Most tradespeople price a job by guessing how many days it'll take, then multiplying by a day rate they picked years ago and never revisited. That single habit is one of the most common reasons a job that looked profitable on the quote ends up barely breaking even once it's finished.
Here's how to price your labour properly — using a real hourly cost, not a round number that felt right at the time.
Step 1: Work Out Your Real Hourly Rate
Your hourly rate needs to cover more than just the hours you spend physically working on a job. It also needs to cover the time you spend quoting, travelling, buying materials, and doing admin — because none of that is billable, but all of it takes time out of your week.
Most tradespeople only bill 6–7 hours of an 8-hour working day — the other 1–2 hours go on travel, quoting, invoicing, customer messages and parts runs. If you build your rate assuming a full 8 billable hours, you'll come up short every single week.
What Tradespeople Actually Charge in the UK
Rates vary a lot by trade, region and experience, but current UK benchmarks give a useful sense-check:
| Trade | Typical Day Rate | Typical Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| General labourer | £112–£280 | £15–£25 |
| Builder / general trade | £250–£440 | £22–£35 |
| Plumber | £280–£480 | £28–£45 |
| Electrician | £280–£500 | £28–£45 |
| Painter & decorator | £220–£360 | £18–£28 |
These are starting points, not rules — your own overheads, experience and local competition should move you up or down from the midpoint. What matters more than hitting a "typical" number is knowing your own real cost, so you're never guessing.
Step 2: Don't Forget the Unpaid Hours
The biggest gap between what tradespeople think they earn per hour and what they actually take home is unpaid time. Quoting, invoicing, driving to the merchant, answering calls on-site — none of it is billed, but all of it has to be covered by the hours that are.
Where the unpaid hours usually go
Travel between jobs, writing and sending quotes, chasing payment, picking up materials mid-job, and answering customer messages outside working hours all quietly eat into a week without ever appearing on an invoice.
Step 3: Price the Job, Not Just the Hours
Once you know your real hourly rate, apply it honestly to how long the job will actually take — including setup, clean-up and any awkward access, not just the "tools down" time. A job estimated at 2 days that actually needs 2.5 is a 20% pay cut you've given yourself before you've even started.