3 Simple Steps To Covering A Carpenter's Non Productive Time

Covering a carpenter's non-productive time

If your business pays a carpenter or other hourly employee for non productive time you better know how to build it into your labor charges so your customers are paying for it, not your profits. The theory for how to do it is actually very simple.

What is nonproductive time?

Nonproductive time is the hours you must pay an employee for, when he or she is not producing income for the business. Basically it’s what is typically referred to as non-billable time. Non productive time can fall into a variety of categories for a construction company. Here is a brief list of common examples:

Examples of nonproductive time for carpenters

Attending weekly meetings

Shop, tool and vehicle maintenance

Commuting to/from projects

Attending educational events and training

Vacations, Holidays, Sick Days

Attending company social functions

How to include nonproductive time in your labor rates in 3 steps

In order to pay an employee for his or her nonproductive time a contractor must charge enough for that employee’s annual billable hours to also cover the non-billable hours. To figure out how much to charge follow these simple steps.

Add up the total annual cost to the business to compensate and support the employee. In addition to hourly wages, here is a partial list to help you out. Add any others specific to your business.

Employer paid taxes and Social Security
Vehicle expenses
Vehicle replacement
Workmen’s Comp
Liability Insurance
Medical benefits
Education and Training
Employee raises during the year
401K or similar

Add up the total annual non-billable hours for that employee and subtract them from total paid hours to determine that employee’s total available billable hours.
Divide the total annual cost to compensate and support the employee by the total annual billable hours for that employee.

The resulting number is what you need to charge for each billable hour so it will, over the course of a year, bring in the money needed to pay that employee for all billable and non-billable hours.

Below is an example to help show how the math works

Labor cost for a carpenter

The example assumes an annual cost of $60,000 to compensate and support the employee. It also assumes the employee will be paid for 2080 hours but can only be billed out for 1900 hours.

$60,000.00 ÷ 1900 billable hours = $31.58/Hr billable hourly rate

To prove the example above works simply multiply the billable rate by the number of billable hours to prove it will produce the total amount of money you will need to cover the cost of the employee for the entire year.

1900 Billable hours X $31.58/Hr = $60,002.00

It’s that simple! Kinda...

Figuring out what to charge to cover your carpenter’s nonproductive time is simple to do, but here are a few caveats to keep in mind so you don’t come up short on the money you need.

If the employee doesn’t work all of the assumed billable hours you will not collect enough money. So, if you have an employee who is constantly sick or is unreliable, realize that even though you may not be paying the employee for the missed time, that missed time is not contributing to the dollars you need to cover the total annual cost of the assumed non-productive time.

And, if in your billable hourly rate you included the costs of items required to support the employee, you will also come up short on the money you need to pay for those items as well.