--- created: 2026-03-12 source: Harper tags: [agent-archive, harper] --- # LinkedIn 4-Week MWF Campaign — "The Receipt" *Created: 2026-02-07 | Status: ⚠️ ALL DRAFTS — Do not publish without Michael's explicit approval* *Schedule: Monday / Wednesday / Friday × 4 weeks* *Campaign: The Receipt Campaign — agency margin transparency* --- ## WEEK 1: THE PROBLEM --- ### Post 1 — Monday (Week 1) **Theme:** Receipt-style maths breakdown **Audience:** Contractors + Workers (universal) **Status:** DRAFT --- Here's your agency's receipt. 🧾 Contractor pays: $65/hr Worker gets: $40/hr Agency keeps: $25/hr Let's do the maths. $25/hr × 8 hours = $200/day. $200/day × 5 days = $1,000/week. $1,000/week × 50 weeks = $50,000/year. Fifty thousand dollars. Per worker. Per year. For what exactly? Answering a phone call. Sending an invoice. Maybe a text message on Sunday night saying "Be at Parramatta 6am." That's not a service. That's a toll booth. The worker doesn't see that $25/hr. They think they're on decent money at $40. The contractor doesn't question the $65. They think that's just what labour costs. The only winner is the person who never picks up a shovel, never carries a sheet of form ply, never stands in 38-degree heat pouring a slab. And they're making fifty grand a year off each of you. Construction hiring doesn't have a skills shortage. It has a margin problem. Someone needed to say it. So here's the receipt. #constructionaustralia #labourhire #constructionjobs #tradie #sydneyconstruction #fairpay #hiringaustralia #construction --- ### Post 2 — Wednesday (Week 1) **Theme:** "What your agency doesn't tell you" — hidden margins **Audience:** Workers (tradies) **Status:** DRAFT --- What your agency doesn't tell you: The contractor paying for you right now is probably spending $60-65/hr for a general labourer. You're getting $35-40. That gap? That's not tax. That's not super. That's not insurance. That's margin. Here's what they don't put on your payslip: → Your bill rate (what the contractor actually pays) → The agency's cut (usually $15-25/hr depending on the trade) → How that compares to what you'd earn going direct They keep those numbers as far apart as possible. Because if you ever saw them side by side, you'd walk. Think about it. If a contractor is happy to pay $65/hr for a labourer — that's the market rate for the work. But you're only seeing $40 of it. Where's the other $25 going? Not to your tool allowance. Not to your travel. Not to upskilling you. It goes to an office in the CBD where someone sends your timesheet to payroll. The construction industry moves $200 billion a year in Australia. A massive chunk of that leaks out through labour hire margins before it ever reaches the workers doing the actual work. You deserve to know the numbers. #labourhire #tradie #constructionaustralia #fairpay #constructionjobs #sydneyconstruction #bluecollar #aussieworkers --- ### Post 3 — Friday (Week 1) **Theme:** Worker perspective — "A sparkie's take-home vs the bill rate" **Audience:** Workers (specifically electricians / skilled trades) **Status:** DRAFT --- Let's talk about what a sparkie actually takes home. A qualified electrician through a labour hire agency typically gets $45-55/hr. Sounds decent, right? Now here's the part they don't tell you. The contractor is being billed $65-80/hr for you. Sometimes more on weekends or for specialised work. That means somewhere between $15-30/hr is going to someone who doesn't hold a licence. Doesn't own a multimeter. Has never wired a switchboard in their life. Let's keep it conservative. Say the gap is $20/hr. $20 × 8 hours = $160/day. $160 × 5 days = $800/week. $800 × 50 weeks = $40,000/year. Forty grand. From one sparkie. Now picture an agency with 50 sparkies on their books. That's $2 million a year in margin. From electricians alone. And what do you get for it? A phone call on Sunday arvo telling you where to show up Monday. You did 4 years of apprenticeship. You hold the licence. You carry the liability. You do the work. But someone else is banking $40k a year off your ticket. Every sparkie deserves to know what they're really worth — and what's being skimmed off the top. #electrician #sparkie #tradielife #constructionaustralia #labourhire #fairpay #constructionjobs #bluecollar --- ## WEEK 2: THE MOVEMENT --- ### Post 4 — Monday (Week 2) **Theme:** "We did the maths on construction hiring" — data-driven **Audience:** Contractors (business-focused) **Status:** DRAFT --- We did the maths on construction hiring in 2026. Using figures from the latest salary guides, here's what labour hire actually costs you as a contractor: **General Labourer** Base pay: $35-45/hr You're billed: $45-65/hr Agency margin: $10-20/hr **Skilled Labourer** Base