- The BLS May 2025 national median for electricians was $30.38 an hour. The rate you bill has to cover far more than the wage.
- Permit pulls, inspection waits and return trips after a failed inspection are paid hours no customer is billed for. Count them.
- Divide your yearly costs by billable hours, then divide by one minus your profit. That is the rate.
How to calculate an electrician's hourly rate
An electrician's rate per hour pays for the electrician's time, the payroll costs on top of wages, the truck and tools, insurance, licences, the office, and a profit. It has to be spread over the hours a customer pays for, not the hours on the clock.
The calculator starts with one electrician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics national median wage for electricians (SOC 47-2111): $30.38 an hour in the May 2025 data. The other starting numbers are examples to replace with yours: 40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes with no benefits, $90,000 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 | $30.38 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $68,024 |
| Break-even rate | ($68,024 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $105.35 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $105.35 ÷ 0.85 | $123.94 |
Broken into its parts, that $123.94 is $30.38 of wage for the hour worked, $11.75 of paid time nobody bills, $3.22 of payroll taxes, $60.00 of overhead and $18.59 of profit. Workers' comp and benefits come on top once you add your rates.
A shop with more electricians spreads the same overhead thinner. With $90,000 of overhead, two electricians bring the rate to $88.65 and three to $76.88.
Electrician wages and the rate they need
The BLS May 2025 national figures for SOC 47-2111 put the 10th percentile at $20.50 an hour, the median at $30.38 and the 90th percentile at $52.17. Apprentices, journeymen and master electricians who pull permits sit at different points in that range.
| Wage level (BLS May 2025) | Hourly wage | Break-even rate | Rate at 15% profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $20.50 | $90.60 | $106.59 |
| Median | $30.38 | $105.35 | $123.94 |
| 90th percentile | $52.17 | $137.88 | $162.21 |
Every row has the same hours, burden and overhead. Moving from the 10th to the 90th percentile adds about $32 to the wage and about $56 to the rate.
These are national medians. Union scale under a local agreement and pay in large metros can be far higher. Put in what you really pay. If apprentices work under a journeyman on most jobs, set people in the field to match and use their average wage.
Licensing shapes the rate too. Your state's licensing rules decide who can pull permits, who can work alone and who must work under supervision. A crew of one journeyman and one apprentice bills two people's hours at a lower average wage, but only if the work lets both stay busy. Run the calculator with two people in the field and their average wage to see the crew rate.
Permits, inspections and other unbilled time
Electrical work has a set of paid hours that rarely show up on an invoice:
- Pulling permits and scheduling inspections
- Waiting on site for an inspector, or a return trip after a correction
- Load calculations and panel schedules for service upgrades
- Utility coordination for disconnects and meter work
- Supply-house runs for breakers and wire that were not on the truck
- Drive time between service calls
Some shops bill permit handling as its own line. If you do not, it belongs in the unbilled hours. Here is the median-wage electrician's rate with different unbilled hours a day, averaged over the year:
| Unbilled hours a day | Billable hours a year | Rate per billable hour |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,750 | $106.23 |
| 1.5 | 1,625 | $114.41 |
| 2 | 1,500 | $123.94 |
| 2.5 | 1,375 | $135.21 |
| 3 | 1,250 | $148.73 |
Service calls that turn into troubleshooting can eat time too. Finding an intermittent fault can take far longer than the fix. If you bill troubleshooting by the hour, that time is billable. If you quote a flat price for the repair, the hunt is unbilled, and the flat price has to allow for it.
Track callbacks separately. A breaker that trips again or a device that fails a week later is a second trip and an unbilled hour or more. Fewer callbacks lower the rate you need without changing the price.
Payroll burden for electricians
Every dollar of wages costs you more than a dollar. The calculator splits the extra into two lines so you can match them to your own books.
| Cost on top of wages | What is in it | Starting value |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll taxes, unemployment and workers' comp | Employer Social Security 6.2% and Medicare 1.45%, federal unemployment (0.6% on the first $7,000 of each person's wages after the usual credit), your state unemployment rate, your workers' comp rate | 7.65% of wages, then add yours |
| Health insurance and retirement | What you pay toward health, dental and life cover, and any 401(k) match or pension | 0%, put in yours |
The 7.65% is the part every employer pays at the same rate: Social Security at 6.2% (on wages up to $184,500 a person in 2026) and Medicare at 1.45%, from the IRS. Federal unemployment is 6.0% of the first $7,000 of each person's wages, or 0.6% after the full 5.4% credit for paying state unemployment on time. That is $42 a person a year at most.
The rest depends on you. State unemployment rates differ by state and by your claims history; your state sends you a rate notice each year. Workers' comp depends on your state, the class code for the work and your claims. Benefits depend on the plan you offer. Add each as a share of wages: yearly cost ÷ yearly wages.
Paid days off are not a percentage here on purpose. The calculator counts them as hours that are paid but not worked, which spreads their cost over the billable hours instead.
Licence renewals, code-update classes for the new edition of the electrical code, testers and meters, and the truck all go in overhead. Put them in the overhead line so each billed hour carries its share.
Vehicles that go home with your electricians add fuel and wear on the commute. That cost belongs in overhead too, so the rate pays for it. So do the ladders, lifts and specialty tools you keep on each truck.
Checking your electrical rate against the market
The calculator gives the rate your costs need. The market decides what customers will pay. If they are far apart, check the inputs before you change the price.
- Needed rate far above the market. Usually overhead carried by too few billable hours, or a lot of permit and inspection time that is not billed. Billing permit work as its own line, or adding an electrician on the same overhead, brings the rate down.
- Needed rate well below the market. Look for costs left out: the truck, insurance, licences, testers, the office, your own pay if you do not work in the field.
Compare whole jobs, not just hourly numbers. A shop with a service call fee and a lower rate can bring in the same per hour as one with a higher rate and no fee.
Watch the average service ticket each month as well. If it falls while the rate holds steady, the hours behind each call are rising: more callbacks, more inspection waits, longer drives. Put the new unbilled hours in the calculator and see what they cost per hour.
Service work, remodels and new construction
Electrical work comes in kinds that bill very differently. Run the calculator for each with its own unbilled hours:
| Kind of work | What changes in the inputs |
|---|---|
| Service and troubleshooting | Several calls a day and more drive time, so more unbilled hours and a higher rate |
| Service upgrades and panel changes | Permit, inspection and utility coordination time; bill it as a line or count it as unbilled |
| Remodel wiring | Longer days on one site and fewer unbilled hours, so a lower hourly rate |
| New construction | Bid by the device or the job; check the bid against the hours at your rate |
Keep total overhead the same across the runs and split the electricians and their hours between them, so overhead is covered once and not three times.
From hourly rate to flat-rate electrical prices
Service work like adding a circuit, swapping a panel or installing an EV charger is often quoted as one price. The hourly rate is still underneath:
- Labor = the honest time for the task, including permit, testing and cleanup, × your rate per billable hour.
- Parts = cost × your parts multiplier. The markup calculator builds a sliding-scale table so a box of wire nuts and a 200 amp panel each carry the right markup.
- Price = labor + parts, rounded to a clean number.
At the $123.94 starting rate, a new 20 amp circuit that takes 2.5 hours carries $309.85 of labor before materials and the permit. A panel change that takes 8 hours carries $991.52 of labor before the panel, breakers, permit and utility fees.
Electrical sizing and code calls stay with the National Electrical Code as adopted locally and the inspector. This calculator only prices the time.
Send the result as an estimate with options the customer can approve from their phone. See how Koira works for electricians.
Last checked October 8, 2026. More for your trade: how electricians run on Koira.