Free calculator
Bill rate calculator
Find out what each hour of labour really costs you, and what to charge so every job makes money.
Your bill-out rate
$76.57/ hr
- Break-even rate
- $65.08
- True cost per hour worked
- $39.10
- Billable hours / yr
- 1,542
- Hours worked / yr
- 1,928
What each billed hour pays for
- Wage for the hour$30.00
- Unbilled time on the clock$7.50
- Paid vacation and holidays$2.96
- Taxes, workers' comp, benefits$8.42
- Overhead$16.21
- Profit$11.49
The wage is only 39% of what you need to charge.
How the rate is worked out
Four steps, all per worker per year.
- 01
Add up what a worker really costs
Wages for every paid hour, including vacation and holidays, plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits. This is the labour burden most pricing leaves out.
- 02
Add their share of overhead
Trucks, insurance, the office, software and your own salary are split across your field workers.
- 03
Divide by the hours you can bill
Not every paid hour is billable. Take out time off, then the travel, shop time, rain days and callbacks nobody pays for. The result is your break-even rate.
- 04
Add profit
Bill-out rate = break-even rate ÷ (1 − margin). For a 15% margin, divide by 0.85. Adding 15% on top only gets you about 13%.
Most contractors guess their billable hours.
Dropping from 80% to 70% billable adds almost $11 an hour to the rate in the example above. Supercrew tracks hours, travel time and labour cost by job automatically, so you price from real numbers.
See how time tracking worksBill-out rate questions
What is a bill-out rate?+
The hourly rate you charge customers for a worker's time. It has to cover their wage, the labour burden on top of it, the hours you pay for but can't bill, your overhead, and profit.
What is labour burden?+
Everything an employee costs beyond their hourly wage: payroll taxes, workers' comp or WCB, benefits, and paid time off. For most trades it adds 25% to 40% to the wage, and more in high-risk trades like roofing.
What billable percentage should I use?+
Most field crews bill 70% to 85% of the hours they work. Drives between sites, material runs, shop time, rain days and warranty callbacks all come out of it. If you don't know yours, track a few weeks of hours by job and compare billed hours to paid hours.
Should I use margin or markup?+
This calculator uses margin: profit as a share of the price. A 15% margin means dividing your costs by 0.85. Adding a 15% markup to cost only gives you a 13% margin.
Does this work in Canada?+
Yes. Enter CPP and EI as payroll taxes and your WCB rate for workers' comp. The math is the same in any currency.
Know what every hour costs.
Track labour cost by job, automatically. Set up in five minutes.
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