Welding and fabrication shop rate calculator

Put in what you pay, what the shop costs to run, what you burn through in wire, gas and discs, and how many hours really get billed. See the hourly rate that covers it all, then price a job at that rate.

BLS wageStarts at the May 2025 welder median

ConsumablesWire, gas and discs per billable hour

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Welders who bill hours (count yourself if you weld)

Hourly wage for each welder

$/hr

$25.84 is the national median for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers (BLS, May 2025). If you are the welder, put in what you want to pay yourself.

Paid hours a week

hrs

Paid days off a year

days

Unbilled hours in a working day

hrs

Quoting, material runs, cleanup, machine upkeep and paperwork that no job pays for.

Payroll taxes and workers' comp, as a share of wages

7.65% is employer Social Security and Medicare (IRS). Add your state unemployment rate and your workers' comp rate for welding, which your policy lists.

Shop overhead for the year

Rent, power, insurance, truck, equipment payments, software and marketing. Leave out materials you bill to jobs.

Consumables a week

Wire, rods, shielding gas, grinding and flap discs, tips and sandpaper. A Texas welder on Thumbtack spends $64 a week on sanding paper alone.

Net profit on every hour

Price a job: shop hours

hrs

Cutting, fitting, welding, grinding and finishing for one job.

Price a job: steel and parts at your cost

Price a job: markup on materials

Shop rate per billable hour

$98.56

$83.77 just to break even

1,500Billable hours per welder a year

$5.20Consumables per billable hour

$891The example job

Free. Your numbers become an estimate you can send from your phone.

How we got this

Paid hours a year40 hrs × 52 = 2,080 hrs
Billable hours a year(2,080 − 10 days × 8 hrs) × 75% = 1,500 hrs per welder, 1,500 in allOnly the hours a customer pays for carry the shop's costs.
Labor cost a year1 × $25.84 × 2,080 hrs × (1 + 7.65%) = $57,859
Consumables a year$150 a week × 52 = $7,800
Break-even rate($57,859 + $60,000 overhead + $7,800 consumables) ÷ 1,500 hrs = $83.77
Shop rate$83.77 ÷ (1 − 15%) = $98.56Profit is a share of the price, so divide by one minus the profit rather than adding it on top.
Example job6 hrs × $98.56 + $250.00 materials × (1 + 20%) = $891.34

Where each billable hour goes	Per hour	Share
Wages	$35.83	36.4%
Payroll taxes and comp	$2.74	2.8%
Shop overhead	$40.00	40.6%
Consumables	$5.20	5.3%
Profit	$14.78	15%
Shop rate	$98.56	100%

Sources: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national data, SOC 51-4121 welders, cutters, solderers and brazers; IRS Topic 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates; HomeAdvisor, welding cost; Thumbtack, welding cost. Checked 2026-10-10.

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Key takeaways

Spread the shop's costs over the hours a customer pays for, not the hours the lights are on.
Consumables are a cost of every arc hour. Count them per week and the calculator turns them into dollars per billable hour.
Price materials separately with their own markup. Steel prices move, and the shop rate should not move with them.

How to work out a welding shop rate

A shop rate has to pay the welder, the shop around them, the consumables they burn, and leave a profit. The calculator divides all of it by billable hours.

Paid hours. Hours a week × 52. At 40 hours, 2,080.
Billable hours. Take off paid days off, then the part of each day no job pays for: quoting, material runs, cleanup, machine upkeep. Two unbilled hours in an 8 hour day leaves 75%.
Labor cost. Wage × paid hours × (1 + payroll taxes and comp).
Consumables. Your weekly spend on wire, rods, gas, discs and tips × 52.
Break-even. (Labor + shop overhead + consumables) ÷ billable hours.
Shop rate. Break-even ÷ (1 − profit share).

Worked through with the starting numbers: one welder at $25.84 an hour (the BLS national median for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers, May 2025), 40 hour weeks, 10 days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $60,000 of shop overhead, $150 a week of consumables and 15% profit.

Step	Math	Result
Billable hours	(2,080 − 80) × 75%	1,500
Labor cost	$25.84 × 2,080 × 1.0765	$57,859
Consumables	$150 × 52	$7,800
Break-even	($57,859 + $60,000 + $7,800) ÷ 1,500	$83.77
Shop rate	$83.77 ÷ 0.85	$98.56

The employer payroll tax figure is Social Security at 6.2% plus Medicare at 1.45%, from the IRS. Add your state unemployment rate and your workers' comp rate for welding work, which your policy lists per $100 of payroll.

What welders charge per hour

Check your rate against what customers see in published guides. They are a sanity check, not a target: your costs decide your floor.

