Considering that you can make > $20/hr flipping burgers in Seattle I'd say you are off by an order of magnitude. No reasonable skilled tradesman (or even unskilled handyman) is doing anything for $20. It's borderline insulting.
They have expenses, fuel, insurance. Most charge $100 as a trip fee.
> Considering that you can make > $20/hr flipping burgers in Seattle I'd say you are off by an order of magnitude. No reasonable skilled tradesman (or even unskilled handyman) is doing anything for $20. It's borderline insulting.
> They have expenses, fuel, insurance.
I think you missed important details in their post:
>> tasks I wanted done that would only take someone with the right skills and equipment a few minutes
>> tasks that are near them
The idea is, you're someone handy with equipment, and someone down the block wants lights installed. So you walk there with a couple tools on your hand, spend 5 minutes doing it, and earn (say) $20. Instead of just sitting at home and watching TV when you're bored. If you don't feel like it then you just don't take the offer up.
This is not meant to be an alternative to your day job. It's just intended to be something extra you can do when you're home anyway. If transportation and fuel and other costs would factor in then you just wouldn't do it.
It's in no way insulting, it's an opportunity for anyone that wants it. I'm not a handyman but I'd definitely do this from time to time if (say) my neighbors needed computer or coding help for a few minutes.
You shouldn’t do electrical work on someone else’s house. If it burns down and electrical is the cause as an unlicensed uninsured electrician you are going to regret that $20 you made.
Coding a web page for a neighbour is different since there are often no ramifications in the physical world if it doesn’t load or look exactly as desired
It’s not a realistic hourly rate given the overheads tradespeople have for things like insurance. Where I live a plumber is $135 for the first half hour and then $135 for every hour after that. Canadian dollars. When the phone rings off the hook at that rate who is going to bother with a $20 job.
For a 10-minute job, $20 is equivalent to $120/hr. If you feel that's too small then pretend they said $40 instead, making it $240/hr. But you're setting up strawmen here. Not every single handyman job needs >$100 insurance for a 10-minute job, and nobody is claiming this is good for plumbing or electrical jobs in particular.
They have expenses, fuel, insurance. Most charge $100 as a trip fee.