- The middle half earn between $41.31 and $77.97 an hour.
- Florida ranks 22nd of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Florida pays more than both neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 34,010 general contractors on payrolls in Florida.
- At the state median wage, a general contracting business needs to bill about $166.11 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
General Contractor pay in Florida, bottom to top
BLS has no separate wage figure for general contractors. These are its numbers for construction managers, the group BLS files general contractors under. They count managers on a payroll, so owners who run their own contracting business are not in them.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $31.35 | $65,200 | $33.50 |
| 25th percentile | $41.31 | $85,930 | $42.57 |
| Median | $54.39 | $113,130 | $55.28 |
| 75th percentile | $77.97 | $162,170 | $72.91 |
| 90th percentile | $100.70 | $209,450 | $91.08 |
| Average (mean) | $61.64 | $128,210 | $59.79 |
Pay spreads out a lot in Florida. The bottom tenth earn $31.35 an hour or less while the top tenth earn $100.70 or more, a gap of 3.2 times against 2.7 nationally. Where a general contractor sits on that range matters as much as the state.
The bottom of the scale is lower than nationally ($31.35 against $33.50) while the top is higher ($100.70 against $91.08), so the climb from new hire to top earner is longer here.
The average wage, $61.64, sits 13% above the median. A smaller group of higher earners pulls the average up, so the median is the better guide to what a typical general contractor makes.
How Florida compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $113,130 in Florida against $114,990 nationally, $1,860 less.
In the state ranking, Florida sits 22nd, between Wisconsin ($54.90) and Missouri ($53.96). The range runs from $41.50 in Arkansas to $74.69 in New York.
Florida pays general contractors more than any of its neighboring states, Alabama and Georgia. Someone working near the border can earn more by taking work on this side of it.
How many general contractors work in Florida
BLS estimates 34,010 general contractors on payrolls in Florida, 8.9% of the 380,360 nationwide. Only 2 states have more.
The trade is a bigger part of the local job market than it is nationally: 3.4 of every 1,000 jobs in Florida, 1.4 times the national share.
What a general contracting business in Florida should charge
Say you run a general contracting business in Florida and pay the state median of $54.39 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on its starting numbers: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $54.39 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $121,786 |
| Break-even rate | ($121,786 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $141.19 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $141.19 ÷ 0.85 | $166.11 |
That is $166.11 per billable hour, 3.1 times the wage, and $1.56 less than the $167.67 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $77.97 in Florida, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $207.52.
At this wage the pay itself is the biggest part of the price, so every raise shows up in the rate: a dollar more an hour adds about $1.76 per billed hour.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Working as a general contractor in Florida
- Licensing. What Florida asks for before you can work on your own: General contractor license in Florida.
- Running the business. Quotes, invoices, booking and your website in one place: how general contractors run on Koira.
- Getting found. The free Koira report checks how your business shows up in search and on maps against shops near you.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 11-9021, construction managers, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: general contractor salary by state.