What is the going hourly rate in your area for.....
 

Tradework:

• Carpentry
• Plumbing
• Electrical
• Painting
• Flooring

Professional:

• Legal
• Medical
• Financial

Automotive:

I'm seeking input to compare my rates with other occupations to get an idea of where others are.

I've used the $55.00/hr. rate for years because I remember that as the labor rate I was charged on my Porsche years ago and figured this would help me break even. ;)

Most of my work is not hourly.

But some projects work out better if charged by the hour.

Thanks for any input!

The company I work for residential HVAC $94.50 service call + $135/hr if not flat rated. Comercial $135 service call + $135/hr.

My family's auto repair shop $97/hr(55 years), Firestone down the street $110/hr

Dean

legal here is about $250/hr. Medical is situation dependent.

Thanks Dean - I didn't think of HVAC with the trades - sorry!

Pavulon - thanks - I guess when it comes to rates many times that includes a staff along with the professional. I was just going by rate by myself but in many cases I have a helper too - but usually those jobs are done by agreed upon lump amount.

Here is a chart I pulled from a competitor's website that I thought was structured pretty good to make sure there were no misunderstandings on rates...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1362959718.jpg

PS - yes I know commercial is misspelled - not by me.... :)

Heavy Duty Journeyman mechanics, Dealership location.
In shop $165.00 per hour
in field $195.00 per hour plus travel

Independent auto repair shop - $85 an hour.

You forgot to ask how much for hookers... You know, to make sure you aren't paying too much..... ;)

The indy shop I wrench at is $85 an hour
My garage at home is $110 an hour

5 dolla

Tradework:

Carpentry $20/hour per man
Plumbing same
Electrical same
Painting same
Flooring

legal $75-$100/ hour
auto $55/hour

Never saw a painter make electrician's wage. I was one for 10 years.

At one time I could make 300/day as a carpenter. It stood at 200/day all through the 80's until towards the 1992 recession. After that, I could make anywhere between if I could find work. Today, I have lowered my rate to 80's prices and I get turned down if there's a immigrant available to work for whatever it is they will take.

I could not have any more contempt for the American public and their attitude towards paying for a job well done by a well trained mechanic.

Most of the idiotic public won't recognize that we tradespersons refer to one another as mechanics. Most of the idiotic public deserves Jack-in-the-Box labor. They wouldn't understand the difference between horsemeat and USDA Prime.

The cabinet maker I used in the 80's had it down: he mandated that people suck.

That's the wages in my area, suck wages. But ass sucking lawyers haven't heard.

I seriously doubt that, unless all of the above are illegal. Plumbing and electrical require a license and some degree of professional training, which typically carries a significantly higher price. I paid $50/hr to my neighbor's son in law for electrical work, that was the cheap rate to have him come out on a Saturday as a side job. It would have been more than double that had I hired his company. The only other pro that I've had to hire has been HVAC, I hire a self-employed low overhead guy that only charges $75/hr which is also a bargain. Everything else I DIY, so my guy works for beer.

Yep, the working man is getting screwed these days. Not, only are we losing jobs to the Chinese but,we're losing jobs to the foreign competition in our own country. The pay for tradesmen is going to suck for a l9ng time

I 100% agree with you. I'm giving my 2 week notice tomorrow. I've been a HVAC service tech for the past 20 years. It's not the foreign competition so much. It's that people give no value to this type of work.

As of three years ago in this area, the hourly rate for an independent carpenter/framer, tile installer, painter, was $40/hr. Plumbers got $60 & electricians were $55/hr. Normal civil/contract attorneys were $225 to $250/hr.

We need to divide this discussion up to wages paid to employees and fees charged for services. A plumber on a company truck makes $16/hr here. The company charges more in many different schemes, some up to over 199/hr. A good bit of it is to sell up at the job and the employee gets a commission.

I have bee self employed for most of my life and I did not send out employees in lieu of me in separate vehicles. Yes, this is the way to make money, but I wanted to do personal service. It's a flaw in business to take such an interest in each job that I had to do the majority of the work.

However, I never had any reservation about presenting an invoice for work done.

I have a real problem with those that present an invoice for work done that never saw the work. Most of today's "contractors" ride around in a huge pick up and "check in" with the work being done by those they harvested out of the Home Depot parking lot.

I cannot find any trade work performed within the last 10 years that is anywhere near what I and my contemporaries did 20 years ago. It has become a lost and unappreciated art. I will say the 2 out of 3 PCA members that hired me did appreciate the workmanship. The third was looking at a cheap Lowe's display and thought anything seen at Lowes was a slam dunk. Obviously, they had never shopped at Lowes. You see a red entry door and want one? You become a fool, but I'm the fool because it didn't exist when I went to order it.

