Torn On Some things

[Amiers]

So Phoenix has been a blast. Meeting a ton of people and doing lots of different jobs.

Last week I got to talking with the LD on a gig and we were swapping war stories and I brought up my affinity for ETC. Naturally in this version of the world we live in nobody uses ETC it’s all hogs and mas.

So they guy started poking if I wanted an in house job. We bullshited a bit more and he seemed serious so I gave him my card and left it at that.

Well he in fact emailed me and asked for resume and salary reqs. When we were taking that day I was modest in saying that starting position 25 an hour seemed fair which I he didn’t turn a nose up to. That being said do I shoot for the moon and up my salary req in hopes to squeeze a bit more or stick to my original verbal quote.

Of all the gigs I do around town 25 is my lowest day rate aside from theatre which I don’t count cause that I seem to only do for fun lately.

This is a small company maybe between 20-40 people. Currently only 2 in the lighting dept.

 

[TheaterEd]

It's your lowest day rate, but if the gig is full time then that's 5 days a week plus benefits and overtime. I wouldn't be willing to go lower, but it seems like a fair wage. When it comes up, I would say something like $25 is on the low end, I'd be more comfortable if we could get closer to $30 (or 35 if your ambitious) and then read their reaction from there. Just remember, you'll never get another chance to negotiate your starting pay, so for me the most important thing is to make sure that 5 years down the road you don't feel like you left something on the table.

 

[MNicolai]

Is that $25/hr under a 1099 or a W2? As a 1099 contractor you may be burdened with additional taxes and want to take that into account.

By salary reqs, does he mean you get paid a flat weekly amount and do not receive overtime?

What is your anticipated work schedule?

What will your responsibilities be? Grunt for hire? Resident LD? Some role that involves managing other people?

 

[Amiers]

25 is my lowest overall rate between 1099s and W2s.

When he asked what I was looking for I think he was just gauging how I scale things as far as pay.

The work is a bit all over. Could be everything from loading the truck to fixing and or LD.

Work schedule would prolly be something like a normal shop 40-60 heavy months and 40 down season.

In the end I did end up sending 35 after I crunched some numbers. It’s a happy median of what I’m getting right now. So fingers crossed.

 

[ruinexplorer]

I hope you get it. One of the reasons that I left Phoenix was the pay scale. Obviously, what you get paid also depends on what other perks are offered (benefits, vacation/sick days, etc.). The challenge to perks is that they aren't guaranteed. Those are the first to go and last to come back. If they offer heath insurance, that can be a huge benefit depending on the quality and how much of it they pay for.

 

[Amiers]

I like doing what I do and like Money so like I said a bit torn. Being a double income helps as well as no kids and in an apt that has super cheap rent. So we will see.

They do offer single person health benefits. Which is fine cause the GF has hers through the Zoo.

I didn’t ask about 401k cause they are a small house I doubt they have it.