What is your hourly rate as a self employed electrician?

HappyHippyDad · Feb 26, 2022

I do like chatting about prices!

I thought I would start a poll to see 'roughly' what the average hourly rate is for self employed electricians?

To keep it as simple as possible, forget about any 'first hour' rate you may or may not charge and just go for your rate after that.

I realise this isn't going to cover lots and lots of scenarios (quotes, domestic, commercial, location etc etc), but it's just for a bit of amusement and perhaps along the way we'll gain a very rough idea of an electrician's hourly rate.

It will be anonymous so please do answer honestly.

telectrix · Feb 26, 2022

used to be around the £35 mark for small jobs, £25 for if several hours. nowadays. beign reiiant on pension for necessities like beer and smokes, got to be closer to £60 to keep me in the style that i amm accostomed to.

littlespark · Feb 27, 2022

I’m £35 an hour any number of hours, although I might knock a bit off if it’s a full day.

Your poll is misleading as some people charge more for the first hour than subsequent.

When I’m doing a quick smoke detector job with the battery units, the hourly rate comes in at £50 as I charge the customer Screwfix retail prices for the detectors. (Buying them in cheaper, off course)

suffolkspark · Feb 27, 2022

After a bit of chatter on here a few months ago I went from £30 to £40. Still as busy as I was, still new and returning customers, I charge quarterly after the first hour, and all material is +20%. I'm not vat registered. I charge travel time at the same rate, but try to tie together local jobs.

Dustydazzler · Feb 27, 2022

Hourly Vs Price is always an interesting debate

I feel hourly works best for me as most jobs are 1/2 day unless its a board change then I allow 1 full day (8 hours) , Some jobs might be 2 or 3 days but then I lean more towards a 'Price'

But on bigger jobs the 'Price' guys will do better as if they allow say 6 days and finish in 4 , effectively they get 2 days money for nothing.

Another example is my brother-in-law is a landscaper and doing fencing his makes a killing on installing on 'Price per bay' (per panel). He reckons on a decent fixed price fencing job he can walk away with £900 in his pocket for 1 days work if every thing goes to plan with no mess ups.
That is serious money and way more than he would get charging say £50 per hour labour.

HappyHippyDad · Feb 27, 2022

littlespark said:
I’m £35 an hour any number of hours, although I might knock a bit off if it’s a full day.

Your poll is misleading as some people charge more for the first hour than subsequent.

When I’m doing a quick smoke detector job with the battery units, the hourly rate comes in at £50 as I charge the customer Screwfix retail prices for the detectors. (Buying them in cheaper, off course)

See my OP regarding first hour and how this is for a bit of amusement and clearly not going to be accurate.

LukeD · Feb 27, 2022

£65 for call out and a hour . £45 for each hour after

Dustydazzler · Feb 27, 2022

Just seen this ad in my local paper , domestic electrician (also offers IT solutions like adding data points) £60 per hour

R-fur · Feb 27, 2022

Depends on the market as well, domestic is always a bit lower than industrial or nich markets.

Dustydazzler · Feb 27, 2022

R-fur said:
Depends on the market as well, domestic is always a bit lower than industrial or nich markets.

Upper end domestic is on par with commercial / industrial , lower end domestic / handyman wiring is less as every tom dick and harry does it...

littlespark · Feb 27, 2022

HappyHippyDad said:
See my OP regarding first hour and how this is for a bit of amusement and clearly not going to be accurate.

You expect me to read a whole post at that time on a Sunday morning?

ipf · Feb 27, 2022

suffolkspark said:
After a bit of chatter on here a few months ago I went from £30 to £40. Still as busy as I was, still new and returning customers, I charge quarterly after the first hour, and all material is +20%. I'm not vat registered. I charge travel time at the same rate, but try to tie together local jobs.

Seems you'll be getting close to the 85k vat threshold, then?

LukeD · Feb 27, 2022

ipf said:
Seems you'll be getting close to the 85k vat threshold, then?

THink twice before hitting the threshold. Its a one way street .

Gavin John Hyde · Feb 27, 2022

Standard hourly rate is £50+VAT but do charge more for first hour etc...
Majority of my work is priced jobs fitting ev chargers based on the £50+VAT per hour figures.

123 · Feb 27, 2022

Dustydazzler said:
Just seen this ad in my local paper , domestic electrician (also offers IT solutions like adding data points) £60 per hour

Plus VAT?

ipf · Feb 27, 2022

LukeD said:
THink twice before hitting the threshold. Its a one way street .

Agree.....go back down to £30....

Deleted account · Feb 27, 2022

£50 per hour, but a day was £250 which works out at about £32 ish per hour.

however, off site workload reduces this down to a lot less than this.

suffolkspark · Feb 27, 2022

ipf said:
Seems you'll be getting close to the 85k vat threshold, then?

