HONESTLY! What would you pay a freelance groom??!

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mariethegroom!

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Please share your thoughts on what an experienced freelance groom should be paid! I have over 10 years experience as a groom/rider and owned horses 20+ years, have BHS stages 1 & 2 and experience in numerouse types of yards.
Please be honest and let me no what you would pay someone with my experience on a self employed basis for yard suties/staff cover/holiday care/exercising etc
Thank you
 
To be brutal...


In this industry I think people are underpaid anyway, however, I think people should be paid what they are worth, and the quality and care they take over their job.
There are alot of people out there with many years of experience and qualifications that I wouldn't let anywhere near my horse, my bed, or give me a lesson.

Thats why when you find someone who can do everything that they say they can, are willing to learn and go that extra mile because they enjoy it, they are a star who truely deserves good salary and nice position.

An average (If not high) salary I would expect is £40 pounds per day around London. Though I know this really does vary from much higher, to much lower, and I have averagely worked for £20 a day.

... Not anymore though :P
 
Up to £7.50 ish an hour in Cheshire. Maybe pushing towards £8 for very good people.

Leave it to the school leavers :p
 
BlueCakes said:
To be brutal...




An average (If not high) salary I would expect is £40 pounds per day around London. Though I know this really does vary from much higher, to much lower, and I have averagely worked for £20 a day.

... Not anymore though :P
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As the minimumm wage for a 21 yr old is currently £5.93 you wouldn't be getting many hours for 20 quid!
 
Double_choc_lab said:
As the minimumm wage for a 21 yr old is currently £5.93 you wouldn't be getting many hours for 20 quid!
Click to expand...

These posts really depress me, the wages freelance grooms are paid is quite ridiculous, when you look to earn a max of around 15 quid ph when you have vast amounts of experience, can handle all types of horse, are super efficient at shows, can back and ride on etc etc. Day rates rarely exceed 60 pounds a day. Often times grooms are expected to have their own insurance (expensive) and have to run cars and eat (it bugs me also when employers dont feed their grooms at shows)!!!!

Certainly is a labour of love! :)
 
You should tell them what you want to be paid rather than asking them what they will pay you. If you are freelance you should call the shots.
 
I think it depends on where in the country you are (as mentioned above). To be fair, I only know a couple of grooms (not on my current yard), and they get nowhere near £8p/h. I would guess more like £5p/h. As they are free-lance and are self employed, I'm not sure if the minimum wage counts?! But don't qoute me on that!! lol!
 
I dont see how anyone can live off £5 per hour-i certainly cant!!
Its such a shame grooms are underpaid, after all alot of people wouldnt have there horses if it wasnt for the grooms doing all the donkey work! Hats off to all those that do value there grooms though!
 
I'm on full livery so I suppose it doesn't count but if I need one of the grooms to help me specifically on an overtime basis or somebody to drive me to a show I pay £10 an hour because that is a living wage.

If I am short of cash or can't afford £10 an hour then I don't ask for the help. For me I think it's insulting to ask somebody to work for less than that.
 
Gardeners round me get £10 an hour minimum,one couple I know charge £12.50 an hour each ,hes good,she chucks peoples plants away as weeds.................
Charge £10 an hour plus travel expenses. I wouldnt do it for any less.
 
It makes me mad that around here (Cotswolds) people will happily pay their gardeners/cleaners well over £10 per hour but just expect the person who looks after their expensive horses to work for far less. I charge £8.50 per hr for the occasional help do for the locals (only the nice ones).
 
I made my enquires about this recently, spoke to several and was told £10 per hour for 1-2 hours a time and a bit less for longer sessions. These however were people who were very experienced and I would expect to be happy to leave in sole charge at various times. I thought this was reasonable, but I would rather pay well and know my horses were properly and safely looked after.
 
I charge £9ph plus travel for new one off clients and then if I have regulars, I reward their loyalty with a deal. For instance I muck out 2 stables and do hay and water mon-fri for one lady and charge a flat £150 pm. And then a returning client with 2 horses gets a set £15 per day for total care excluding riding - regardless of extra jobs that need doing :) Might be worth offering this as it allows you to build up your bread and butter money and then have holiday covers etc for extra money on top :)
 
I would expect to pay around the £10 per hour mark to a freelance groom.
To employ somebody (as opposed to freelance) would cost me as an employer around £9 per hour to pay the groom £6. It's all very well saying that grooms should be paid more etc, but yards operate on very tight margins, because nobody wants to pay a lot for livery, so YOs only have so much money to spend on labour.
 
I pay £10/hr and worth every penny. She's brilliant, utterly reliable and great with the horses (they adore her). She's local and so no travel to speak of.
 
0ldmare said:
I pay £10/hr and worth every penny. She's brilliant, utterly reliable and great with the horses (they adore her). She's local and so no travel to speak of.
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Reliable is a major part of what someone is worth to me. £10 an hour around here as well and its also what cleaners charge. I guess as well how many hours you are doing in one place. i.e. is it worth you travelling for £10 or do you set a minimum of doing 4 hours at a time in one place?
 
When I get my grooms insurance I will be looking at charging £14 hr plus travel over 5 miles, I dont expect to get much work, but its not worth doing it for less after you take out petrol, insurance, tax, NI, and all the other unseen expenses (clothes, shoes, training, phone calls). Im going to be looking at one offs / holiday cover type people so would possibly expect more than for a regular hours.
 
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