I think that the most recent work I have had done was about $55-$65 hr for the lead "real" carpenter and about half that for his help who did some carpentry, paint, or whatever he told them. Had them gut a 1930s house and rebuild it. Needed demo, new foundation, insulation, wiring, HVAC, plumbing, decks, porches, stairs, landscaping, etc. Had to find used/salvaged hardwood to match/repair the old floors, etc. He subbed out the work that he couldn't do like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC (and made sure I got a good deal).and anything he could get done cheaper by a different crew than he could do like drywall. He and his crew were all legal white dudes and he did great work. Perfectly honest/trustworthy...I was living in a different state and just sent him money. I pretty much gave him free rein on the work and he contacted me regularly with options/progress. Even found my appliances on sale and stored them until the house was ready...and after getting a couple of estimates for taking down some large trees close to the house for $500 to $1000, he took them down himself at his normal hourly rate. Great craftsmanship. At first I thought his rate was a little high (high for the area), but you get what you pay for. He was a Pelican when he did my work...but doesn't much come here any more.

We've had this debate before Milt, but I still think that with some marketing and word of mouth advertising in the right circles you could be very successful. My father in law is a real craftsman, much like yourself. His passion is doing custom cabinets and furniture but he does a wide variety of remodeling and repair work. He has two employees but does much of the work himself and takes real pride in quality, enough so that he has gotten exposure in remodeling type magazines when the customer sent in pictures. He has never spent a dime on advertising and normally has about a one year backlog, despite living in predominantly rural central KS.

There are still people that will pay for quality and integrity, I'm definitely one of them. Eventually you realize that you get what you pay for. Your challenge is finding those people.

Zeke...$16/hr as a plumber, that's $32,000/yr based on 2000 hrs, why bother. A very low paying job for skilled work. Exactly why I'm getting out of HVAC. I see wages going down here tremendously.
Fortunately, I do almost all of are commercial service work, where I think wages will still be good if you can get the work.The company I work for also does residential ,which is where I see the pay will really be effected. It's becoming a very difficult market place for a small businness.

Thanks for all the input folks.

Per Milt's post I wanted to clarify what I was looking for.

Not what labor is paid....what the customer is billed for per hour.

Also - there is a difference in rates charged by:

a) One person
b) One person with a helper
c) One person and staff support
d) Shop rates

I'm more interested in choices a and b.

I work out of my house so do not have shop/staff overhead but I do have vehicle, travel, and my time expense to factor in.

Dean - sorry you are having to bail out there....hope things work out for you.

Thanks again folks...

HVAC around here is billed usually around $100.00 to $150.00 per visit. That usually works out to around $75 per hour.

Handymen in this area charge around $15 per hour and $10 per hour per helper. Hiring a handyman is cheaper but you notice the lack of craftsmanship in the overall product (lots of putty and silicone to cover the mistakes.) Hiring a contractor is not any better around here, just more expensive. They farm out most of the job to less skilled workers and just do a little oversight. You can either accept the substandard work or complain about all the defects but they usually don't care.

Yes Milt you need to be more known. If people know you do good work then you will get the job even if you charge a bit more.

For instance my experience with plumbers has been this:
- I want the work done asap and if not now then a firm time. Forget those with answering machines. A cell phone on the job is disruptive but at least I can talk to a real person and get a firm time.

-The plumber is clean and takes his shoes off at the door. He must clean up after the work is done.Butt cracks are okay!

-A decent personality. I do not want to hear about his marital woes etc.

-The job must be done right and if everything works out well he/she will get refer
als even if more expensive. Quotes by the hour or job are fine but no snow jobs...

This thread has gone sideways somewhat but quality of work is more important than a quick low cost job....

miami rates

one American= 2cubans=3 hatians=4 illegals

and that goes for the doc and lawyers too

Medical rates are hard to pin down. My regular Doctor charges around $165 per visit. I get to see him for around 15 minutes, his nurse for around 10 minutes, and his wallpaper for around 35 minutes.

If I go to the quick care the bill is always around $250 per visit.

Baz, to directly address your question about billing, not pay, one has to look at the circumstances. for instance, I get 35 an hour for part time or short day work. Sometimes more, but not that often these days. It's just me out there, so when the subject of price comes up, I can't ask for $100-150/hr. That's preposterous. Yet I still have the truck to buy gas for, etc.

