinning crew, then u have swamp logging down here, this changes pay. If a man grosses $750 here aweek, he is a valuable employee because you can get a good operator for $600.
Damn, that's less than I make a day.
$19.21 HR + time and half, double time, travelling and production bonus on 100 HR fortnight here on the island state of the land down under to drive a processor/harvester, buncher and forwarder with 12 years ex. Could earn more if i moved to the big island but im pretty comfy where i am, although there is a lot of up an down in our industry here at the moment for a good 8 months last year we were only doing 8 HR days. There is the mining industry for bigger dollars, but im a 3rd generation logger with veins full of sawdust. I have no interest in digging dirt and i love being able to come home to my family every night
if you organized and absolutely everyone refused to work for that amount....they would have to pay more. but there is always some ****in' scab ready to work for nothin'.
anywhere from 28 to 35 hr or 400 a day remember you get what you pay for.
Comparing salaries/wages in different industries not only in different regions but different countries is like asking - "How much does a car cost".:cool2
No, you don't always get what you pay for. But you'll always pay for what you get.
Yep.
Very true especially used cars, in Alabama a ten year old car might be worth say $2,000 up here in the rust belt it's so much a ton for scrap!
Since I'm a one man show, I pay myself $7 an hour for every aspect of the business I do. At the end of the year it averages out to around $3.50...if I'm lucky.
True, I am still running an '01 F250 that still looks great. Bought it new. I don't even want to know what I make per hour, if I added up income at the end of the year vs the hours worked on the job, looking for jobs, estimating jobs and all the other "duties"...:cool2
Yair . . . CM1995 . Your statement sums it up nicely . . . . . . . . same thing with farming, it's very hard to explain to the help though that they are on a better hourly rate than you are. (big grin) Cheers.