Laborer
A laborer is a person who works in manual labor typed within the construction industry. There is a generic factory laborer which is defined separately as a factory worker. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries employing laborers include building things such as roads, road paving, buildings, bridges, tunnels, pipelines civil and industrial, and railway tracks. Laborers work with blasting tools, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act as assistants to tradesmen as well such as operators or cement masons. The 1st century BC engineer Vitruvius writes that a good crew of laborers is just as valuable as any other aspect of construction. Other than the addition of pneumatics, laborer practices have changed little. With the introduction of field technologies, the laborers have been quick to adapt to the use of this technology as being laborers' workforce.
Tools and equipment
The following tools are considered a minimum for a laborer to keep with them: hammer, pliers w/ side-cutters, utility knife, tape measure, locking pliers, crescent wrench, screwdriver, margin trowel, carpenter's pencil or soapstone, tool belt and one pouch. In addition: a five gallon bucket with additional tools, toolbelt suspenders, water jug and lunchbox are recommended.Most safety equipment that is consumed or work specific, for example hard hat, safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, fall protection, high-visibility clothing, concrete boots, respirator/dust mask and toe guards are provided by the employer as part of construction site safety.
Personal safety equipment, for example, full leather boots, high-strength pants - canvas or denim - socks, lip balm, and climate-specific outerwear, are provided by the individual.
Types of work
Some of the work done by laborers includes:- concrete – shotcrete, gunite, grouting and formwork
- demolition – concrete cutting, pavement breaking, cutting and removal of interior building parts
- environmental remediation and hazardous waste
- fences and landscaping
- Mowing and keeping construction site free of weeds
- street sweeping
- Cleaning of the construction site and trash removal
- Setting up temporary lights, heaters and other things needed on site
- hod carrier – masonry, plasterers and fireproofing
- paving – white paving formwork, traffic control, striping, signs
- piping – water pipe, sewer and storm drain
- field technology
- general digging and grading
- tunnels – drilling and blasting
- Dry utilities – Electrical and communications conduit
- loading and offloading – handling of physical goods, such as construction materials
Pay
As a manual labor occupation, to attract free workers the wages paid to laborers are higher than those paid in general to other types of unskilled workers. In the United States, a union laborer earns equal or greater than most work available to anyone with a bachelor's degree. This is one of a few fields where someone without a high school diploma can still earn a living wage. Union, heavy construction and highway construction laborers earn on average $25.47/h compared to 13.72/h for non-union laborers. In addition to paid earnings, union laborers enjoy the benefits of medical insurance, vacation pay, pension plans, representation and vocational schools; totaling $45/hr and some with special skills earn 'over-rate' wages. It is not uncommon for young civil engineers, construction managers and construction engineers typical salary of 40,000 to 60,000 to fall short of their union laborers average wages of 50,000 to 80,000.However, unlike engineers, laborers are not usually employed full-time year-round and face significant hazards. The additional pay laborers receive is often balanced out by the lesser unemployment checks they receive while out of work and the disability checks they receive while injured—often debilitated for life. That is if unemployment and injury insurance is provided, which is often not the case unless they are labor union members. Engineers are also not immune to being out of work. In heavy civil work, some are employed on a project basis and mental injuries due to stress are a different but debilitating hazard. Because of the wide range of skills and ability to simply provide muscle, laborers often earn side-work as independent contractors and under-the-table work.
In construction, the pay for laborers is low enough that planning problems can be solved by "throwing laborers at it." This can become a toxic and dangerous brew of unplanned work that slides forward on the blood and sweat of hard-working laborers—injury rates often soar. The value of work put in place by laborers and the value of avoided rework and increased efficiencies produced by the engineers' planning is a balance of resource utilization on any large project.