pay: $40-50/hr You're billed: $50-70/hr Agency margin: $10-20/hr **Civil Labourer** Base pay: $40-55/hr You're billed: $55-75/hr Agency margin: $15-20/hr **Trade Assistant** Base pay: $40-52/hr You're billed: $52-72/hr Agency margin: $12-20/hr Wages grew about 4.5% last year. But did agency bill rates only go up 4.5%? Or did they quietly widen the margin while blaming "market conditions"? Here's what nobody talks about: If you're running a crew of 10 labourers and the average margin is $15/hr — you're paying $1,200/day in agency fees alone. That's $6,000/week. $312,000/year. For a service that amounts to: sourcing, scheduling, and invoicing. Three things that a decent platform could do for a fraction of the cost. The numbers don't lie. Construction hiring needs a rethink. #constructionaustralia #labourhire #hiring #constructionmanagement #sydneyconstruction #buildingaustralia #contractorlife #constructioncosts --- ### Post 5 — Wednesday (Week 2) **Theme:** Hiring tip — "How to stop overpaying for labour" **Audience:** Contractors **Status:** DRAFT --- How to stop overpaying for construction labour. 👇 Most contractors just accept the bill rate their agency quotes. "That's the market," they say. And you move on because you need bodies on site tomorrow. But here's the thing — you're not paying market rate for labour. You're paying market rate for labour PLUS a 25-40% margin that goes to a middleman. Five things you can do right now: **1. Ask for the bill rate breakdown.** If your agency won't tell you the worker's base rate vs their margin — that tells you everything you need to know. **2. Compare across agencies.** Get quotes from 3 agencies for the same role. You'll be surprised how much the margin varies. **3. Track your annual spend.** Multiply the hourly margin × hours × workers × weeks. Most builders have never done this maths. It's confronting. **4. Try direct hiring for repeat roles.** If you're hiring the same labourer type every week, you don't need an agency. You need a direct connection. **5. Know the base rates.** General labourers: $35-45/hr. Skilled labourers: $40-50/hr. If you're being billed $65+ for a general labourer, ask where that extra $20-25/hr is actually going. The first step to fixing construction hiring costs is understanding where the money goes. Spoiler: it's not going to the worker. #constructionaustralia #labourhire #hiringtips #constructionmanagement #sydneyconstruction #contractor #buildingaustralia --- ### Post 6 — Friday (Week 2) **Theme:** The $50,000 question — annual cost of margins per worker **Audience:** Workers + Contractors (dual) **Status:** DRAFT --- The $50,000 question. If an agency keeps $25/hr on a single worker — which is common in construction — that's $50,000/year. Let that sink in for a second. Not $50,000 across the whole business. Not $50,000 across all their workers. $50,000 from one person. Now here's where it gets interesting: **For the worker:** That $50,000 is money generated by YOUR labour that you never see. It doesn't show up on your payslip. Your agency doesn't send you a thank-you card for it. It just... disappears into their P&L. If you're a labourer earning $40/hr, that missing $25/hr would have taken you from $83,200/year to $135,200/year. **For the contractor:** That $50,000 per worker is coming directly off your project margin. On a crew of 5 through an agency, that's $250,000/year in agency fees. On 10 workers — half a million. What could you do with an extra $250,000 on your projects? Better gear. Better materials. Better pay to attract better workers. Or just... profit. **For the agency:** $50,000/year per worker is a great business model. If you're the agency. The question isn't whether this is happening. Everyone in construction knows it is. The question is: how much longer are we going to accept it? #constructionaustralia #labourhire #fairpay #tradie #constructionjobs #bluecollar #hiringaustralia #constructioncosts --- ## WEEK 3: THE SOLUTION --- ### Post 7 — Monday (Week 3) **Theme:** RateRight intro — "$50. Once. That's the whole fee." **Audience:** Contractors + Workers **Status:** DRAFT --- $50. Once. That's the whole fee. We've spent the last two weeks talking about the problem with construction hiring. Agency margins of $15-25/hr per worker. $50,000/year per head disappearing into middlemen. Workers getting $40 while contractors pay $65. Now here's the fix. **RateRight.** It's a construction hiring platform built on one simple idea: the people doing the work should keep the money. Here's how it works: → Contractor posts a job. Takes 2 minutes. → Workers see it and apply at their own rate. → Contractor picks who they want. → One flat fee: $50. Paid by the contractor. Once. Done. That's it. No percentage. No ongoing fees. No weekly margin. No hidden charges. **Workers keep 100% of their earnings.