Living Fair

What to tip for labor this holiday? We asked.

The holidays are fast approaching and we all know what that means. Get the decorations out of the garage; decide on your annual holiday gift-giving budget and feel anxious about what to give your favorite provider. Is it cash, a gift certificate, a sweater? What amount of money or kind of gift? Take a deep breathe. It’s not as hard as it seems.

A gift, at its most basic, is a gesture of gratitude, a heartfelt appreciation for a job well done. Your choice will reflect the level of personal relationship you have with your service provider and your budget. As a mom, you probably have a favorite babysitter or a regular childcare provider or housekeeper. These individuals work in your home regularly as trusted, dependable and quality care providers, however, you might not know their preference, tastes, and/or hobbies or what is an appropriate amount to tip.

In order to help answer these questions, we conducted an informal survey of participating consumers and providers about holiday tipping habits at Laborfair (http://www.laborfair.com). Poll participants unanimously agreed upon the three most popular methods for tipping during the holidays: cash, gift certificates or a small gift. Users also provided some guidance about the best way to share each of these holiday gifts.

1). Cash: A gift of cash is always desirable and always welcome. As part of the Laborfair survey, full-time childcare providers and housekeepers overwhelmingly indicated a preference for cash. Housekeepers recommended a range of tipping between $30-50 (depending on frequency of cleaning) while childcare providers suggested a tip ranging from one week’s pay to a one-time gift of $200. It’s always nice to personalize a gift of money by adding the envelope to a gift bag that includes a scented candle, homemade cookies or holiday candy.

2). Gift Certificates: These are always welcome by providers, but they are much harder to personalize. It’s difficult to know which stores your nanny or housekeeper might patronize. Laborfair asked polling respondents to share some of their favorite stores: Gap, Old Navy, and Macy’s earned top billing. Additionally, if you know what your provider likes to do for recreation or as a hobby, then gift certificates from smaller, more specialized stores might also make sense.

3). Gift: A purchased gift is a nice holiday gesture because it shows that you have a sense of a person’s interests, style or hobbies. Purchase a gift they might normally have found for themselves but would consider an extravagance. Polled participants mentioned their favorite gift items as a manicure and pedicure at a local salon, basket of seasonal food items, and the highly coveted extra paid day off.

The holidays are a season of generosity, both of spirit and material wealth. If you have more, give more. If you have little, give little. Finding a meaningful way to express your appreciation is the most important part of gift giving.

Jenna Raby

What’s Fair? Laborfair announces Bay Area first quarterly Wage Report

How much to pay for a job well done is a concern and frustration for just about everyone who wants and needs household, personal and family care. As our name suggests, we help you as the consumer make informed decisions about what is a fair hourly wage for your job request.

At Laborfair we create a transparent marketplace that ensures both consumers and providers are fairly charged and compensated for work performed.

Rate Guidance:

Our rate guidance table (visible in the What's Fair section of this blog) can be used as a benchmark for average hourly rates per category in your local area. Use this to help you determine what is the fair wage for your job. The information is a summary of real time data collected across our site on September 22, 2007. Of course, your agreed-upon rate with the provider varies depending on the specifics of your job. We will release these quarterly.

These numbers clearly show that savvy consumers can save money by contracting directly with a qualified and experienced service provider. At the same time, the report gives us a unique window into what people in business for themselves are earning as a living wage instead of what they would earn as a minimum wage at a larger company or agency. The report also highlights some interesting variances around the Bay Area in the costs of services by region. For example, the average fee charged by a handyman on the Peninsula is $33.68 while San Francisco is much less at $22.15. Hmmm, interesting. Other averages across big categories here at Laborfair are:

• Child Care: $19.24/hour
• Housekeeper: $17.83/hour
• Handyman: $25.75/hour
• Adult Care: $17.00/hour
• Gardener: $17.37/hour
• Painter: $22.29/hour

So, now that you are getting your house or apartment in shape for those holiday parties, you know what it might cost you. Enjoy, Jenna

Bottled Water and Going Green

I’m happy and grateful for the earth. In this season and age of plenty, the popular expression “reduce, reuse, recycle” has never made more sense. If we want a world where our grandchildren don’t have to live in a plastic bubble, filtering every environmental pollutant through a fire hose of sanitized oxygen, we better make “going green” a personal and a public necessity. I’m not a huge fan of California’s current governor, but I am supportive of his environmental policies—advocating for solar technologies, reducing fuel emissions, more widespread applications for bio-fuels and all around aggressive strategies to reduce our dependence on oil, domestic or foreign. As we think about easy steps to go green in our houses, what about going green with our personal choices? I’m not talking about organic food, more algae-based Omega 3 supplements instead of fish based ones, or the holy grail of health, drinking more water. No one’s against drinking more water and less Coca-cola except maybe kids. It’s our universal love of bottled water that concerns me. In 2005, Americans alone drank some 37 billion bottles of water, despite the well known fact that in most parts of the country, public tap water is not only perfectly drinkable but also more tightly regulated that its bottled counterpart. Our public water systems disclose the quality of their water while most bottlers refuse to do the same. Only 10% or so of these bottles are currently recycled—imagine 33.3 billion bottles in a landfill in the US alone.

Add that manufacturing plastic bottles for bottled water creates an astounding amount of pollution in the packaging, transport, and refrigeration-- an annual equivalent of 1.5 billion barrels of oil, according to Food & Water Watch. In an effort to cut costs (have you seen the price of gas these days?) and live my beliefs, I changed my approach to consuming water. Here’s what I did. I bought a Brita Water filter so I was on the absolute safe side around lead and mercury content. I poured the filtered tap water into a funky grey Nalprene bottle I purchased at Walgreens for $5.99. These nifty, lightweight and dishwasher safe bottles are not just for hitchhikers and athletes anymore. I carry it around with me at work and monitor both my daily water intake and the cash I’m saving. My goal is to buy a gorgeous personalized metal water container, like the Boy Scouts used to use with all the money I save. Hippie chic—yep, that’s right. Pull that one out at a meeting with the big boys in the pressed suits. So here’s my rant--just don’t buy bottled water, stick to drinking filtered tap and wine in glass, recyclable bottles, of course. Interested in how corporations are bottling tap water and selling it as from "the source", check out www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org.

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Originally uploaded by jenna_raby

Come on in. The water is warm.

Laborfair is the smart, easy and right way to find quality help ranging from a handyman to a personal chef. Laborfair was founded in 2006 with a mission to help independent service providers improve their career and life opportunities by connecting them with people in search of personal help. To achieve that mission, the company has created the premiere online labor marketplace for connecting people in search of personal help with those who can provide it in a way that’s fair, easy and financially rewarding for everyone involved.