Guide	Hourly figure
HomeAdvisor	$60 to $125 an hour to hire a local welder
HomeAdvisor, by process	Stick $50 to $75, MIG $65 to $95, TIG $75 to $125
Thumbtack	$100 to $105 an hour on average, up to $120

HomeAdvisor notes most welders have a minimum service charge, usually about an hour or two of labor. Thumbtack mentions an average minimum of $60 for any welding work. If your rate comes out well above the published range, look at billable hours and overhead before cutting the profit.

Consumables: the cost that rides on every arc hour

Wire, rods, shielding gas, tungsten, contact tips, grinding and flap discs, and sandpaper get used up job after job. They are too small to bill line by line and too big to ignore.

A Texas welder quoted by Thumbtack spends $64 a week on sanding paper, $40 for a 30 pound roll of wire every one and a half to two weeks, and $120 to $150 for three bottles of flux or gas over the same stretch. HomeAdvisor lists flux or shielding gas at $40 to $50 a bottle and wire at $25 to $40 an 11 pound roll.

Put your own weekly figure in. The calculator turns it into a cost per billable hour: $150 a week over 1,500 billable hours is $5.20 an hour. Gas-hungry TIG work on aluminum or stainless burns more than MIG on mild steel, so a shop that does mostly TIG should count more.

Steel and materials: price them separately

Leave steel, tube, plate and bought parts out of the shop rate. Price them on each job at your cost plus a markup. Steel prices move, and Thumbtack's Texas welder notes his price for a 25 foot stick of 14 gauge steel has run from $44 to $50 and as high as $125.

The calculator's job pricer uses the rate it just worked out: shop hours × rate, plus materials × (1 + markup). The starting job, 6 hours with $250 of steel at a 20% markup, comes to $891.

Metal type changes both sides. Thumbtack's welder says aluminum and stainless cost 1.5 to 2 times more than standard steel, and HomeAdvisor's TIG rates run higher than MIG. Price the metal at cost and let the hours reflect the slower process.

Minimums, mobile work and rush jobs

Small jobs eat a shop's day. A broken chair leg needs the same setup, cleanup and paperwork as a gate. A minimum charge, an hour or two at your shop rate, covers it.

Shop work. Customers drop off and pick up. Your rate covers the shop.
Mobile work. Add a trip charge or a higher minimum for driving the truck and rig to the job, or raise the unbilled hours to count the drive.
Rush. When a job jumps your queue, a rush share on the estimate pays for the reshuffle.

Koira estimates carry a setup fee, a minimum charge and a rush share as their own settings, with defaults from your price book, so you set them once.

Price the job and send it

Press Save as an estimate and Koira opens a draft with the labor line at your shop rate and the materials line. Customers can send photos and drawings, DXF and PDF included, through your quote form, so the picture of the broken trailer hitch sits on the job with the price. When the work is done, Koira texts them it is ready with a link to pay the invoice.

For a general version of this math without consumables, see the labor rate calculator. To see how many jobs a month cover the shop, use the break-even calculator.

Last checked October 10, 2026.

For welders and fabricatorsIf you do this work for a living, Koira handles the office side of it: quotes, invoices, booking, follow ups and your website, in one place.Quote and invoice welding jobs

What homeowners pay, state by state: the welding repair cost guide.

Shane Allen writes Koira's guides for trade business owners. How we check our numbers.

FAQ

How much should a welder charge per hour?

Enough to cover wages, payroll taxes, shop overhead and consumables over the hours customers pay for, plus profit. With one welder at the BLS median of $25.84, $60,000 of overhead and $150 a week of consumables, that is about $98.56 an hour at 15% profit.

What is a shop rate?

The price per billable hour that covers everything it costs to run the shop, not just the welder's wage. It includes payroll taxes, rent, power, insurance, equipment, consumables and profit.

How much do welders make?

BLS puts the May 2025 national median for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers at $25.84 an hour, or $53,750 a year. The lowest paid 10% earned under $18.87 an hour and the highest paid 10% over $37.28.

How do you price a welding job?

Estimate the shop hours for cutting, fitting, welding and finishing, multiply by your shop rate, and add materials at cost plus a markup. Set a minimum for small repairs.

Should welding consumables be in the hourly rate?

Yes, for wire, gas, rods and discs that get used on every job. Count them per week and spread them over billable hours. Steel and bought parts go on each job separately.

What do welders charge for small jobs?

Many use a minimum. HomeAdvisor says it is usually about an hour or two of labor, and Thumbtack mentions an average minimum of $60 for any welding work.

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