body shop rip offs

[4x4orbust]

if you are talking how much a business charges a customer for an employee's site time, it can vary but here is what i know.   
electrician:  usually around $55/hr
plumber: between 45-60/hr (depending on level of experience)
carpenter:  35-45/hr (typ)  i have seen some guys charge as much as 65/hr
HVAC:  same as electrician  55/hr

most body shops i knkow charge a lot more than a construction company can for one guy, but everyone has their price. 

as far as what those guys make an hour, i cannot really tell you.  i know that a general laborer's pay for construction (union) is 28/hr.  carpenter's union is 38 (i believe).  outside of the union those guys make 12/hr and 18/hr.   definately not a lucrative career choice.
  state wages are a different beast,  but carpenter's wages for state pay are 42/hr to start.  I was making 52.50/hr on an air force base last summer, didnt want that job to end!!

[Skunksmash]

Don't fear a federal medicare system. It's not exactly what Ronald Reagan was scaring everybody about in that 50's record he produced about it being the first step to socialism.

What we fear is that it will lead to something else, which will lead to something else, which will lead to something else. We have to keep a tight grip on our government or they start thinking they can do anything they want.

[aussie]

i work for myself in maine but if i sub out for someone or if i need a hand from an experinced concrete flatwork guy its $250-$300 per day

[exilous]

Well lets see if I can add to this, I'm a union operator and most payscale ranges from $15 an hour to $40 an hour. Then when you get into crane work that is a whole different animal. $40 an hour plus a dollar an hour for every foot of boom you have past i think ours is 100. so 150 feet of boom 50 extra an hour. I dont recall we just changed our contract not that long ago...nonetheless i used to be a roofer/carpenter making $15 an hour. Nowadays for my sidework I charge $200 per day depending on the type of job. most carpentry $200 a day regular roofing $225 a day burndown EPDM or slate $350 a day. everything varies by the job. Oh and I own a gutter machine and do gutters if I do 1 gutter job that takes 5 hours I can make anywhere from $300 to $600 just on that one job and my prices are very hard to beat on most cases. I know the mechanic shop next door he charges $95 an hour $100 an hour for electrical and his body man he has workin for him gets $85 an hour. when my dad owned his own mechanic shop he was charging $80 for friends and family an $90 hour for regular stuff and for diesel and specialty stuff i think it was $95.