How to price electrical work
- Cost-based price for this task
- $462.59
- Loaded labor cost per hour
- $47.52
- Overhead per billable hour
- $59.83
- Break even rate per hour
- $107.35
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. BreakerDesk publishes no market averages and quotes no survey: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
The figures above start from a worked example ($462.59). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the How to price electrical work worked example (CSV)
How to price electrical work starts with the rate, and pricing fails when the rate is copied from what the shop down the road charges. This calculator builds it from your business. It loads your electrician's wage with your real burden, spreads your monthly overhead across the billable hours you actually sell, adds the net profit you intend to make rather than the one you hope for, and turns that into an hourly billing rate. Then it prices one task against that rate with its materials and your markup, which is the number that goes on the estimate and in the price book.
Billable hours, not paid hours, are the divisor
The single most common error in contractor pricing is dividing overhead by the hours an electrician is paid for rather than the hours you actually sell. Drive time, the supply house, permits, warranty callbacks, training and slow weeks all come out of it. If you divide by the paid figure you understate the overhead in every price you quote, and the shortfall shows up as a busy year with no money at the end of it. Put your real billable figure in the field and watch what it does to the rate.
What labor burden actually contains
Burden is everything the electrician costs you beyond the wage on the payslip: employer payroll taxes, workers compensation, general liability, health contributions, paid time off, uniforms, phone, tools and continuing education. Take it from your own profit and loss and your own payroll rather than from a rule of thumb, because it is the number most often guessed and most often guessed low.
Net profit is a cost, not what is left over
Putting the profit target into the rate is deliberate. If profit is whatever survives after the year, it will not survive the year. Decide what you intend to keep and put it in the field, because the page divides your break-even rate by one minus that target, which is the arithmetic that actually delivers it. Adding the percentage on top of cost instead delivers less than you think on every task.
How to price electrical work: common questions
How do I calculate my hourly rate as an electrician?
Load the wage with burden, add overhead per billable hour, and divide by one minus your net profit target. That is exactly what this page does with the figures you enter; the worked example, a $36 wage with 32% burden, 27 billable hours a week across three electricians and $21,000 of monthly overhead, gives the billing rate on the page.
Why is my billing rate so much higher than the wage?
Because the wage is the smallest part of what an hour costs. Burden adds a third, overhead per billable hour often adds as much again, and the profit target sits on top. A billing rate three to four times the wage is normal for a well-run shop, and a rate below that is usually a shop that has forgotten one of the three.
Should the diagnostic fee be in the rate?
Keep it separate. The diagnostic fee pays for the drive and the troubleshooting whether or not the customer buys the repair; the task price pays for the repair. Folding one into the other makes the repair look expensive and makes waiving the fee invisible.