** Not 80%. Not 90%. All of it. **Contractors pay $50 per hire.** Not $50/hr. Not $50/day. $50 total for the connection. Compare that to the old way: Agency: $25/hr × 2,000 hours = $50,000/year RateRight: $50. Once. We didn't reinvent hiring. We just removed the part where someone takes a massive cut for doing bugger all. Same workers. Same contractors. Minus the middleman margin. $50. That's the receipt. 🧾 #RateRight #constructionaustralia #labourhire #tradie #constructionjobs #fairpay #hiringaustralia --- ### Post 8 — Wednesday (Week 3) **Theme:** Contractor value prop — "Post a job. Hire direct. Save thousands." **Audience:** Contractors **Status:** DRAFT --- Post a job. Hire direct. Save thousands. If you're a contractor running labour through agencies, let me ask you one question: What are you actually paying for? Because it's not the worker. They'd work for you directly if they could find you. It's not quality control. You're already managing them on site. It's not payroll. You've got an accountant for that. You're paying for the introduction. And you're paying $50,000/year per worker for it. **RateRight does that introduction for $50.** Here's what it looks like: 1. You post a job — role, location, dates, rate you'll pay. Takes 2 minutes from your phone. 2. Workers apply — you see their trade, experience, tickets, and the rate they want. 3. You pick who you want — no pressure, no agency upsell, no "he's the only one available." 4. Pay $50 flat fee — once. That's the whole cost. Ever. No percentages of the hourly rate. No weekly invoices with mysterious "admin fees." No locked-in contracts. No minimum spend. You're building projects, not funding an agency's Christmas party. If you're spending more than $50 to hire a worker, you're spending too much. #contractorlife #constructionaustralia #labourhire #hiring #constructionmanagement #buildingaustralia #RateRight --- ### Post 9 — Friday (Week 3) **Theme:** Worker value prop — "Set your rate. Keep your rate." **Audience:** Workers (tradies) **Status:** DRAFT --- Set your rate. Keep your rate. That's it. That's the whole thing. On RateRight, there is no platform fee for workers. Zero. Nothing comes out of your pay. Let me say that again because it's not how things usually work: **You set your hourly rate. The contractor sees it. If they hire you, you get exactly that amount. RateRight takes nothing from you.** The contractor pays a $50 flat fee for the hire. Once. That's their cost, not yours. Here's what that means in practice: → If you're a labourer and you want $45/hr — you get $45/hr. → If you're a sparkie and you want $65/hr — you get $65/hr. → If you're a steelfixer and you want $55/hr — you get $55/hr. No one sitting in an office decides your rate. No one skims $15-25/hr off the top before it reaches you. No one takes a "small percentage" that somehow adds up to $50k/year. **Your rate. Your work. Your money.** And you choose your jobs too. See what's available. Check the location, the dates, the rate. Apply for what suits you. No more Sunday night calls telling you to be in Campbelltown at 5:30am when you live in Dee Why. Construction workers build this country. It's about time a platform was built for them. #tradie #constructionjobs #fairpay #constructionaustralia #labourhire #tradielife #bluecollar #RateRight --- ## WEEK 4: SOCIAL PROOF AND VISION --- ### Post 10 — Monday (Week 4) **Theme:** Industry disruption — "Why construction hiring is 20 years behind" **Audience:** Contractors + Industry **Status:** DRAFT --- Why is construction hiring 20 years behind every other industry? Think about it. You can book a flight in 30 seconds on your phone. You can order dinner from 50 restaurants with two taps. You can get a ride from a stranger's car in 3 minutes. But if you need a labourer on site tomorrow? You call an agency. Leave a voicemail. Wait for a callback. Get quoted a rate you can't verify. Hope the person who shows up has the right tickets. And pay a 25-40% margin on every hour they work. Forever. In 2026. We're still doing this. The taxi industry fought Uber for years. Hotels tried to block Airbnb. Traditional recruiters said LinkedIn would never work. Every single one of them lost. Because when you remove the unnecessary middleman, everybody wins — except the middleman. Construction labour hire is a $10+ billion industry in Australia. A huge portion of that is margin that adds zero value to the contractor or the worker. The technology to connect contractors directly with workers exists. It's not complicated. Post a job. Apply for a job. Hire. Done. The only reason it hasn't happened