Plumber hourly rate calculator: price your hour from your costs
A plumber's hourly rate has to cover the year of pay, truck, insurance and overhead spread across only the hours you bill, plus the profit you want to keep. With the example inputs below, $119,500 over 1,500 billable hours is a $79.67 break-even and $93.73 an hour at a 15 percent margin. Put in your own numbers to get yours.
Worked example at the example inputs
Enter yearly costs for one licensed plumber and one truck, and the margin you are aiming for. The figures already filled in are examples we chose so the math shows on screen. They are not market data or what plumbers in your area earn or charge, so overwrite them with your own.
| Input | Example value |
|---|---|
| Wages or owner pay | $78,000 |
| Billable hours | 1,500 hours |
| Overhead | $19,000 |
| Truck or van | $13,000 |
| Business insurance | $9,500 |
| Profit margin | 15% |
| Break-even rate | $79.67 an hour |
| Recommended rate at a 15% margin | $93.73 an hour |
The formula
($78,000 pay + $19,000 overhead + $13,000 vehicle + $9,500 insurance) = $119,500 a year. $119,500 / 1,500 billable hours = $79.67 break-even. $79.67 / (1 - 0.15) = $93.73 an hour, with $14.06 profit in every billed hour. The interactive calculator on this page recomputes the rate as you type your own numbers.
Turn the hourly rate into a bid
Flat-rate plumbing prices are this rate times the hours a task takes, plus parts at your markup. When you price a job flat, the customer pays for the result and you keep the time you save by being good at it.
How to find each input
Wages or owner pay
The plumber's yearly wage plus payroll taxes, or the owner pay you want if the hours being billed are yours.
Billable hours
Invoiced hours only. Estimates, the run back to the supply house for a fitting, waiting on a locate and drive time all come out first.
Overhead
Drain machine and camera upkeep, press tool, license and CE fees, phone answering, software, accounting and advertising. Use last year's actual spend.
Truck or van
Payment, fuel, upkeep, commercial auto coverage and the bins and racks that carry your fittings.
Business insurance
General liability, workers comp and any bond your license requires. Water damage claims are the risk carriers price, so get the real premium.
Profit margin
The slice of the price you keep after costs. It funds the next camera, the next hire and the month a big customer pays late.
Where the hours go
The fitting you did not have
One wrong size or a corroded shutoff can turn a 45 minute job into a two hour one with a supply house run in the middle. Those trips are paid time that rarely gets billed in full.
Estimate visits for replacements
A water heater or repipe quote takes a site visit that may never close. Every unclosed visit is an unbilled hour the rate has to carry.
Emergency weeks skew the average
A freeze can fill the calendar for ten days. Average your billable hours over a full year so one wild week does not set your rate.
Rate factors for plumbers
Service and drain versus new construction
Service and drain work carries more drive and diagnosis per billed hour than a rough-in on a new build, which is why service rates usually need to be higher from the same costs.
Camera and jetter work
Equipment that costs real money to own and repair belongs in overhead, and some shops add an equipment charge on top of labor for the jobs that use it.
Nights, weekends and holidays
Set after-hours work as its own rate. A burst pipe at midnight should never price at the Tuesday morning number.
Parts and fixtures separate
This is a labor rate. Fixtures, water heaters and fittings go on the estimate at your cost plus your material markup, as their own lines.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a plumber charge per hour?
Whatever your own costs and margin say. Add up a year of pay, overhead, truck and insurance, divide by billable hours, then divide by one minus your margin. This page's example inputs give $79.67 to break even and $93.73 at 15 percent.
What overhead do plumbers forget to count?
Equipment repair is the big one: a drain machine cable, a camera head or a press tool jaw set adds up over a year. Phone answering, software subscriptions and the cost of estimates that do not close get missed too.
Should I charge a trip fee or build drive time into the rate?
Either works if it is deliberate. A trip fee lets you count drive time as billable hours; leaving it out means fewer billable hours and a higher hourly rate. What does not work is ignoring the drive entirely.
Is a higher rate going to lose me jobs?
Some, and the right ones. A rate below break-even wins work that loses money. Customers who call a plumber with water on the floor usually care more about how fast you answer than a few dollars an hour.
How much does Staxen cost for plumbers?
Staxen is $59 per month per AI employee, or $149 per month for all three. Eddie turns the job you describe out loud into a priced estimate, using your own prices first and your saved hourly rate where they run out, and the customer signs it from a text link.