College Pro reviews about "minimum wage"

They have given me some blatantly wrong advice, such as telling me the wrong minimum wage, and not taking responsibility for telling me so and having me pay employees that for a few weeks. And "I'm not telling you what to do" but said I could just increase it now without saying anything. Also they didn't get me my checks for employees for a month which caused problems, this was after I paid for them.

This is a long one, but believe me it’s for a reason. I believe the franchise I worked for and the college pro system as a whole is exploitative. College students of minimal experience are often put to work in dangerous conditions for low wages. Jobs were almost always under budgeted, yet plentiful. Work was often rushed and it was quantity over quality (which seems to be what keeps college pro franchises running). Budgets were so tight that the painters were usually making minimum wage on every job. Bi-weekly paychecks were quite low every time for painters when you take rain days+low wages into account. Every worker went through heights safety certification, but it seemed like that was only done for liability reasons due to the fact that we rarely- if ever- followed heights safety guidelines (it was nearly impossible to do so, here’s why). Jobs almost always required tall ladders, and it was never common practice to tie ourselves off because it takes too much time out of our already-too-low budget (also, most ladder placements simply did not have any logical places to tie a harness in the first place). If there was any hope for the painters to get paid more than minimum wage, we needed to rush everything from safety to quality of work. From the beginning of the summer I urged my franchisee to make changes, increase wages, increase budgets, take safer jobs instead of painting 2-3 story tall mansions every week. None of it ever came to fruition and I wasn’t about to stick around and partake in unsafe, unfair work, so I quit midway through the summer along with most of the other painters (the turnover rate for this job is unbelievable). College pro is not worth your time and I advise any college student who wishes to work in trades over the summer to find something better. Working a trade may be tough, tiring and even a little dangerous sometimes; working for college pro is all that, PLUS you get underpaid. P.S: Although the workers get screwed over, your franchisee and ESPECIALLY college pro corporate still end up making some good money, so make sure you at least get a thank you after you end up quitting.

Commission based work Often paid lower than minimum wage due to timing constraints

I can't believe this place still exists. This was my summer job in college for 2 summers. Let me fill you in on the scam. They sucker some poor college kid to bang on doors to drum up business and recruit and build a team. Only issue - they usually get crap territories and lowball the jobs to get the contracts. In comes you, the gullible sap who gets lured in with a promise of $15/hour or better. Here comes the hustle... You get the bare minimum of training and aren't encouraged to do any kind of decent job. Reason being: you are paid based on the estimate for the job. If the job estimate to paint the house was $2K (which includes paint & materials, overhead, and then your salaries), you are locked in to what you will get paid on that job. Let's say the estimate factors your share of labor at 20 hours to complete the job. If you finish in 20 hours, you get paid at $15/hour - great! If you finish sooner than 20 hours, you get paid even MORE! WOW!!! Think of the UPSIDE!!! But oh no, here comes the hustle (and the reality of College Pro). Instead, remember, your schmuck boss low-balled the quotes to get the work to hit his number. That $2,000 estimate that binds you on what you get paid? Well, it really should have been a $3,500 estimate because it's not going to take 20 hours. It's going to take 40 hours. That $15/hr you thought you were getting paid? No - now it's $7.50/hour. And that's being generous - more often than not, the estimates were off by worse than that. When I worked there, I was making less than minimum wage. These were all houses that were in terrible shape that hadn't been painted in decades with tons of scraping, old windows that had to be re-puttied, etc etc. After 3-4 jobs where you've killed half your summer to get paid slave wages, you and your crew look through the other booked jobs. Yep - all $1200-$2000 jobs that were equally horribly estimated. Our entire crew walked off the job and went out on our own and found our own work based off folks who would see us working in the neighborhood. We didn't have the overhead of a College Pro and could quote based on reality to get the job done and actually get paid (and not feel pressured to do a half-a$$ed job to rush through). Almost 30 years later, these guys are still around. And here they are, trolling Glasssdoor to express their fake shock that people trash them out here with a promise to address it. If they addressed it, they would be out of business because you are the sucker.

Depending on who your boss/manager is, your training will vary. If you're lucky you will spend your first week with an experienced crew on a house with a flat landscape that will allow for easy and steady ladder placement. If you're not so lucky you may be stuck with a house on a hill where ladder placement feels impossible and you'll be spending your first day on the job 20+ feet in the air clinging to the ladder while attempting to paint a house for the first time.

Poor safety gear, tried to pay is less than minimum wage, and poor planning/ budgeting led to frustrating projects where we would get yelled at for taking “too long” on a project where the owner of the franchise promised unmeetable goal. Lastly the whole “buy your own franchise” angle they take with employees is very fishy and feels like they just want to further take advantage of employees

I was paid minimum wage for skilled labor

- "Budget System" rarely works, usually are paid minimum wage or slightly above. - Rushed paint jobs, never got to spend time and do a good job, rather it was about how many homes we could knock out in a short period of time. - Poor training led to several mistakes that cost time - Working long shifts into the night, typically going home exhausted - Expect you to do things without pay such as, 'training events,' and marketing. - Unpaid lunches - Required to drive to different houses that could be over 30 min without compensation -Inexperienced staff that cant answer questions. - You are responsible for not only painting but, pressure washing, canvassing, and basically doing everything the Franchisee should be doing.