Bench joiner's job

[HOJ]

Doing some research for a project and on a particular design, lead me to a company in the business, then saw they are recruiting, out of interest, and seeing the range and quality of the products they produce thought "that would be a nice job".

I quote;

"BENCH JOINER

You will need:

Bench Joinery experience is essential
Be able to work as part of a team
Be able to problem solve and know when to ask for help
Be open to working overtime during busy periods
A great attitude
High standards
You will receive:

Support from a supervisor and production managers
Satisfaction from delivering a high end, quality product
33 days Holiday including Bank Holidays
Company pension
Opportunities for progression
This is an exciting opportunity to join a well-established, reputable business, offering competitive salary and pension plan.

Hours of work: 8am-5pm Monday-Thursday, 8am-2:30pm Friday

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent"

Spoiler: Wage

£10.42-£13.30 per hour

May be not for me....

 

[duke]

Sounds good to me, 33 days paid holiday and a part day on Friday. The wage, "spoiler alert ", does sound like an issue. What is your minimum wage in the UK?
Seems really low for the experience they want. Good play on words to make it sound like a good job!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember the chippie I worked with many years ago - £2.50 an hour and they want f***ing Chippendale!

 

[Etaf]

strange for a full time perm job to be advertising an hour rate , isn't it or am i out of the job market to long now

living wage = 21 and over £11.44

 

[duke]

I remember the chippie I worked with many years ago - £2.50 an hour and the want f***ing Chippendale!

And how long ago was that? I had a job in a herb farm greenhouse operation earning $ 1.25 an hour cdn. I got a raise of 25 cents and thought wow. When I left them for Horticultural School I was making $ 9 per hour. Started with them in the 70's.

 

[niall Y]

I distinctly remember going for a job as a bench joiner many years ago. And the thing that made me not take the job, was the really poor wage offered. If I remember correctly it was around half what I was getting on site.. Had I been young and single I would have taken the position for the experience it offered. But I had a family with two young kids to support. So it was a non starter.
Working for myself in my own workshop a few years later I could understand why there was such a difference in rates of pay. And , it really is down to the fact that one has to maintain such a large overhead.

 

[Jameshow]

Sounds good to me, 33 days paid holiday and a part day on Friday. The wage, "spoiler alert ", does sound like an issue. What is your minimum wage in the UK?
Seems really low for the experience they want. Good play on words to make it sound like a good job!

£11.44

 

[Geoff_S]

Is a Bench Joiner a minimum wage type of job?

 

[Sam Kilby]

Yep, bench joinery and cabinetmaking jobs in the uk are in the main very poorly paid for the amount of skill and experience required. I took my car to ford for a small fault yesterday, £150 per hour “labour”
Not being a foolish chap I know labour has to cover lots of overheads, building rent, business rates, tool purchase and maintenance, actual technical staff pay, management and facilitation staff (reception, cleaners, accountants) training, marketing, and much more.
Really to earn a decent amount a bench joinery workshop ought to be able to charge out labour at £75+, but I’m just not seeing that as a possibility.
Example - I need a big fancy new front door with sidelights and frame making. With design, material ordering and finishing it could easily run you at least 2 weeks labour.
That’s 6 grand before any material costs, site fitting, delivery costs.
All to be handed over to the customer.
Plus vat presuming even quite a small business in the uk, @ 20% markup
The question I suppose is what can the market bear, and there aren’t that many people that can afford to pay £10k odd for a front door, particularly when a generally perfectly adequate non custom one might be had for 10-20% of this.
So in reality bench joinery workshops either work significantly faster than this, undervalue themselves significantly (probably charging itro £35 for labour, which you can make on building sites doing price work in some parts of the country with significantly less overheads) or underquoting and then being disappointed as they are quoting to what the market can bear.

The unfortunate fact is for that max £13 per hour advertised, is that they will expect you to be knowledgeable, very fast, and perfect every time.
So it’s a labour of love !