How much to charge per hour

For HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops: turn your technician's wage, overhead and software cost into a break-even price floor and a recommended rate for your target margin.

By Amine from KitFinch Prices verified Oct 5, 2026How we pick

Your numbers

Start from a trade's median wage, then replace every other field with your own numbers.

Trade (sets the median wage below)Technician hourly wage ($)Default: HVAC technician median, BLS OOH, HVAC mechanics and installers, May 2025Payroll taxes + benefits (% of wage)Example value — replace with yours (payroll taxes, health insurance, PTO, etc.).Billable hours per yearExample value — replace with yours (hours actually billed to jobs, not paid hours).Annual overhead ($: truck, insurance, shop…)Example value — replace with yours.Software cost, per month ($)

0 if you don't use field service software. Verified plan prices come from Kitfinch's open pricing dataset.Target margin on price (%)Example value — replace with yours. Margin = (price − cost) / price.

Price floor (break-even)$46.66Charge less than this and every billable hour loses money.

Recommended rate$58.33Break-even rate, raised to hit your target margin.

The math, step by step

Loaded wage (wage + payroll taxes/benefits)$36.66/h
+ Overhead & software, per billable hour$10/h
= Price floor (break-even)$46.66/h
÷ (1 − target margin)20%
= Recommended hourly rate$58.33/h

How this calculator works

The formula has two steps. First, the price floor (break-even rate): your technician's hourly wage, loaded with payroll taxes and benefits, plus your annual overhead (truck, insurance, shop, tools) and any field service software cost, both spread across the hours you actually bill in a year. Charge below this and every billable hour costs you money, before you've made a cent of profit.

Second, the recommended rate: the price floor, raised to hit your target margin, using margin = (price − cost) / price, so price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). A 20% margin on a $50 break-even rate gives a recommended rate of $62.50, not $60 — margin is defined on the sale price, not on the cost.

Only the default technician wage is a sourced figure (BLS OOH national median, see below). Every other input is a labeled example: your payroll burden, billable hours, overhead and target margin are specific to your shop, so replace them with your own numbers before trusting the result.

Frequently asked questions

How is the price floor (break-even rate) calculated?

It adds your loaded hourly wage (wage plus payroll taxes and benefits) to your overhead and software cost spread across your billable hours per year. Charge less than this per billable hour and you lose money on every job, before even counting a margin.

How is the recommended rate different from the price floor?

The recommended rate takes the price floor and raises it so your target margin holds: margin = (price − cost) / price, so price = cost / (1 − margin). A 20% target margin on a $50 break-even rate gives a recommended rate of $62.50.

Where does the default technician wage come from?

From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 national median hourly wage for each trade. Every other field (payroll burden, billable hours, overhead, margin) has no reliable per-trade source, so it starts at a labeled example value for you to replace with your own numbers.

Why does billable hours per year matter so much?

Overhead and software costs are fixed for the year; spreading them over fewer billable hours raises the cost per hour. A technician who only bills 1,000 hours a year (vacations, drive time, training, slow season) carries the same annual overhead as one who bills 1,500, so their break-even rate is higher.

Sources

Default technician wages come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook, national median hourly wage, May 2025:

Software plan prices in the selector are read from Kitfinch's verified pricing dataset, most recently checked Oct 5, 2026.

Cite this page

Amine from KitFinch. “How much to charge per hour.” Kitfinch. https://kitfinch.com/calculators/hourly-rate