Electrician Pricing Calculator
Price electrical jobs from your real costs — loaded labor, truck & overhead, materials, and permits — with your profit margin built in, not bolted on. Every result comes with a full breakdown so you can see exactly where the price comes from.
Your Shop Setup
Set these once — they reflect your business, not the job.
Price a Job
Enter the job — the price updates as you type.
Instant Rate Card — Common Electrical Jobs
Twelve common residential jobs priced with your shop settings above. Change your labor rate or margin and the whole menu reprices instantly. Hours and material costs are typical starting points — every shop should adjust to its own reality.
| Job | Typical hours | Typical materials | Your flat rate |
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We really appreciate feedback from working pros like yourself to get these numbers accurate — to help our fellow trades and businesses succeed, now and for the next generations to come.
Worked Examples: Three Real Electrical Jobs
Using the default shop settings above ($48/hr loaded labor, $34/hr overhead, 35% materials markup, 20% target margin, 3% card fee, 3% warranty reserve):
1. GFCI outlet replacement — 1 hour, $28 in materials
Labor $48 + overhead $34 + materials (charged at $38) = $120 base. Divided by 0.74 and rounded to a flat rate of $169. After card fees and reserve, that job nets about $49 in true profit — a 29% margin. Notice the flat rate is nearly triple the materials cost: that ratio surprises new contractors, but the truck roll, licensing, and insurance are real costs whether the part is $28 or $280.
2. Ceiling fan with new brace box — 2.5 hours, $55 in materials
Labor $120 + overhead $85 + materials charged $74 = $279 base → flat rate $379, netting roughly $96 profit at a 25% margin. The brace box adds real time; pricing it as "just a fan swap" is how shops lose money on old-house work.
3. Level 2 EV charger install (50A circuit) — 4 hours plus 1 helper hour, $320 materials, $85 permit
Labor $218 + overhead $170 + materials charged $432 + permit $85 = $905 base → flat rate $1,229, netting about $362 at a 29% margin. The permit passes through at cost — you don't profit on the county, but you also don't eat the fee.
What Does Electrician Overhead Actually Cost?
Overhead is every cost of being in business that isn't a specific job. For a one-truck electrical shop, a typical month includes: van payment, fuel, and maintenance; general liability insurance and bonding; workers' comp; tool replacement and test equipment calibration; phone, software, and website; license renewals and continuing education; and marketing. For many solo shops that lands in the range of $3,500–$5,500 per month before anyone earns a wage.
The number that matters is overhead per billable hour. A solo electrician working full time rarely bills more than 120–140 hours a month — the rest disappears into driving, quoting, supply runs, and paperwork. Divide monthly overhead by billable hours, not working hours: $4,400 ÷ 130 billable hours ≈ $34 per billable hour — which is exactly the default this calculator starts with. If you divide by 160 "working" hours instead, you underprice every job by design.
Common Electrician Pricing Mistakes
Recommended Profit Margins for Electrical Work
These are working benchmarks, not laws. Emergency and after-hours work commands more; new-construction bid work often runs thinner on margin but bigger on volume. What matters is that the margin is a decision you made, visible in your price — not whatever was left over after the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should an electrician charge per hour?
There's no universal rate — the right rate is built from your own numbers: loaded labor cost (wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits), plus overhead per billable hour, divided by one minus your target margin. Two shops in the same town can have honest rates $40/hr apart because their costs differ. This calculator builds your rate from your inputs instead of guessing from averages.
What profit margin should an electrical contractor target?
A common target for residential service work is 15–25% true net margin after all costs, card fees, and warranty reserve. Below 10%, one callback or a slow month erases the profit. Materials are typically marked up 25–50% over cost on top of the base margin.
Why price flat-rate instead of time and materials?
Flat-rate quotes the job, not the hours. Customers prefer knowing the price up front, faster electricians aren't punished for efficiency, and the shop captures the value of experience. The key is building the flat rate from real costs — which is what this calculator does.
What's the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is added on top of cost; margin is the share of the final price that's profit. A 20% markup on $100 gives $120 — but only a 16.7% margin. To earn a true 20% margin you divide by 0.80, giving $125. Confusing the two is the most common reason contractors underprice.
Should electricians charge for service calls and estimates?
For diagnostic work, yes — a service call fee covers the truck roll and diagnostic time, commonly credited toward the repair if the customer proceeds. If you offer free estimates, that unpaid time must be recovered inside your overhead-per-billable-hour number.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. No account, no email, no ads. The calculator runs in your browser and the numbers you enter are never sent to us. We use basic traffic analytics, described in our privacy policy.