Electrician Hourly Rate: Build It From Your Costs

Start with the electrician's wage

BLS reports a May 2025 national median of $63,190 a year, or $30.38 an hour, for electricians, with about 821,000 jobs (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). The same page gives a median of $61,570 for electricians working for electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors, which is $29.60 an hour on 2,080 hours. It also reports that the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $42,640 and the highest-paid 10% more than $108,510 (about $20.50 and $52.17 an hour on 2,080 hours).

Those are medians and tails of a national sample, not what you should pay. Your payroll register is the real number. BLS also notes that most electricians learn the trade in a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship and that apprentices are paid less than fully trained electricians. The labor rate guide already sets the plumber, electrician and HVAC medians side by side; this guide adds the electrician-specific spread. If your crew mixes apprentices and journey-level electricians, run the rate per person from that person's wage; one average wage hides the spread.

Worked example: a three-tech electrical shop

These are the calculator's inputs with the trade set to electrician, whose median wage is $30.38. Wages and paid leave are national data; overhead, the SUTA rate and the profit target are examples.

• Wage: $30.38 an hour (BLS median above), 2,080 paid hours, so $63,190.40 of gross pay.
• Paid time off: 8 holidays, 11 vacation days and 7 sick days, 208 hours, leaving 1,872 worked hours.
• Billable efficiency: 65% of worked hours, the site default. It comes from one software vendor's sample of 300 HVAC companies, measured on paid time; we found no published measurement for electrical shops. See billable efficiency.
• Payroll taxes: Social Security 6.2% and Medicare 1.45% (IRS Topic 751); FUTA 0.6% on the first $7,000 after the state credit, which credit-reduction states do not fully get (IRS Topic 759); state unemployment of 2.7% on the first $9,000 (an example; yours differs).
• Workers' comp and benefits: the calculator defaults of $2.67 per $100 of payroll and 15.25% of gross pay, explained in the labor burden guide.
• Overhead: $120,000 a year for the shop (example). Truck: $16,719.14 a year per tech, the truck calculator's pickup default; if you drive a van, enter your own costs.
• Net profit: 10% of price (example).

The electrician costs $38.29 for every paid hour ($79,633.19 ÷ 2,080), but only 58.5% of paid hours are billed, which is why each billable hour carries $65.44 of labor. The 208 hours of paid time off alone cost $6,319.04 in wages, before burden, and bill nothing.

Check it backward: 1,216.8 billable hours at $124.51 bring in about $151,503. That tech's full cost is $136,352.33 ($79,633.19 of labor, a $40,000 share of overhead and $16,719.14 of truck), which leaves about $15,150, or 10% of revenue. Dividing the tech's full cost by 2,080 hours and grossing it up for 10% profit on price (÷ 0.90) gives only $72.84 an hour, $51.67 short.

What moves the rate: wage, then everything else

Hold the shop constant and change only the wage. Overhead and truck stay at $32.87 and $13.74 per billable hour in every row; only the labor line moves.

Across that range, each extra $1 of hourly wage adds about $2.38 to the rate. That is the wage plus its burden, spread over the 58.5% of paid hours that get billed, then grossed up for profit. A $5 raise for one tech is about $12 an hour on that tech's billable time, which is the number to check before you agree to it.

Workers' comp class: real, but small

Workers' comp is the one cost that depends on the trade itself; the labor burden guide explains how its rates, units and assessments work. In Florida's rule listing construction class codes, electrical wiring within buildings is class 5190 and plumbing is class 5183 (Florida DFS rule 69L-6.021). Other states' tables list rates under the same four-digit numbers. Here is what three published class 5190 rates do to the example, with everything else unchanged:

From the cheapest to the dearest of these, the rate moves $1.22 an hour. The Ohio figure excludes assessments the state adds on top, and the Alabama and Alaska rates apply to assigned-risk policies only, so none of them is the premium a given shop pays. Alabama's and Alaska's tables do not print the unit (we read them as per $100 of payroll, as Ohio's does) and list class numbers without descriptions, so confirm the class and unit with your carrier. The rate on your own policy's declarations page is the one to use. It is still worth entering correctly, but it will not rescue a rate that is $15 short because of the wage, the billable share or overhead.

Where an electrical shop should check its own numbers

• Billable share. Hours on invoices divided by hours worked, from your last 12 months. Time on supply runs, permits, estimates and callbacks is worked but not billed unless you bill it.
• Overhead. No authoritative typical figure exists for a small electrical shop, so $120,000 here is only an example. Use last year's profit and loss statement without field wages, payroll costs or trucks; the overhead guide walks through it line by line.
• Truck or van. Count it once, either in overhead or in the truck line. The service truck guide shows the build-up.
• Payroll taxes. The state unemployment rate and wage base come from your state agency's rate notice and differ by state; the insurance line comes from your policy.

Payroll tax and insurance figures here are general information, not tax or insurance advice. Your accountant, payroll provider or insurance agent can confirm what applies to your shop.

Next step

Open the labor rate calculator, enter your own electrician's wage from payroll, your policy's comp rate and last year's billable hours, and compare the result with the $124.51 example.