"Steve" wrote in
:

My mate's 16-year old son is going to do some work for us before he
starts at college. We're going to hire a skip and he's going to do a
general garage tidy-up (and believe me it needs doing )) and clear
the area behind the garage. The biggest job however, will be the front
"garden".

National minimum wage for 16 year old is £3/hour, however I think a bit
more would pay you in goodwill. £4-£5/hour?

Then (bearing in mund this is a teenager) I think you'd be better setting a
piece rate per job. Say, you expect the front garden to take 3 days at 8
hours/day, then offer 3x8x£4.50=£108 to do it. If he then works his nuts
off to get it done in two days, it's to his advantage, whereas if he farts
about for 7 days it'll not cost you £252.

If you can see just reason for genuine delays then you can still give a
bonus.

You can break the overall work down into, say, 4 seperate jobs.

Personally I think it's nicer to get paid for what you do rather than the
time you spend doing it.

Rich