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does going through a middle man labor staffing company take a cut from you?

There's a labor staffing company around my city. I'm just curious if signing up with them mean I'd have to give them a cut of my earnings or pay them a fee or this is not true at all? They do provide job leads for forklift drivers, carpenters, dock workers, welders, etc. I'm just not sure what their real purpose is. Are they connected to companies that actually need workers, if so why can't skilled laborers just go straight to the companies needing workers without the middle man (labor staffing companies)?
 
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^ it totally depends on their terms. how on earth would we know? ask them...

alasdair
 
No, never. Recruiters should never take a cut from YOUR salary. It's part of the contract with the company. They get a commission for placing you, but if you say you want $85k/year, you get that cash and then they work out the deal with the company. They might take a cut from their end to make YOU happy or the company happy, but you ask what you want as your salary and then should never bother you with the details of their cut.

A lot of times, a recruiter will send your resume to places that are openly hiring, but don't fuck them over. They can be really helpful with negotiating, so don't try to undercut the recruiter. Plus, I don't know about your industry, but in IT recruiters talk and you get a bad name with them and it will affect your ability to find a job with any of the good ones anyway.
 
Is he talking about like a temp agency? It's been a long time since I did that, but I don't remember them taking a cut of my pay.
 
temp agencies don't take anything from your pay.

here's how they make their money......

basically off percentages. you're going to be on the temp agencies payroll, not the company you're actually working at. the temp agency will charge the client (company you're working for) a certain amount of money, and pay you less than that.

say the job pays $10 per hour. they'll charge the client like $18 an hour. that covers time spent recruiting candidates, health insurance, and whatever other bills to keep you on their payroll, plus a little change so they can be profitable.

but, to answer your question, no. they're not taking a cut of your money. they're going to pay you the hourly rate you agree to for whatever job they get you.

as far as permanent gigs....no, the candidate never pays. typical recruiting fees are 20-30% of the base salary of the candidate, and the client or company you get placed in, pays for that.

100k base at a 25% fee = 25k invoice to the client.

if a recruiter ever asks you for a fucking penny, tell them to go pound fucking sand. but, if they ever get you your dream job, and are really cool throughout the whole process, they (we) appreciate nice shit like bottles of wine, or beers around the world or something. because, cool gestures like that are fucking cool.
 
^ indeed.

typically any company which places employees is paid by the employer not the employee but there could be exceptions.

op, we don't even know who this company is. you know who they are. all this guessing is interesting but it doesn't answer your question. Again, why not just call them?

alasdair
 
If a recruiter is asking you for money to find you a job, I would run for the hills. I've worked with tons of recruiters, and they have never asked me for cash out of my pocket. At the very worst, it's some dude collecting resumes. I highly recommend working with them when you get to a position where you negotiate salary and perks. They are awesome to have in your corner when you need to negotiate or if you want something before signing up. They also save you tons of time, so you don't waste your time going to joe schmoe's office and see that it's a shithole.
 
They don't ask for money directly from YOU. The way it works is that the full-time laborers make, say, $15.00/hr at the place being staffed by the temp. agency. The company goes into it expecting to pay this much. So, the temp. agency tells you they can place you at this place and you'll make $10/hr. The business pays them $5/hr and you get paid $10/hr. Nobody takes money directly out of your pocket, but they are getting a portion of the wages they would have been paying if you were a full-time employee.
 
With this insane trend of at-will employment, some places have gotten very anti-social in their hiring policies.

ChickenScratch gives a nice breakdown and Lysis gives good advice. Essentially, don't work for a company that is anything but a liaison between yourself and permanent employer. I know that's easier said than done these days, but it's important that people don't contribute to the trend of shafting job-seekers.
 
A recruiter or staffing agency will not take a cut, but a temp or day labor agency will. That's why you get your check through the temp agency, and not the actual employer.

I was talking with a contractor at a short term job I was working a couple months ago, and they had recently stopped using a day labor agency, for that very reason. The contractor was paying the agency $16/hr for workers, and the agency was cutting workers checks at $7.25/hr! They were making more off of the workers per hour than the workers were taking home. So the employer stopped, and started paying workers $10/hr cash.

You just have to be careful, talk to the agency, talk to the company. Day labor agencies are like pawn shops, they cater to and exist because of disadvantaged and desperate people.
 
