How much should I pay my first employee?
Short answer
Slightly above local market for the role, so you can be picky and they stay.
Find the number
Check Indeed and local job listings for the same role in your zip code. Take the top of the range and add five to ten percent. That is your offer.
Why above market
At your size, one bad hire is a year of pain. Paying ten percent more for the right person is cheaper than paying ten percent less for the wrong one twice.
Hold the line on benefits and PTO until you can afford to keep them up forever. Cash is easier to give and easier to take back than benefits.
Ask your version of this question
This is one business owner-tested take. Your shop size, trade, and team change the answer. Ask the exact version inside Ask a Shop Owner and get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.
Now run it against your numbers.
This answer is written for shops in general. Inside Ask a Shop Owner it becomes your answer: your revenue, your crew, your market, your history. Ask "How much should I pay my first employee" and get the version that accounts for what you already told us.
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