Here we have a very idiotic way of arranging paychecks, the contracts are per month, not per hour, so it's normal for owners to steal money by making you work unpaid overtimes. But that does sound about right.
Post-pandemic comeback? Not yet! The dive industry is still crashing.
- Thread starter Darcy Kieran
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I had dive pros quote me that rate. The minimum wage I find online is monthly. So yes, there is a lot of exploitation with additional hours.
I think I'm going to make enemies as in general, no one will start before me, and no one will work after me. I will pay double that. I want my employees to be able to have a decent place to live, save some money, but still have some money for fun.
There are dive professionals making far less than minimum wage right now. I frequently made far less than minimum wage often, and that was when minimum wage was about $7.00/hour. I would bet that the pay scale in that shop has barely moved since the legal minimum wage doubled. They can do that because the instructors know that if they complain, they will be out the door and replaced by somone else dreaming of the good life as a scuba instructor.
Another reason they can get away with it is their own ignorance of the law and their vague means of paying people. For example, I was paid by number of divers and the dives they did, with no reference to time. They would say, well the dives should take this long, and you have this many students, so you made minimum wage. You would then point out that you had to arrive at the shop, fill the van with equipment, drive 45 minnutes to the dive site, unload the equipment, brief the dive, gear up, do the first dive, get out of the water, do the surface interval, clean up, put the gear in the can, drive back to the shop, unload the van, put the gear away, and do the paperwork. They would say that none of that other stuff counts--only the time actually diving counts for time being paid.
That lack of reference to time is magnified on long trips. For example, if you are in the Denver, CO area and conduct OW dives in Utah or New Mexico, you have 8 and 7 hour drives to and from the dive sites plus overnight motel stays, and none of that time counts.
In one conversation about this with the Director of Instruction, I computed my hourly rate for the last assignment at just over $2 per hour. He said that was perfectly acceptable under the law because tipped employees can get paid that amount with the hope of making up the difference in tips (which are rare in scuba instruction). When I told him that according to the law, if the employee's tips do not get the pay to minimum wage, then the employer is obligated to make up the difference, he scoffed. That can't be true, he said. (It is true.)
Another reason they can get away with it is their own ignorance of the law and their vague means of paying people. For example, I was paid by number of divers and the dives they did, with no reference to time. They would say, well the dives should take this long, and you have this many students, so you made minimum wage. You would then point out that you had to arrive at the shop, fill the van with equipment, drive 45 minnutes to the dive site, unload the equipment, brief the dive, gear up, do the first dive, get out of the water, do the surface interval, clean up, put the gear in the can, drive back to the shop, unload the van, put the gear away, and do the paperwork. They would say that none of that other stuff counts--only the time actually diving counts for time being paid.
That lack of reference to time is magnified on long trips. For example, if you are in the Denver, CO area and conduct OW dives in Utah or New Mexico, you have 8 and 7 hour drives to and from the dive sites plus overnight motel stays, and none of that time counts.
In one conversation about this with the Director of Instruction, I computed my hourly rate for the last assignment at just over $2 per hour. He said that was perfectly acceptable under the law because tipped employees can get paid that amount with the hope of making up the difference in tips (which are rare in scuba instruction). When I told him that according to the law, if the employee's tips do not get the pay to minimum wage, then the employer is obligated to make up the difference, he scoffed. That can't be true, he said. (It is true.)
Long term salaries with unpaid overtime is a characteristic of many professions. In fact, it is how I was paid my entire life. I have never had a time-based wage.
- I was a school teacher/administrator for 3 decades, teaching English. My long evenings and weekends grading essays when I could have been doing fun activities is the primary reason my children looked elsewhere for careers.
- After retiring, I was an exective (Executive Director of Curriculum) for the largest online education company in the country. My annual salary made no mention of expected hours of employment, and I regularly did about 60 hours a week, and often more.
Also, most minimum wage jobs don't require insurance, membership dues, or equipment maintenance (except maybe a car for commuting).
Yep. many instructors will not make enough to pay for their insurance and agency memberships.
I was able to get by for years because my expenses for teaching scuba had a huge impact on my taxes. My accountant warned me that I couldn't do it every year because the IRS would claim I was only trying to subsidize a hobby. He said only multi-millionaires and billionaires are allowed to claim losses every year while actually making money. Then the tax code changed a couple years ago, and I could not longer claim those expenses. That was a financial disaster for me and many other non-billionaires. That is one of the reasons I retired.
Which is why I frequently recommend selling a kidney to make ends meet as an instructor "living the dream"
I'm not allowed to pay people like you what they are worth while they are learning.
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Are you an instructor? My IDC taught me to pass the IE with demonstrating skills on my knees. It didn't teach me how to teach. I didn't get anything new from the shops from where I taught. I fortunately had mentors to help me along, but those were not from the shop that I taught at. The shops didn't care that I initially taught on the knees. The first one tried to get people to buy packages before even getting into the water. The second one didn't care. They had enough margin from mask, fins, snorkels, and gloves. They didn't care if my students were rototilling the silt while diving or if they look like they earned a GUE fundies tech pass.
Now I don't know what kind of business you run. If you are looking for only experienced people to perform the required tasks, you should already be paying above minimum wage. Why would an employee work for you if there are other better paying options? What kind of business do you run?
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