Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] The G.W. Bush Presidential Library

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 10 Jul 2008, Vern Green wrote:

>> Your flippin' nuts.  What are you talking about?  There is $600 per day 
>> per employee in overhead?  Please do the math.  Let's say they work for 
>> 5 days per week and 52 weeks per year, that's 260 days times $600 per 
>> day which equals $156,000 per year.  That's "about right" for what?
>
> No, I am not NUTS!. You clearly have no idea what payroll taxes and 
> workers compensation costs do you? Do a little research on the costs of 
> protecting your employees working in a flooded out region and get back 
> to me. I know for a fact that workers compensation in California for a 
> heavy equipment company cost the company 24% of the salary of the 
> employees. I would guess, though I do not know, that the costs for 
> working in New Orleans was a lot more than that.
>
> How much do you think the company paid per day in overhead for the 
> equipment they supplied each person who had to work in that area? Do you 
> think those suits they wear are cheap? The respirators? Are those cheap? 
> Do the employees reuse them day after day?
>
> All of these things have to come out of that $900 per employee per day. 
> How about payroll taxes? How much did the company have to pay over what 
> the witholdings were for each employee? Do you know that? What is the 
> rate of payroll taxes on $300 per day?

It's something like 7.6%.  There are no fees that justify charging $600 
per day per worker.


> Case in point. At my work, I make around $300 per day, my company 
> charges $1480 per day for my services. Now, we do not have the luxury of 
> being able to charge me out at a full 8 hours per day, so my average 
> income to the company per day comes out to $975 per day.

But you are still paid $300 per day?


> We are not making insane profits on that, there is a lot of overhead and 
> costs that you clearly have no idea about.

I guess you don't know either because you aren't listing anything.


> In the end, about 28% of the 975 per day is margin that goes to the 
> bottom line. Is that too much?

If you are saying that out of an average of $975 per day, $300 goes to 
your salary and $273 is profit, that leaves $402 (per employee per day!) 
for overhead -- what accounts for such a massive overhead expense?  A 
company with one employee has more expenses per employee than does a 
company with thousands of employees, but $402 per employee per day is 
shockingly inefficient and it argues against relying on private industry 
contracts for any purpose.


> Apparently in your opinion a company that has any profitability at all 
> is evil.

No.  You should charge as much as you can get.  I only object to the 
government paying too much.  A company's profitability is not a concern of 
the government -- they should look for the best deal, but that isn't what 
they do.  Instead they give a sweet deal to their buddies.

Companies that hire you are willing to pay the asking price, so take it.

But if I were you I might want a bigger part of the $975/day than you are 
getting at this time.  That also depends on market value though.

Mike

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