Different pay for different posts?

[EMTGuard]

We have been pretty short handed at work lately due to vacations, sick leave and a death of one of our SOs on duty. The boss finally took the unusual step of bringing in an officer from another post a few miles down the road. I didn't even know our company had the contract for that facility and was pleased to be able to talk to someone who worked at a post besides the one I've been at for the past 15 months.
The female officer they sent was very nice. The had worked for our company for about 5 years but quit until Katrinia caused her husband to loose his job and she needed to help pay the bills again. She was doing her regular shift at the plant about 5 miles away and on her days off she had agreed to work at our post to fill in as needed.
Of course, it wasn't long until I asked about what she was getting paid down the road. I was astonished to learn that she was making about $2 an hour more at the other plant compaired to the rate our officers were getting at our facility. Then I found out that when coming on her off days to work our post she wasn't making her regular pay. She was getting paid the rate our officers get, $2 less than she normally made.
Is this the way other companies operate, paying an officer a particular rate not based on years in service or rank but based on the particular contract rate is for that post? One day you could be working for $10 an hour and then be sent to another post to cover for someone and get paid $8 an hour, the rate of the person you are covering.
Is this the way it works everywhere?

[Charger]

That's EXTREMELY common for the warm-body companies... Depends completely on what they got the contract for... If the contract requires the client to pay say, $15 per hour, they'll take at least 3 or 4 of that to cover insurance, taxes, etc... Then they'll pay the officer $8-9, so they still make a couple bucks per hour profit... If they get the contract for $20 an hour, chances are the S/Os will see a higher pay rate...
Of course, then you find contracts where the company intentionally underbids all the competition, (knowing they won't get any profit, but wanted to make sure competition didn't get it), and only charge $12-13... Guess what the S/O gets? Minimum wage...

The reason that S/O gets paid differently based on site? If you take an S/O from a $20/hr site, and put her in a $14/hr site but pay her the same, POOF! No more profit! We can't stand for that, now can we?

[hrdickinson]

Different Pay for Different Posts

We have been pretty short handed at work lately due to vacations, sick leave and a death of one of our SOs on duty. The boss finally took the unusual step of bringing in an officer from another post a few miles down the road. I didn't even know our company had the contract for that facility and was pleased to be able to talk to someone who worked at a post besides the one I've been at for the past 15 months.
The female officer they sent was very nice. The had worked for our company for about 5 years but quit until Katrinia caused her husband to loose his job and she needed to help pay the bills again. She was doing her regular shift at the plant about 5 miles away and on her days off she had agreed to work at our post to fill in as needed.
Of course, it wasn't long until I asked about what she was getting paid down the road. I was astonished to learn that she was making about $2 an hour more at the other plant compaired to the rate our officers were getting at our facility. Then I found out that when coming on her off days to work our post she wasn't making her regular pay. She was getting paid the rate our officers get, $2 less than she normally made.
Is this the way other companies operate, paying an officer a particular rate not based on years in service or rank but based on the particular contract rate is for that post? One day you could be working for $10 an hour and then be sent to another post to cover for someone and get paid $8 an hour, the rate of the person you are covering.
Is this the way it works everywhere?

EMT Guard,

The concept you referred to is called "Post Pay". It was more common ten years ago but I see alot of companies moving away from it in recent years because it is typically voluntary and it isn't always easy to get someone to work additional hours at a lower rate.

The sad reality of our industry is that, for the most part, the clients call the shots. Chances are the hourly bill rate on that young lady's normal post is approx. $2.50 more than it is on your site. Is she worth more on the other site? Of course not. Is security less valuable where you work? Probably not, but the client on who's site you work has a more difficult budget to work with, or is a high visibility client and companies have historically bid it low in order to get the contract.

One thing that is lacking in this industry is a career path for officers. You work where you work. The client loves you, your supervisor gets to sleep all night without a call, your company is making the profit it anticipated and everyone is happy. Except you. You probably should be offered a chance to work on the young lady's site when a spot opens up. Your company may have actually approached their client about doing just that. But if the client tells your company that they love you and it would be a big mistake to move you, then my friend, you are stuck.

For your company to raise your pay on the same site, they may suddenly flip from a profit to a loss, if they can't convince the client to increase the bill rate. Such is the problems of the industry, very low margins.

Hang in there and do your best every day. Sooner or later, you will get rewarded.

Richard

[1stWatch]

That is one reason I enjoy working patrol rather than on a site. The pay rate is consistent and there are marginal raises when your productivity increases on a consistent basis.

[LavianoTS386]

In New York it's illegal to cut your pay. So if you make say $9.50 an hour and you get a call to cover a shift at another site, that usually only pays $9.00/hr, you still get paid $9.50 an hour.

[Lawson]

Here at Wackenhut we have a different working operation. You get paid by which post you work at, but typically if you get called to another post it is paid OT. We also have Flex and floater officers. I forget which has which, but I think one of them makes 40hrs a week at $11.00/hr regardless of how much they work or where they work. and the other makes $13.00/hr with no guaranteed hours.

Everytime I have been asked to cover a different site, I have been paid the $12.50- $13.00/hr rate.

[Mr. Security]

..... it isn't always easy to get someone to work additional hours at a lower rate......

Exactly. If my company wants me to work at a different site that pays less, I always decline. Their other posts are a considerable distance from where I live, and with gas at about $3/Gal., I'm actually losing money if I agree to go.

[N. A. Corbier]

When a company has a comfortable enough margin between the average loss a site incurs and how much profit they're making off all their sites, then you start to see such things as "pay by grade," "pay by position," and whatnot.

When the company bids so low that the main source of payroll is the individual site, and not the sites in aggregate... Then you start seeing "pay by site."

I remember when my former employer did "pay by site." The good news was that every site paid 7.00 an hour unarmed, 8.00 an hour armed. The bad news was that every site paid 7.00 an hour unarmed, and 8.00 an hour armed... Supervisors were salaried positions, and supervisors were anything at or above Sergeant (E-5). E-1 through E-2 made ... 7.00 an hour, E-3 made... 8.00 an hour. E-4s made 8.25 an hour, and were "Armed Site Supervisors." E-2s were "unarmed site supervisors," as no unarmed officer could be promoted beyond E-2 rate.

Did anybody notice that an armed officer was automatically E-3, and trumped an E-2 site supervisor?

After we went to "pay by grade," everyone got demoted. Company went from having 20 Corporals and 5 or 6 Sergeants to 1 Staff, 3 Sergeants, 5 Corporals, and 1 Lance (Me). Lance meant "I knew what the hell I was saying, so pay attention, kid."

[HotelSecurity]

I'm in a stange situation. The 3 hotels I work In-House for are managed by the same management team & have the same principal owner. But each hotel is set up as it's own company & the principal owner has different partners. At the 2 side-by-side hotels near the airport there is a $3.00 difference in the pay & yet they do the same work