Psychlone Jack said:
Day labor agencies are like pawn shops, they cater to and exist because of disadvantaged and desperate people.
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maybe, but it's up to the candidate for the job to accept whatever hourly rate is negotiated, and you can always say, no thanks.

bottom line....recruiters don't work for candidates. candidates don't pay us money. we work for clients, they pay our bills. we are hired to find people that they can't find on their own.

while temp agencies have the same end game as recruiters, which is placing candidates in jobs, it's a different world. temp agencies build their pipeline full of candidates, so whenever a client needs someone for a temporary gig, they have a database full of people they can call to place them in the job ASAP.

recruiting executives is a different game. they're looking for more specialized skills. if my client asks me for a pink porsche, and i show them a yellow volkswagan, chances are, they'll fire me. my job isn't to find as many candidates as possible, it's to find specialized candidates that my client wants to interview for whatever particular job i'm working on. it would be a complete waste of my time to just source resumes for my database.

i build a lot of very personal relationships with candidates.....we talk about super personal shit. how much money they make, how much stock they have, if they can relocate, if their house is underwater, if their wife or partner will be on board with relocation, how much money it will take to get them out of their house, if their fucking bitch daughter is a senior in HS and the captain of the cheerleading team, etc etc etc....these are important facts we have to get, to make sure we're able to deliver our product to our client at the end of the process, assuming the client wants to buy.

but the bottom line is, i work for the person that is paying my bills.

it's a pain in the ass job, because my product is a fatally flawed product, a human being. i've got some really amazing stories. while most people are pretty decent, they still lie, cheat and steal.

my best story ever was when i placed this guy in a relatively decent gig with a pharma company. i think his base salary was around 90k or so. anyway, we get to the end of the process, dude gets the job, the deal is done, and everyone is happy. 2 weeks go by and i get a call from my client, saying they can't find him. i call him, email him, get no response. so i go to google and type his name in....motherfucker was in jail for murder. apparently he was involved in some crazy love triangle and ended up stabbing this chick like 40 times and throwing her body on the side of the road. he's currently rotting in jail, and we certainly didn't get paid.

while it's a pretty lucrative business to be in, it can be an extremely thankless job.
 
I recently was released from prison after four years, and I have no real option at the moment but to go to a temp agency. I'd say most of the people going there looking for work are cons or drug addicts, as I see guys nodding out all the time. Maybe they're just tired, I don't know. I know the temp agency I go to charges 14 an hour and at the end of the day I get paid 9.
 
Interviewing and Requesting Day Off

Hi guys I had a job interview today. They said they may want the successful candidate to start next Tuesday.



Do you think it would be okay to ask for next Wednesday off for personal business if I am offered the job?

I had a personal commitment and I wanted to keep it.

Do you think asking for this one day off is acceptable or out of line?

I would do this if I am offered the job.
 
Ask your boss, it is not usually to tell an employer when your being/are hired that you need days off.
 
I have been in similar situations and it is better to ask for the day off during the interview or sometimes there is even a place to list it on the job application. The earlier in the process, the better.

In this case, you have already completed the job application and interview so I would say you may have to choose between doing whatever it is you planned to do on Wednesday and having a new job. It will be a difficult decision. If you choose to take the job, I am sure the person/people you made plans with will prolly understand. If you choose to ask for the day off after you are hired, your boss may not understand.
 
This happened to me but during the interview, they told me I had the job. I did tell them (2 months away) that I was planning to go back to Michigan during the holidays and had my plane fare booked. They were cool about it but back in those days payroll was done by hand. If I were you I would tell them straight up front that you have such and such planned and cannot start until xxx date. It's only a day, don't look at it as if you're asking for a day off. More like you cannot start until Thursday. Wish you luck!
 
I think at hiring time it is acceptable to indicate that you had prior arrangements made before you sought this job. They may or may not be okay with it, but it isn't unusual to enter a new job with some commitments that may cut into your availability for a short time. After all, you weren't aware of this job when you made those commitments.
 
scureto1 said:
I think at hiring time it is acceptable to indicate that you had prior arrangements made before you sought this job. They may or may not be okay with it, but it isn't unusual to enter a new job with some commitments that may cut into your availability for a short time. After all, you weren't aware of this job when you made those commitments.
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well said. especially if it's just for a day.
 
I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem but then again it might be if they have you scheduled to train with so and so on these days, etc. But I mean if we did that you probably were going to not get hired, would you have not requested it off? Lol. It seems important enough to make a whole thread about it. Lol.
 
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