HVAC labor rate calculator

An HVAC rate per hour has to pay the tech for every hour on the clock, the payroll costs on top, the trucks and shop, the office, and a profit. All of that gets divided over the hours a homeowner or building owner actually pays for.

The calculator starts with one tech at the Bureau of Labor Statistics national median wage for heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers (SOC 49-9021): $29.33 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.

Here is where each of those billed hours goes:

The tech's wage is about a quarter of the rate. Overhead spread over one tech is nearly half. Workers' comp and benefits are not in yet; add your rates and the rate rises. The same shop's rate falls as it adds techs: with the same $90,000 of overhead, two techs bring it to $86.80 and three to $75.04.

HVAC pay runs over a wide band. The BLS May 2025 national figures for SOC 49-9021 put the 10th percentile at $19.25 an hour, the median at $29.33 and the 90th percentile at $45.78. A new installer helper and a senior commercial service tech are both inside that range.

All three rows use the same hours, burden and overhead. A $26 jump in wage from the 10th to the 90th percentile moves the rate by about $47, because the wage is paid on every paid hour but billed only on the billable ones, and the burden rides on top.

These are national medians. Wages in a large metro, or under a union agreement, can be well above them. Put in what you really pay, including any regular overtime averaged across the year.

Certifications and experience push pay up within a shop. A tech who can diagnose heat pumps and variable-speed systems on the first visit saves callbacks, which is worth paying for. When a better tech costs more per hour but bills more hours and comes back less, the rate per billable hour can come out lower. Run the calculator both ways to see it.

If your techs earn commission or spiffs on sales, average them into the hourly wage for the year so the cost is counted.

An HVAC tech's day has a lot of hours no one pays for directly: driving between calls, the supply house for a part the truck did not carry, a warranty callback on last month's install, a maintenance visit that found nothing to fix, loading equipment for tomorrow's changeout.

The bigger swing is the season. In a heat wave the board is full and techs bill most of the day. In the shoulder months between heating and cooling, the same techs are on the clock with fewer calls. Priced off a July week, the rate looks generous. Over a full year, it can fall short.

Here is the median-wage tech with different unbilled hours a day, averaged over the year:

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.

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.

HVAC adds its own costs that sit in overhead, not burden: EPA Section 608 certification for techs who handle refrigerant, recovery machines and gauges, and the vehicles that carry equipment. Put those in the overhead line so each billed hour carries its share.

If your techs take trucks home, the fuel and wear on the commute are overhead too, even though no customer sees them. Count them once, in the overhead line, and the rate covers them.

The calculator tells you what you need to charge. The market tells you what customers will pay. If the two are far apart, look at the inputs before you look at the price.

• Rate far above what the work sells for. The usual causes are overhead carried by too few billable hours, or too many unbilled hours. More techs on the same overhead, or tighter routing, bring the rate down without cutting pay.
• Rate well below what others charge. You may be leaving money on the table, or missing a cost. Check that the overhead line includes trucks, insurance, the office and your own pay if you do not work in the field.

Compare apples to apples. A shop that charges a diagnostic fee and a lower hourly rate may bring in the same per hour as one with a higher rate and no fee. Look at what a typical service call brings in, not only the hourly number.

Many HVAC companies run more than one rate. The calculator works for each if you enter the inputs for that kind of work:

Keep overhead the same across all three runs, but split the techs and their hours between them. The total has to cover the whole shop's overhead once.

Many HVAC shops quote service by the task instead of by the hour. A flat rate still starts from the hourly rate. For each task:

• Labor = the time the task really takes, including setup and cleanup, × your rate per billable hour.
• Parts = the part cost × your parts multiplier. The markup calculator builds a sliding-scale parts table.
• Price = labor + parts, rounded to a clean number.

At the $122.10 starting rate, a task that takes 1.5 hours carries $183.15 of labor before parts. If the task usually runs long, use the longer time. Flat rate protects the customer from a slow tech, so the time in the book has to be honest.

For whole-system jobs like a furnace or condenser changeout, use the rate for the install hours and price the equipment with your margin. The profit margin calculator checks the margin on the whole job after overhead.

Once your prices are set, send them as estimates with good, better and best options. See how Koira works for HVAC contractors.