I pay my assistant $892.50/month + benefits?

Question

I pay a husband/wife team $892.50/month EACH + benefits. The husband actually works 36 hours per week and the wife works one day/week(4 hours per week). BOTH of them receive FULL-TIME employee benefits - ie; insurance, full apartment rent paid, utilities, etc.

I am a Property Manager. I employ only 6 employees. Of this staff - this husband/wife team are expected to fullfill all of the same duties as my other employees. Together they makeup one team with the same benefits of 2 individuals. My other employees sometimes feel I have given special consessions to the "new kids on the block"....... What do you think????

Answer 1

you are having a laugh mate.. thats enslaving them.. $892>?? wtf.. i wouldnt work for that amount.. a cleaner in london gets more than that

Answer 2

Just the $900 a month is about $5.15 an hour both of them.  So, If the $900 a month is on top of the rent, insurance, etc., I'm guessing you pay another $800 a month in rent, $600 in insurance and a couple hundred in utilities. So, let me add all that up . . . carry the 3 . . ., times 12 . . . , divided by  . . . ,  That comes out to an effective rate of $14.42 an hour combined or $10.26 an hour for the husband and the wife is making just under $52.00 an hour.  Yep, that's right, with the benefits, the wife is making a killing. She puts in hardly any time, but she gets full benefits. No wonder your other employees are miffed.

If you don't understand how I came up with these figures, I will be happy to share the math with you.

Additional:  Well, at  $1800/wk, that's $93600 a year. Is that correct? Plus benefits on top of that? Is this in the US? Or where? How does the insurance, rent and utilities breakdown?

If you send me an email with the specific details of salary, insurance cost, rent, etc., I will gladly explain how to calculate the wife's income. That is where you are running into trouble.

Additional:  What's confusing is that you originally state that it is $892.50 a month, now it's $892.50 a week for each of them.  Which is it? And, how much is the cost of the benefits? Without that info, there is no real way to calculate what you are actually paying them. But, in any case, the wife is definitely being compensated at a much higher rate than the husband.

Additional:  OK, just considering the salary, if they each get around $900 a month, then he's making around $5.77 an hour plus benefits, and she is making around $51.92 an hour plus benefits. So, It's no wonder your other 4 employees are unhappy.

You may want to consider taking her off the payroll, give the husband $1800 a month plus benefits. Usually the benefits cover the spouse anyway. Then he'd be making around $11.54 an hour plus benefits for 36 hours a week.  Then make it a condition that she has to volunteer in the office for 4 hours a week.  At least on paper it doesn't look so unfair.