WORKING FOR YOURSELF
What should you charge per hour?
Set an hourly rate that pays the take-home you want, your tax set-aside and your business costs, based on the hours you can really bill. Built for one-person and small trade businesses.
01Your numbers
The starting numbers are an illustrative example, not industry benchmarks. Replace them with your own.
HOW IT WORKS
Owner-operator hourly rate calculator
Your rate has to cover more than your pay. Start with the take-home you want, add what you set aside for income and self-employment tax, add a year of business costs, and divide by the hours you can actually bill. Driving, quoting and paperwork are real work, but nobody pays for them by the hour.
- 01Enter the take-home pay you want for the year.
- 02Enter the share you set aside for taxes. Your accountant can give you your number.
- 03Add your business costs for the year, not counting job materials you charge back.
- 04Enter the weeks you work and the billable hours in a real week, then a profit cushion.
A WORKED EXAMPLE
An owner-operator rate example
An illustrative owner-operator wants $75,000 take-home and sets aside 25% for taxes, so the business must pay out $100,000. Adding $28,000 of truck, insurance, tool and phone costs makes $128,000. Working 48 weeks at 28 billable hours is 1,344 hours, so break-even is $95.24 an hour. With a 10% profit cushion the rate is $105.82.
Questions, answered.
Why is billable time so much lower than a full week?
A 50-hour week includes driving, supply runs, quoting, callbacks and paperwork. Count only the hours a customer pays for. Most owner-operators find the true number is well under 40; use your own calendar for a month to check.
How much should I set aside for taxes?
It depends on your income, state and business structure. Self-employed people also pay self-employment tax on top of income tax. Ask your accountant for a percentage and enter it here.
How is this different from the labor rate calculator?
The labor rate calculator prices employed technicians from their wage and burden. This one starts from what you want to take home as the owner doing the work yourself.
Should I charge this rate for every job?
Use it as the floor for time-and-materials work and as the labor rate inside flat-rate prices. If a job cannot carry this rate, it is costing you money even when the invoice gets paid.
WHEN THE JOB MOVES FORWARD
Keep your customers, work, and follow-up together.
Explore how CrewBrix connects the next steps. Your free-tool draft stays in your browser; it is not automatically imported into an account.