If I have a helper, I can make a little on the helper and I certainly need to at least charge what he costs me. If I have a crew, I can profit more because mark up is spread out amongst the many. And if I have a commercial location with staff, I need to charge for that.

So, the worst case scenario is me out in the field alone with someone in an office in the background. That's why we had answering services 30 years ago.

[QUOTE=Baz;7321756]Dean - sorry you are having to bail out there....hope things work out for you.
QUOTE]

Baz

All is well and thensome...thanks for your concern

Dean

you get a Merican there?

The company (HVAC)that I work for charges $125 for a callout/diagnosis then $125 an hour labour plus parts and or material. This is for commercial customers (apartment buildings included).
Labour rate is $60 per hr. per person for installations.
I don't do residential work anymore.
I'm in the refrigeration union (UA) so I'm making $42.70 per hr.
The indy Porsche mechanics have been charging over $100 per hour since 2002. It's probably higher now. I do most of the work myself now thanks to this fantastic technical forum.

There's still a lot of apples being compared to oranges here. An indy Porsche shop must spend 30K for a PSIII computer and monthly maintenance of same. They have large overhead what with all the environmental regulations. I'd much rather be floating around out in the field from job to job rather than having some inspector coming around checking my work invoices for oil changes against my waste pick up log.

I would think commercial refrigeration would be the hot ticket because there is virtually no DIY work. It's a very captive clientele.

My HVAC / ref guy hates his job. He's a small outfit but take care of many of the accounts in the Staple Center and the Center itself is one of his. He's always on call from 5am to 12pm. He makes lots of money, but no time to spend it. Vacation with his wife and their new baby? Forget it. YOu go when they tell you to to. Half way to vegas, you almost have to turn around and service them.

The guy that I've hired in the past has a 2000-ish Econoline, tools, and himself - that's it for overhead. $75/hr makes him cheap in our local market, and most of it goes to his pocket. Not a bad gig.

Isn't it that way for everyone?

I assume that it is that way. He and I have gotten to be really good friends. We discussed about life and business often. His kids have gotten older too quickly and he just missed it due to too many calls on Sundays half way during breakfast or lunch and family time. Not complaining or anything, but these commercial jobs will kill ya or lead to the ending of the family unit. Stressful. I am not saying one should be a slacker, because you wouldn't last in a service business. I found it isn't just the quality of the work, and that's a given but the service. so many trades people lack communication needed to be in business.

Can be a very tough business and feast or famine. You can also lose an account like that in a heartbeat. Last company I worked for serviced a major national retailer for 20+ years in the Chicagoland area to the tune of 90+ stores. Lost the account with cutbacks. Someone was willing to do it cheaper and will provide poor service. This even with our company known to be their top contractor in the US. Fortunately I got wind of this accidentally at one of the stores and moved on.

Present company I'm working at( 2nd time ), I do most of our commercial work and will be leaving in 2 weeks. I just don't feel comfortable with long term future. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. Luckily I scored a job that will be very good to me long term.

This is a good way to go and where I see the residential market going. He makes more money and can undercut a legitimate business. Only problem is ability for him to service his customers during extreme weather conditions.

If you have a daytime emergency and he's already on another one or at a problem call, he can't get to you. He's only one guy. Not saying this will happen but it can. So you end up calling someone else, he losses a customer.

Sorry to hear about your situation. The jokes goes like this. The commercial guys know their business and the their trade very, but they never sleep due to the big money. All of the residential jobs are left for the fcuk ups like me that sleep all day long.

Even most executives and white collar desk jockeys are on call and often have to rearrange vacations or skip them altogether. I haven't been able to take more than a few days off at a time for the last 25 years. Even then, I was on call and took work with me. It is even worse now because I have to lug along 3 different laptops and two phones when I go on a couple day vacation. It is so hard to get through the airport that it is hardly worth it.

wow surprised on some of the answers here .

local plumbers (masters) $35 plus benifits same for electricians, masons, carpenters, hvac this is union pay scale but most indy's pay there crews the same. Average charge to the end user is $90 an hour.

No need to be sorry. I've always have worked in my 20 year career. I just had something come my way only a fool would turn down.

Dean

Yep, but he's cheap enough that he'll always have plenty of business. Back to that low overhead thing, he doesn't have to charge extra to cover a fleet of vans, buildings, administrative staff, etc.

Another good point. I'm never 100% off of work. On vacation I always have a laptop and Blackberry that I check periodically. It's just the nature of my job. At least most working in service industries get paid extra to be on-call. When I was a mechanic I was paid a small amount for every hour of on-call time, then overtime if I actually had to answer a call.