yet in construction is because the agencies making $50,000/year per worker have no incentive to change the model. So someone else has to. #constructionaustralia #constructionindustry #labourhire #innovation #constructionjobs #futureofwork #buildingaustralia #disruption --- ### Post 11 — Wednesday (Week 4) **Theme:** The future of hiring — "What if tradies could just... find work directly?" **Audience:** Workers (tradies) **Status:** DRAFT --- What if tradies could just... find work directly? No agency taking a cut. No middleman deciding your rate. No waiting to find out where you're working tomorrow. Just you, your skills, and the contractors who need them. Picture this: You wake up. Open an app. See 15 jobs near you — concreters needed in Mascot, labourers in Parramatta, steelfixers in Homebush. Each one shows the rate, the dates, the site address. You tap the ones that suit you. The contractor sees your profile — your trade, your tickets, your experience. They hire you directly. You show up. You do the work. You get paid YOUR rate. All of it. No agency in the middle taking $15-25 every hour you work. No percentage fee eating into your pay. No office worker in the CBD making fifty grand a year off your sweat. This isn't some fantasy. This is how hiring works in almost every other industry already. Uber didn't invent cars. Airbnb didn't invent spare rooms. They just made it simple for two people to find each other without a middleman taking a massive cut. Construction hiring is next. The tradies who built every building, road, and bridge in this country deserve a better deal than what agencies have been giving them. And it's coming. #tradie #constructionjobs #constructionaustralia #tradielife #fairpay #futureofwork #labourhire #bluecollar --- ### Post 12 — Friday (Week 4) **Theme:** Call to action — early access / waitlist **Audience:** Contractors + Workers (both) **Status:** DRAFT --- We're building something for construction. Over the last month, we've shared the numbers: → Agencies keeping $15-25/hr per worker. → $50,000/year per head in margins. → Contractors overpaying. Workers underpaid. Middlemen winning. Now we're doing something about it. **RateRight is a construction hiring platform where:** ✅ Workers keep 100% of their earnings — zero platform fees ✅ Contractors pay a $50 flat fee per hire — once, total, done ✅ No percentages. No subscriptions. No hidden costs. ✅ Post a job in 2 minutes. Apply with a tap. ✅ Direct connection. No middleman margin. We're launching soon and we want the right people in the room from day one. **If you're a contractor** who's sick of paying agency margins — we want you. **If you're a tradie** who wants to set your own rate and keep all of it — we want you. **If you know someone** who should see this — tag them below. The construction industry is $200 billion a year in Australia. The workers who build it deserve better than a 20-year-old hiring model that takes $50k/year per person. $50. Once. That's the whole fee. That's RateRight. Drop a comment or DM if you want early access. We're not building this for investors or boards. We're building it for the bloke carrying steel in 40-degree heat who deserves to keep what he earns. Let's go. 🧾 #RateRight #constructionaustralia #labourhire #tradie #constructionjobs #fairpay #hiring #earlyaccess --- ## Schedule Summary | Week | Day | Post # | Theme | Audience | |------|-----|--------|-------|----------| | 1 | Mon | 1 | Receipt-style maths breakdown | Both | | 1 | Wed | 2 | "What your agency doesn't tell you" | Workers | | 1 | Fri | 3 | A sparkie's take-home vs bill rate | Workers | | 2 | Mon | 4 | Data-driven salary guide maths | Contractors | | 2 | Wed | 5 | How to stop overpaying for labour | Contractors | | 2 | Fri | 6 | The $50,000 question | Both | | 3 | Mon | 7 | RateRight intro — $50 flat fee | Both | | 3 | Wed | 8 | Contractor value prop | Contractors | | 3 | Fri | 9 | Worker value prop — set your rate | Workers | | 4 | Mon | 10 | Construction hiring is 20 years behind | Industry | | 4 | Wed | 11 | What if tradies could find work directly? | Workers | | 4 | Fri | 12 | Call to action — early access | Both | --- ## Notes - All figures sourced from Yakka Labour 2026 Salary Guide and public industry data - Wage growth ~4.5% YoY per HIA/ABS data - Australian spelling used throughout (labour, colour, organise) - $50 flat fee paid by contractor. Workers keep 100%. No 9.9% — EVER. - All posts marked DRAFT — **nothing goes live without Michael's approval** - Recommended posting times: 7-8 AM AEST or 12-1 PM AEST (LinkedIn peak) - Consider pairing each post with the receipt visual from the campaign doc --- *⚠️ ALL CONTENT IS DRAFT — Do not publish without Michael's explicit approval.*