Strictly Joe Rogan
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What do those of you in the legal market pay trimmers on a 1099? Piece rate, hourly?
If you are paying them on a 1099 (which I would personally never go for as a trimmer), you have to be sure that you are not providing them with the tools to do the job. No scissors, cleaning supplies, trim bins, etc. If you do provide them, they are NOT independent contractors, and they have the right to sue you for the taxes you should have taken out. Make sure youāre legally covered before before going that route.
That being said, $17 an hour is the minimum for a living wage here in Oregon. Anything less than that, imho, is unacceptable. $150 a day is the minimum someone should be making, especially if they are good at what they do. I ran crews for years, and since it went legal, I have not seen trimmers paid in the rec market anywhere near what they should.
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$10-18/hour is what Iāve mostly seen for hand trimming, honestly no idea what people who run machine trimmers for high volume licensees (in Florida, etc) are paid.
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Whether hand or machine trimming, the rate of pay should, at a minimum, be equivalent to what the state of residence/work performed determines to be a living wage. Trimmers and packagers are so often treated less than. People forget that hand trimming and manual packaging are skills that takes time and effort to develop, just like growing or extracting.
Edit: Trimming is also viewed, generally speaking, as a shitty job. We should place greater value on the people who do the jobs we donāt want to.
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Yeah itās pretty sad to see, people are so desperate & hopeful to get in the industry that theyāll take anything. Most think if they become a trimmer/budtender/farmhand for an MSO that theyāll easily move up the ranks and get a great long-term job. Not to get off topic but this industry really doesnāt offer that - it requires a large scale low wage labor base, and not that much middle management. Youād probably be better off getting a job at CVS or something.
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My ability to trim 2lbs a day out of popcorn crap got me stuck in processing for years. @cyclopath was not allowed to pull me from the department where they could capitalize on low wages for high-performance, even though I was the best fit as his assistant. It extended when I took over the lab for Cyclo, and they paid me $16 an hour to run the lab and manage the minions (plus still have to take over for processing and grow duties from time to time).
This is why Iām starting a hot sauce company.
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100/hr was my going rate.
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exactly why i fly some of my best friends out and give em a place to stay and provide (cheap) decent meals, so their only cost is when we go out for the night, etc.
Its a job a i despise now, just cuz ive got so much other stuff going on. So im more than happy to pay some friends to trim for me, it gives me a chance to chill while still maintaining my average day routine
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when i was younger i would charge Ā£100 / 2x 600w lights in a day.
(roughly a kilo depending on grower )
In todays money it works out about Ā£170 / Ā£200 per Kg
That being said, $17 an hour is the minimum for a living wage here in Oregon. Anything less than that, imho, is unacceptable. $150 a day is the minimum someone should be making, especially if they are good at what they do. I ran crews for years, and since it went legal, I have not seen trimmers paid in the rec market anywhere near what they should.
That sounds about right, itās a little over what the staffing agencies are paying out. I havenāt asked them what they charge, but Iād prefer to leave them out of the equation as we donāt need a lot of extra labor often
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good seating, good bins, better lighting (cheap standing lamps can be found at walmart/ikea) , tin foil for sharpening scissors, 99% iso, paper towels, air conditioning/heating, sending them home with weed, oh and finding someone who can be in charge of the trim crew really helps as well. My mistake in the past is allowing people to use recreational drugs etc, and not having somebody in charge to regulate things. While I donāt care if people smoke weed, eat adder all, eat Xanax, I care if theyāre not working to potential. What Iām saying is speak up and correct people if drug use is a theme of conversation, or if exchange happens while at work, or even if things like distracting conversation, and excessive ( or excessively long) smoke breaks. That shit should be done at home or at the very least away from work. If youdonāt speak up, a culture of drug use attracts a multitude of issues., many times people who are already friends become the issue. Picking a trim boss is really helpful on the efficiency side. Just make it clear what you would say to the trimmers, It helps things go more streamline, and you donāt have to be the bad guy all the time and can kind of split that job. Having someone working with the trimmers who is in total understanding of how things should look, is super helpful, and its super important that someone is on top of bag weights all the time. Pretty much by paying a specific harvester/trimmer more to be the trim boss, you donāt have to spend as much time micromanaging peoples on the schedules, managing how the bags look, and taking daily inventory.
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Thanks for the feedbackā¦ Iāve found discussions to be the only way to keep them from complaining. Find a subject they have interest in and talk about it. I think maybe a good podcast would be great for this.
Letās keep these ideas going! Iām sure everyone out there can benefit from ideas on keeping their workers productivity going. Itās a tough balance between structure and fun work environment that I myself have struggled with.