Work out the hourly rate you actually need to charge
Stop pricing off your old hourly wage. This calculator builds your rate up from the take-home pay you want, your real business overhead, the hours you can actually bill, and the profit you want to keep. Made for plumbers, HVAC techs, electricians and landscapers.
Your numbers
The money you want to actually pay yourself in a year — your wage, before this gets grossed up for costs and profit.
Tools, vehicle & fuel, insurance, software, phone, accountant, marketing — everything it costs to run the business in a year (not your own pay).
Hours you can actually invoice — not the hours you work. Quotes, driving and admin aren't billable.
52 minus holidays, sick days and downtime. 48 is a realistic default.
Profit the business keeps on top of your pay and costs — a buffer for slow months, growth and the unexpected. Leave at 0 for a pure break-even rate.
Required rate = (take-home + overhead), grossed up by your profit margin, divided by your billable hours per year. Billable hours/year = billable hours per week × weeks worked. The day rate assumes an 8-hour billable day.
You’re all set!
Check your inbox — we’ve sent your results. We’ll follow up shortly.
The mistake that keeps tradespeople broke
Most contractors price the same way for years and never work out why the money's tight.
Charging your old wage as your rate
When you were employed at $30/hour, that was your whole deal — someone else paid for the van, the insurance, the software, the unpaid quoting time, and your holidays. The moment you go out on your own, all of that lands on you, and it doesn't come out of nowhere — it comes out of your hourly rate.
The second trap is forgetting non-billable time. You might work 50 hours a week, but you can only invoice the hours you're on the tools. Quoting, driving, chasing payments and admin are all unpaid — so your real rate has to be earned across far fewer billable hours than you'd think.
This calculator fixes both: it starts from the take-home you want, adds your real overhead, grosses it up for profit, then divides by the hours you can actually bill — so the rate you get is the rate you need, not the rate you got paid by your old boss.
How it works
No black box — every number is on your screen.
Add up what you must collect
The pay you want to keep plus your full business overhead, then grossed up by your target profit margin.
Find your real billable hours
Billable hours per week × weeks worked per year. These are invoice-able hours only — not every hour you're awake.
Get your rate
Divide what you must collect by your billable hours and you have the hourly rate — plus a day rate and a break-even floor.
How to work out what to charge per hour as a contractor
If you have ever wondered how much should I charge per hour, the honest answer is that your rate is not a market average you copy — it is a number you build from your own costs. This free hourly rate calculator works the same way a good estimator does: it starts with the take-home pay you want, adds your real business overhead, grosses it up for profit, then divides by the hours you can actually bill. The result is a contractor labor rate that pays you fairly and keeps the business solvent.
It is built for trades where the gap between hours worked and hours billed is brutal — plumbers, HVAC techs, electricians, landscapers, roofers, painters and handymen. A plumber on the tools 30 billable hours a week, working 48 weeks a year, has to recover a full year of pay and overhead across about 1,440 invoice-able hours, not 2,000. Miss that and you are quietly working for less than minimum wage on the unpaid quoting, driving and admin nobody pays you for.
Use it before you set a price list, raise your rates, or quote a big job. Punch in your numbers, read your required hourly rate and suggested day rate, and you will know exactly what to charge — and where your break-even floor sits, so you never accidentally bid below cost again.
Frequently asked questions
Is the hourly rate calculator free?
Do I need to sign up or create an account?
How much should a contractor charge per hour?
Why is my real hourly rate so much higher than my old wage?
What are billable hours and why do they matter?
What is the difference between my break-even rate and my charge rate?
More free tools for your business
Built by LeadChime for tradespeople and service businesses — all free, no signup.
Missed-Call Revenue Calculator
See how much revenue your business loses to missed calls every month — and what winning them back is worth.
Material & Markup Calculators
Per-trade material math — paint, concrete, mulch, BTU sizing, wire gauge, pipe sizing — plus markup.
Job Profit & Margin Calculator
See the real profit on a job after materials, labor, overhead and drive time — and flag the money-losers.
Charge the right rate on every quote and invoice
Knowing your number is step one — getting paid it is step two. LeadChime quotes and invoicing let you load your rate once and send polished, itemised quotes and invoices in seconds, so every job goes out priced to actually make you money instead of guessed on the back of a card.