Day Rates & Shared Surplus

Pay the crew for the days the job was figured for, however fast they finish — and let them keep what they save.

Instead of: Paying by the hour, which quietly rewards the slowest way of working, or paying a flat rate that punishes the crew for your estimating error.

The problem

By the hour, finishing early is a pay cut

Every crew paid hourly understands the arithmetic: work faster, earn less. Nobody is being dishonest. The incentive is simply pointed the wrong way, and it points that way on every job you run.

Beat one

The pool is fixed by the days you figured

You price the job for a number of days. That number, times what a day of that crew costs — every man's tier plus the fuel and equipment allowance — is the pool. It is set before anyone picks up a hammer and it does not move.

Beat two

Each man earns his tier's day rate

Your ladder, your rates, as many tiers as you run. A tier is a rate, not a rank — two people on the same tier earn the same day whatever their job title, which is the whole point of paying this way rather than negotiating with every man separately.

Beat three

What is left over goes back to the crew

Finish inside the days it was figured for and the remainder is shared out by hours worked, so being there is what moves it. Beat it by two days on a four-man crew and that is real money, split between the people who earned it.

Beat four

You can rehearse it before you commit to it

Set the days you figured, set how early or late they came in, and watch what every man takes home — day rates and surplus bonus, separately. Same calculation the real payout runs, so what you rehearse and what you pay can never disagree.

By the hour, finishing early is a pay cut
01 / 05

Watch it happen on your building

Twenty minutes. We’ll build one of your real structures live and send you the estimate link at the end — yours to keep whether or not you go any further.

or browse every feature →