I've been asked twice this month about how we approach team compensation. It's not a topic our industry talks about much, so I'll share what we do.
The pay scale
We have eleven people, organized into four roles: wash technicians, fabrication, logistics/routing, and operations/admin. The wash technicians start at $24.50/hour with a quarterly bonus structure tied to clean-line throughput. Fabrication starts at $28/hour with project bonuses. Logistics/routing is salaried at $58,000–$72,000 depending on experience. Operations and admin is salaried at $55,000–$80,000.
These rates are roughly 25% above the median for our region for comparable industrial work.
Why we pay above market
Two reasons. First, turnover is expensive in a process-driven business. Replacing a wash tech costs us roughly $8,000 in lost throughput and training labor. Paying enough to keep tenure averaging 4+ years saves us money.
Second, the quality of work we expect is genuinely above industry norm. Our chain-of-custody process requires care. Our reconditioning sequence requires discipline. Our customer relationships require a sense of ownership. None of this works at minimum-wage thinking.
Beyond pay
We close the yard between Christmas and New Year — eight working days off, paid. We pay for industry certifications (Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the Plastics Industry Association credentialing). We have a small profit-share that's distributed quarterly when we hit margin targets.
Health benefits are standard for the industry — we offer it, employee contributes a modest amount, family coverage is more expensive.
What we ask in return
Reliability — we run a process-driven shop, and a no-show wrecks downstream scheduling. Honesty — if a wash didn't come out right, tell us before the tank ships. Continued learning — our industry is changing and we want people who are interested in the change.
What we don't do
We don't expect 60-hour weeks. The wash bay shuts at 5 PM and stays shut. Saturday is half-day pickup-only. The yard isn't running on burnout fuel.
We don't do politics. Decisions get made in the morning meeting; if you have an opinion, bring it then.
We don't promote people without telling them why and when. The path from wash tech to lead tech to wash supervisor is documented and the timeline is explicit.
Compensation transparency is rare in our industry. It shouldn't be. Most of what we do that works is the team. Pay them like that's true.