I only do 35 hrs per week as have kids so take a lot of time off for school holidays and loose quite a few hours per week for school runs, net profit was 46k ish last year and I turned over 65k ish, so with the 25% increase in wages I should still be safe

123 · Feb 27, 2022

LukeD said:
THink twice before hitting the threshold. Its a one way street .

With folk charging £30/£40 an hour and well above, and the cost rises in materials, that freeze on VAT threshold at £85k gets all the tougher to stay under.

123 · Feb 27, 2022

suffolkspark said:
I only do 35 hrs per week as have kids so take a lot of time off for school holidays and loose quite a few hours per week for school runs, net profit was 46k ish last year and I turned over 65k ish, so with the 25% increase in wages I should still be safe

£30 to £40 is a 33⅓% increase. VAT threshold is also over a rolling 12 months, not just tax years. Just saying.

suffolkspark · Feb 27, 2022

123 said:
£30 to £40 is a 33⅓% increase. VAT threshold is also over a rolling 12 months, not just tax years. Just saying.

Oh yea

our outgoings are really low so I'll just take a month off if I get near and sit in the garden

123 · Feb 27, 2022

suffolkspark said:
Oh yea our outgoings are really low so I'll just take a month off if I get near and sit in the garden

Just make sure it's July/August rather than Jan/Feb

Markyd · Feb 28, 2022

£50 per hour or £350 for a full day 8hrs

Dustydazzler · Feb 28, 2022

So judging by this survey , it looks like the average per hourly rate is somewhere in the £40-50 ball park.
Which is about £350 per day , which I would hazard a guess is probably bang on the national average what a decent self deployed sparks should be charging.

JBW175 · Feb 28, 2022

Just had someone try knock me down on my price for the first hour, as they said the job would only take me 10 minutes…

Dustydazzler · Feb 28, 2022

JBW175 said:
Just had someone try knock me down on my price for the first hour, as they said the job would only take me 10 minutes…

Tell them to do it themselves as you have more important things to do with your time

JBW175 · Feb 28, 2022

Dustydazzler said:
Tell them to do it themselves as you have more important things to do with your time

I wouldn’t budge on the price. Told him I’m running a business, not a charity.

littlespark · Feb 28, 2022

JBW175 said:
Just had someone try knock me down on my price for the first hour, as they said the job would only take me 10 minutes…

Interesting.

Someone phoned me last night, RCD had tripped. Fridge and boiler off.
I said I couldn’t come out on a Sunday evening… had had a drink with my dinner, but I’d come Monday morning after putting off my planned job.

When I got there, it was obvious to see it was their rather large light fitting that had caused the problem… Brass thing with loads of arms, and a lamp holder on the ends…

Took it down, made the cables safe as they said they would buy a new fitting, and they could do without a ceiling light. RCD reset fine.

The customer himself last night thought one of the arms looked a bit crooked, so tried to turn it himself….. which cut through the inner insulation of the flex which was showing at the top of the fitting…. Wish I’d taken a photo now.

Which brings me to a dilemma.
Do I charge my usual 35 an hour, which covers my travelling there and back, or up it to 50…. As it was putting off another job this morning?
I will be asked back to put up the new fitting, no doubt.

JBW175 · Feb 28, 2022

littlespark said:
Interesting.

Someone phoned me last night, RCD had tripped. Fridge and boiler off.
I said I couldn’t come out on a Sunday evening… had had a drink with my dinner, but I’d come Monday morning after putting off my planned job.

When I got there, it was obvious to see it was their rather large light fitting that had caused the problem… Brass thing with loads of arms, and a lamp holder on the ends…

Took it down, made the cables safe as they said they would buy a new fitting, and they could do without a ceiling light. RCD reset fine.

The customer himself last night thought one of the arms looked a bit crooked, so tried to turn it himself….. which cut through the inner insulation of the flex which was showing at the top of the fitting…. Wish I’d taken a photo now.

Which brings me to a dilemma.
Do I charge my usual 35 an hour, which covers my travelling there and back, or up it to 50…. As it was putting off another job this morning?
I will be asked back to put up the new fitting, no doubt.

I suppose it all depends on what you’re happy with, and can charge up there?

Like you said, you’ll likely get return business from him and he’ll no doubt recommend you to others.

Risteard · Feb 28, 2022

Dustydazzler said:
So judging by this survey , it looks like the average per hourly rate is somewhere in the £40-50 ball park.
Which is about £350 per day , which I would hazard a guess is probably bang on the national average what a decent self deployed sparks should be charging.

