The short answer: stop answering raises with raises. Test each welder on the joints your jobs really need, place him on a pay step, pay that step, and show him what the next step demands. Share late evenings and erection trips by rota. Keep helmets, feeders and extraction in working order. Then sit with your senior welders before a neighbouring fabricator phones them. A tradesman who knows where he stands, and where he could climb, seldom moves for a small difference.
That is the answer on our fabrication hub page. Below are the follow-on questions owners usually raise.
Why does a small raise tempt my welders at all?
Because money is seldom the whole story. A welder with no tested step has no way to judge whether he is paid fairly. He hears a newer MIG hand got an increase after threatening to quit. He spent three evenings last week grinding out and re-running a staircase stringer the fitter tacked crooked. A neighbour's offer, however modest, is the first plain statement anyone has made about his worth. If your shop never made one, the neighbour's wins unopposed.
Should I match the outside offer?
Sometimes, but never by reflex. First ask which step his tested skill supports. If it already justifies the higher figure, you were underpaying him; correct that openly as a step decision. If it does not, show him the steps: what the next one pays, which test reaches it and the next test date. Matching outside the steps buys a few months and shows every other welder how pay really rises in your shed.
What do pay steps look like in a small shop?
- Step one: tacks and short flat runs on mild steel, with a senior welder watching.
- Step two: full MIG runs on mild steel brackets, gates, grills, canopies and racking frames, flat and horizontal.
- Step three: vertical and overhead work, stick on thick plate with a clean stinger technique, or TIG on stainless sheet with a gas lens and post-flow set right.
- Step four: all of the above, plus checking others' joints, choosing parameters for a new job and coaching step-one tackers.
- Each step carries a pay band, a practical test and a list of jobs it opens up.
Four steps suit most units. Precision matters less than visibility: every welder can see the steps, knows his own and knows how many practice hours the climb will take. Designing steps like these is part of our pay and rewards design for owners.
How often should welders be retested?
Offer a test date twice a year. Anyone may attempt the next step, and a failed attempt earns an explanation plus practice slots on scrap. Retest too when a TIG hand comes back after months away from the torch, because a steady hand on thin stainless slips quickly without use. Steps with no test dates drift back into favours.
What else besides pay keeps a welder?
- Torch time on decent jobs. A step-three welder parked on grinding for weeks will listen to any caller.
- Kit that works. Clear lens covers, a fume arm that pulls, a wire feeder that does not bird-nest, spare ceramic cups, collets and tungsten for the TIG torch.
- A fair rota for late evenings. If your two strongest welders always carry month-end, they leave first.
- Erection trips by turn, with the daily bhatta written down before the bus departs.
- Respect at the bench. A chargehand who asks before blaming and passes on a buyer's praise for a tidy job.
- A route for helpers. Welders enjoy a shop where their own trainees climb; it makes the steps believable.
What do I say when a welder mentions an offer?
- 1
Thank him for telling you
Most simply vanish. One who speaks up is handing you a chance.
- 2
Ask what the offer includes
Rate, overtime pattern, erection trips, kit, travelling distance. The gap is often smaller, or different, from the headline.
- 3
Ask what would keep him
It may be a test date, a rota change or a different chargehand rather than cash.
- 4
Show him the steps
His step, the next one, its test date and band. If his skill already sits higher, correct it now as a step decision.
- 5
Give him a day
Pressure on the spot tends to backfire. Agree when you will talk again.
What if my best welder wants to become a chargehand?
Treat that as a separate path, not the top step. Some superb welders make poor chargehands, and some would happily stay on the torch if step four paid fairly and carried respect. If he does move up, lift some welding off him and prepare him for arranging the day and handling the crew, as the working supervisor post explains.
Where to start this month
List your welders, the joints each can make, current pay and when it last changed. Hold a ten-minute stay chat with the two you would least like to lose; a ready set of stay interview questions gives you a starting list. For the full diagnosis, read why welders are so easy to poach, and for the bay itself, the welding shops page.
