A plumbing shop’s pay sheet reads like nothing else in construction: apprentices climbing toward a card by the hour, techs earning a cut of their tickets, a phone that pays three ways at 2 a.m. WageTime pays the trade the way it actually earns.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 504,500 plumber, pipefitter, and steamfitter jobs in 2024, at a median wage of $62,970. Almost none of them are paid one flat way, and the office inherits every wrinkle on Friday.
Texas licenses a journeyman plumber at 8,000 documented hours. Union ladders step apprentices from around 35% of journeyman scale toward 75% and up as those hours accumulate. Someone has to total the hours, catch the step date, and change the rate. In many shops that someone is a memory.
A tech earns a cut of the ticket, $25 a drain call, a spiff when the tankless sells. The dispatch platform (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge) counts it beautifully, then payroll gets a hand-typed lump. Federal rules put nondiscretionary spiffs and commissions inside the overtime rate; the lump quietly doesn’t.
A Saturday emergency touches a stipend for carrying the phone, call-back pay for rolling the truck, and a weekend differential on the hours. The customer pays an after-hours premium on the invoice. The tech gets paid from whatever the office can reconstruct on Monday.
A backflow tester’s ASSE 5110 card renews every three years. Medical-gas work is stricter: the 6010 certification runs a three-year cycle while the braze qualification behind it comes due every six months. A lapsed card isn’t a renewal fee; it’s a job the shop can no longer legally send anyone to.
A UA local’s package stacks welfare, pension, surety, education, and training funds on every hour, each at its own rate, then takes a working assessment as a percent of gross wages on top. The remittance rebuilds all of it in a spreadsheet every month, due on the 15th.
Apprentice steps run as percentages of your journeyman scale and take effect on their dates, and because time tracking and payroll share one WageTime record, the hours toward the next step are a report, not a filing-cabinet project.
| Worker | OJT hours | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Marisol T. · Apprentice 65%Step rate $28.60/hr | 6,940 | 75% at 7,000 hrs |
| Dev P. · Apprentice 45%Step rate $19.80/hr | 2,180 | 55% at 3,000 hrs |
| Cole B. · Apprentice 35%Step rate $15.40/hr | 620 | 45% at 1,000 hrs |
| Ray N. · JourneymanScale rate $44.00/hr | card current | Master exam window 2027 |
Replaces the sticky note that says who gets a raise when, and the timesheet archaeology every step date demands.
A percentage of the ticket, a flat spiff per drain call, and a tiered commission on sold work land as computed lines on the same check as base wages, itemized where the tech can check them.
Replaces the whiteboard ledger of who sold what, and the Friday lump that flattens it.
The 2 a.m. rotation pays by rule, not Monday-morning memory: a weekly stipend as a flat-amount code, call-backs paid from WageTime’s GPS-stamped punches, and the night or weekend differential riding the same hours on the same check.
Replaces the Monday reconstruction of the weekend, and the argument about who actually carried the phone.
The strangest clock in plumbing lives on the WageTime payroll record: the braze qualification behind an ASSE 6010 med-gas card comes due every six months, while the certification itself runs three years. Every date gets 30, 60, and 90-day alerts.
| Worker | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ray N.Backflow tester · ASSE 5110 | Mar 2027 | Current |
| Marisol T.Med-gas installer · ASSE 6010 | Aug 2028 | Braze re-qual Sep 2026 |
| Owen S.Journeyman license | Nov 2026 | Renewal alert set |
| Dev P.Gas fitter license (MA) | Jan 2028 | Current |
| Cole B.Confined-space training | completed May 2026 | On record |
Replaces the folder of cards in the office drawer, and the backflow contract you couldn’t take because nobody caught the lapse.
A UA package figured the way the local writes it: per-hour funds stacked on every hour, plus the working assessment as a percent of gross, computed from the WageTime run that paid the crew. Union payroll is an add-on, scoped and priced on the demo.
Replaces the month-end remittance spreadsheet that never ties out on the first try.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoMost shops step apprentices as a percentage of journeyman scale; union ladders run from roughly 35% up through 75% and beyond as on-the-job hours accumulate. WageTime runs those steps as classification rates with effective dates and totals logged hours from time tracking, so each step lands on schedule. The ladder itself is your call, and your state’s.
Under federal rules, nondiscretionary spiffs and commissions count in the regular rate that overtime is figured on, a detail most whiteboard comp plans miss. WageTime runs performance pay as pay codes inside the run, and when a tech works two or more hourly rates in a week, overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate. Bring one real week to the demo.
Federal guidance separates waiting to be engaged, which is generally unpaid, from being engaged to wait, which is paid, and the line runs on how restricted the tech’s time is. That policy call is yours. WageTime gives it a place to run: on-call stipends, call-back pay, and weekend or night differentials as pay codes on the same check as wages.
Yes. Credentials live on the employee record with date-driven expiration alerts on a recurring 30, 60, and 90-day schedule and the documents attached: ASSE 5110 backflow cards on their three-year cycle, ASSE 6010 med-gas certifications with their six-month braze re-qualification dates, separate gas-fitting licenses where your state requires one, and journeyman renewals.
Union payroll is an add-on, scoped and priced on the demo. It carries multiple locals and classifications with dues checkoff, fringe calculations, and fund contribution handling in the run: per-hour funds at their CBA rates and working assessments taken as a percent of gross wages, each figured from hours and wages already paid, with a report per fund.
$50 per month per company plus $10 per person paid that month, with unlimited runs, so weekly pay, a final check, and an off-cycle spiff run cost nothing extra. Union payroll and certified payroll are add-ons, scoped and priced on the demo. Moving over is full-service and paid, and we’ll map the timing around your busy season before you commit.
One week of tickets and timesheets, your apprentice ladder, the on-call rotation, and if you’re union, the local’s wage sheet. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll see the steps, the spiffs, a 2 a.m. call-back, and what a month actually costs.
Book a 20-minute demo