Commission vs. Hourly

Controversial but true

Every home services owner has had this debate. Usually right after a tech complains about their paycheck. Or after you watch your top performer disappear at 2pm on a Tuesday because he already hit his hours.

We'll make this quick. 

Strictly hourly pay is a losing strategy.

The sooner you accept that, the sooner your business starts performing like you know it can.

Hourly Feels Safe. That's the Problem!

Predictable costs. No math. No disputes. No awkward conversations on payday.

Also… No upside. No accountability. No reason for your best tech to outperform anyone.

That’s bad.

When a tech gets paid the same whether he closes a $400 job or a $4,000 job, you've told him those two outcomes are worth the same to you. 

He heard you loud and clear. And he'll act accordingly… every single day.

Hourly doesn't create a stable workforce. 

It creates a mediocre one. 

Commission Isn't Risky. It's Honest.

Pay on gross profit and something shifts. 

The tech's check becomes a direct reflection of the value he actually created. 

Great job, great pay. Lazy job, lazy pay. 

The business and the technician are finally pulling in the same direction.

The best-run shops in the country (the ones doing $20M, $50M, $100M) run commissions as their backbone.

Some of our favorite customers are PRIME examples of this: Cornerstone Pros, Hope Plumbing, Monkey Wrench, Del-Air, etc.

Not because it's fashionable. Because it's the only structure that scales. 

It attracts the techs who back themselves, retains the ones who perform, and quietly pushes out the ones who were just there for a guaranteed check.

The Objections Are Weak

"My techs want stability."

Some do. Usually the ones who know they're average. 

"Commission makes techs rush and cut corners. We care about our customer happiness."

Only if you built your plan wrong. Pay on revenue and yes, you're rewarding speed over quality. 

Pay on GP and a bad callback bites the tech too, and you have a job where no margin means no commission.

The pay plan does the managing for you.

Design it right and commission enforces quality better than any manager ever could.

"It's too complicated to run."

This is the only one with any merit. And I get it. Calculating commissions is very hard.

But it's not an argument against commission… it's an argument against running commission on a spreadsheet in 2025. 

That’s why Volca exists. We make it easy to run commission plans.

The Longer You Wait, The More You're Losing

Every week you run hourly, you're paying your best tech the same as your worst. 

You're telling your top performers that performance doesn't matter. 

And you're slowly building a culture where it doesn't.

Commission done right is the single biggest performance lever in a home services business. 

It's not complicated. It's not scary. 

It's just change.

The shops that made the switch aren't debating it anymore. 

They're just running better numbers.

Volca runs commission calculations automatically so you don't have to choose between a smart pay plan and a sane Monday morning.

If your structure is solid but your process is a mess — that's exactly what we built this for.