It would be interesting to see what the averages are more locally, but I suspect this wouldn't be easy to find out.

littlespark · Feb 28, 2022

JBW175 said:
I suppose it all depends on what you’re happy with, and can charge up there?

Like you said, you’ll likely get return business from him and he’ll no doubt recommend you to others.

I went up a bit to £40. New customer, doesn’t know what I was previously, and I can introduce the 40 to other jobs as I go.

Dustydazzler · Feb 28, 2022

littlespark said:
I went up a bit to £40. New customer, doesn’t know what I was previously, and I can introduce the 40 to other jobs as I go.

littlespark said:
I think £40-50 per hour is pretty much a 'standard' pricing for trades especially in the SE , possibly £60-90 the nearer you approach London

£I think £40-50 per hour is pretty much a 'standard' pricing for trades especially in the SE , possibly £60-90 the nearer you approach Londo

In Surrey £50 per hour is an 'easy sell' to old and new customers in my area , plumbers , sparks , gardeners , painters will all quote this kind of hourly figure. Infact if you quoted less, imo people would get suspicious that you are 'too cheap' and not very good

ipf · Feb 28, 2022

JBW175 said:
I wouldn’t budge on the price. Told him I’m running a business, not a charity.

NICEIC are part of a charity.........they don't hold back, price wise.

pirate · Feb 28, 2022

I only do small jobs, so it's either £50, or £100 depending on the time involved. If it's an all-day job it's £50/hour...but charity jobs are FOC for lamp replacement or very minor fixes. Most of those jobs the clients make a donation to the charity. I'm in a different position to most as I don't have to work daily, but I get no complaints if I charge £100 to put in a new socket etc. The folks round here are well-off.

catdog1121 · Mar 1, 2022

littlespark said:
Interesting.

Someone phoned me last night, RCD had tripped. Fridge and boiler off.
I said I couldn’t come out on a Sunday evening… had had a drink with my dinner, but I’d come Monday morning after putting off my planned job.

When I got there, it was obvious to see it was their rather large light fitting that had caused the problem… Brass thing with loads of arms, and a lamp holder on the ends…

Took it down, made the cables safe as they said they would buy a new fitting, and they could do without a ceiling light. RCD reset fine.

The customer himself last night thought one of the arms looked a bit crooked, so tried to turn it himself….. which cut through the inner insulation of the flex which was showing at the top of the fitting…. Wish I’d taken a photo now.

Which brings me to a dilemma.
Do I charge my usual 35 an hour, which covers my travelling there and back, or up it to 50…. As it was putting off another job this morning?
I will be asked back to put up the new fitting, no doubt.

So I do a strange thing which I have not seen people do, I charge for normal hours at least £35 per hour but have a minimum charger of £60, so if I am there 10mins its £60, if I am there 2hrs its £70, rather than a higher first hour rate. If I am there only 10mins then I normally say ill knock it down to £50 which customer tend to like...

Roofers seem to be charging around £80 to fix one roof times, they seem to be just sticking them back on with some kind of adhesive in a tube... My neighbour had to call out someone to clear their drains, £120+VAT took the guy less than an hour..

I find people seem to recognise a minimum fee better than a higher first hour fee, don't know why but it works for me..

JBW175 · Mar 1, 2022

ipf said:
NICEIC are part of a charity.........they don't hold back, price wise.

I’m with NAPIT; and nor do they…

LukeD · Mar 1, 2022

catdog1121 said:
So I do a strange thing which I have not seen people do, I charge for normal hours at least £35 per hour but have a minimum charger of £60, so if I am there 10mins its £60, if I am there 2hrs its £70, rather than a higher first hour rate. If I am there only 10mins then I normally say ill knock it down to £50 which customer tend to like...

Roofers seem to be charging around £80 to fix one roof times, they seem to be just sticking them back on with some kind of adhesive in a tube... My neighbour had to call out someone to clear their drains, £120+VAT took the guy less than an hour..

I find people seem to recognise a minimum fee better than a higher first hour fee, don't know why but it works for me..

The initial call out charge must be made .Its NOT the time on the Job .Its making yourself available for that time . I have once had a car pick me up as I was on the wrong side of 1 x bottle of wine. But I still got stuck in and helped the customer resolve a crisis at 2 am . he paid me £250 cash for 3 hours work and we have always been cool about things .

HappyHippyDad · Mar 1, 2022

littlespark said:
I went up a bit to £40. New customer, doesn’t know what I was previously, and I can introduce the 40 to other jobs as I go.

So you moan about my silly thread, then up your wages straight after

littlespark · Mar 1, 2022

Not me moaning….

Anyhoo… about time my price went up… covers the diesel going up.

Markyd · Mar 1, 2022

I also found that by upping the hourly rate.you get better customers and less wasters

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