Home › Tools › Hourly Rate Calculator

What Should You Charge Per Hour?

Why most trades undercharge: they price off "what the other guy charges" instead of their own numbers. Your rate has to cover your pay, your overhead, AND profit — spread across only the hours you can actually bill.

The annual pay YOU want to take home ($) Annual overhead (insurance, truck, tools, phone, software, admin) ($) Billable hours per week (after quoting, driving, admin — usually 25–32, not 40) Weeks you work per year (minus vacation/slow weeks) Target profit margin on top (%)

$—

the hourly rate you need to charge

Charge less than this and you're paying to work. This is your floor, not your ceiling — price jobs for margin on top.

How to read it

The math is simple and honest: (your pay + overhead) ÷ billable hours is your break-even rate — the point where you make exactly zero profit. Then divide by (1 − margin) to actually earn something. The number that surprises most contractors is billable hours: you clock 40 a week, but you can only bill ~28 after quoting, driving, and paperwork — so your rate has to carry all of it. More on the trap: how to price a job and the job pricing calculator.

Free · For owners who'd rather be on the tools

Get the honest math — straight to your inbox

The real contractor-marketing numbers, one short email at a time: what leads actually cost, how many reviews it takes to rank, why answering the phone beats the ad budget. No fluff, no selling your info.

Join contractors reading the numbers nobody else will show them. Unsubscribe anytime.

Link to / embed this calculator

Next step: More free tools + the honest math at booked-job.com/tools.