# Fair Price for Snow Shoveling

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 29, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199 "2009-08-29T21:02:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![the\_thecat\_hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@the\_thecat\_hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_thecat_hat)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199/1 "2009-08-29T21:02:00Z")

</div>

This winter, my 10 year old son is interested in shoveling our neighbor’s driveway (and the neighbor would like this too). What do you think would be a reasonable price? Should it depend on how deep the snow is? We are in the mid-Atlantic and are in a townhouse community so the driveways are not huge. There is also a very small sidewalk, the length of the townhouse.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199/2 "2009-08-29T21:21:49Z")

</div>

It’s hard to say without seeing the size of the driveway and sidewalk, but maybe three to five dollars for each inch of snow?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199/3 "2009-08-29T22:52:33Z")

</div>

> [@the\_thecat\_hat](#):
>
> Should it depend on how deep the snow is?

It’s common that payment for a job of labor is based on the total effort required. This is often measured by the time required.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-snow-shoveling/508199/4 "2009-08-29T22:59:21Z")

</div>

We pay $10 each time a neighbor clears our driveway, but he uses a bobcat thingie and he’s usually finished in 10-15 minutes.

It really depends on the snowfall. Your son might be able to clear a couple inches of snow in an hour, but a heavy, wet snow could take several hours. Clearing a driveway of snow can be a lot of work.