What is your hourly rate as a self employed electrician? (2023)

[HappyHippyDad]

I did a poll last year on exactly this.

Below I have pasted what I wrote in thread last time so there is a degree of similarity. We can then see if we have changed out prices much (again, bit of fun, not accurate)

pasted...

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

 

[Baddegg]

...the same could be said for all self employed / trades etc who literally only get paid when they are 'on the job'

you have to charge enough to make sure you are covered for all down time / quiet spells & lost time in traffic / off sick etc

I see a few on this poll only charging £20-30 per hour, I was charging that almost 20 years ago

Agree, at that rate I doubt you are even hitting minimum wage?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Agree, at that rate I doubt you are even hitting minimum wage?

In the mid 00s when I first went self delpoyed I charged £20 per pour ( £160 per day ) becuase I roughly worked out that would pay me an £11 per hour wage ( after my set up costs & running costs )

 

[HappyHippyDad]

You have to take the following average with far more than just a pinch of salt. the last poll ran for a year , this poll has only been going a week, but I just fancied doing a quick comparison.

Mean average hourly rate for 2022 was £41.48
Mean average hourly rate for 2023 (so far) is £41.92

It'll be a much better comparison when I tot up the stats in 11 months when the poll closes.

 

[Dustydazzler]

In other words people have been charging roughly the same rate for the last 2 years

 

[JBW175]

I had a heating engineer (plumber) round to do a job I couldn’t do myself, he charged £85+VAT and was only here around 15 minutes. I had absolutely no problem paying him that as I understand he’s running a business and needs to make profit.

So to that end, I don’t mind charging £80 an hour for smaller one off jobs.

Day rate, I’m never less than £350 but push for more where I can.

I’ll also price by postcode.

For context, I’m in pretty much the same area as Baddegg, but most my work is off the island.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Do any of you charge your hour rate from the moment you step into your vehicle? or do you have a traveling time rate?

 

[Dustydazzler]

I charge from when I walk in the door £95 per hour if its a call out. If I have to go out to get something for the job the clock is still running until I get back and the job is concluded. For me this is the only way I can make every job pay.

 

[LukeD]

Call out this morning ...2 hours from door back to door . But easy actual fault finding .£140 as I always get work from them .

 

[Marvo]

I didn't vote because I don't want to skew the results being non-UK. I don't do domestic and very rarely do small jobs where I'm billing an hourly rate for just myself on the tools on site but on the odd occasion I do I would bill my time at ZAR1450.00 per hour which converts directly as about 70 quid an hour. It might not sound much by UK standards but by local standards I'm fairly expensive. Mostly I work on plant room machine and motor controls.

From conversations on site I think a self employed qualified sparky doing domestic or light commercial work might be charging anything between ZAR650.00 and ZAR850.00 (30-40 quid) an hour in Cape Town before VAT.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Location must play a pretty significant part in hourly rates ?

Up the North £30-40 per hour would be a decent rate

South East and London £70-80 per hour would be more the norm

If you think about it to rent a 3 bed house up the North would cost what £700-800 per month , In London that same house could easily set you back £2000 per month in rent

 

[LukeD]

Location must play a pretty significant part in hourly rates ?

Up the North £30-40 per hour would be a decent rate

South East and London £70-80 per hour would be more the norm

If you think about it to rent a 3 bed house up the North would cost what £700-800 per month , In London that same house could easily set you back £2000 per month in rent

more along the lines of a 2 bed apartment with small garden in a semi nice area

 

[Diddy]

The issue is lets say a man has went through his apprenticeship Boy-Man lol. Then he stays at that firm for a couple of years on JIB rates. He then decides "I'm fed up on £18 an hour" (Or whatever the current JIB rate is).
So they set up on their own. Not a business lesson behind them nothing. They think ok I was getting lets say the 18x8 per day £144 a day....They then think ok if i charge £25 per hour that will cover me and I will make much more than I do currently.
But it doesn't work like that in the real world. You need to pay for EVERYTHING...Well really the customer does.
There are NO free quotes - that ---- is added to the rate.
All of our insurance and scheme memberships need paying
The van you previously didn't need as an employee needs paying for
Your 4 weeks holiday needs paying for
You really should also save 2 weeks per year as "sick days"
Fuel needs paying
Tools that an employer would supply now need bought and paid for
Even with 4 weeks of holiday booked in you will NOT work on site 48 weeks per year....Now you need to "guess" how many days down time you will have - It may be one whole day a week doing admin and quotes - that's another 48+ days someone needs to pay for or you would be better off working for an employer imho.
It gets even more complicated if you are doing large jobs where you would be earning overtime rates if you were working for JIB firm - Double time for the £18 per hour guy is now £36 per hour.....
Accountant fees
Employer NI and Employee NI
Anyone could sit down and come up with the real figure that they NEED to make the move from 8-4 employees to self-employed businessmen.
Oh I missed something out - The company NEEDS to make a profit or it is eventually doomed to fail unless the sole trader is very lucky in that nothing bad ever happens (van break-in, broken leg plant breaking)...a business without profit simply isn't a viable business.
I have been banging on for years that ALL apprenticeships should tag on even a basic business course on the end of it for those who may want to go solo.
I have seen electricians verbally abuse (on Facebook sparks groups) other electricians for charging even £35 per hour, telling them they are robbing the public and its not rocket science etc etc....
Im happy to average 3 days a week, I only actually NEED 2. So zero Facebook jobs for me. No wee Dorris tells her mate at the local parish council meeting how shiny my vacuum cleaner is and the fact that I sprayed a bit of air freshener after cleaning up lol.I do enjoy a Facebook post asking for recommendations for an electrician to do X who doesn't charge the earth...lol Yet if on occasion I am looking for a recommendation for say a decent car garage I word it asking who is "Good/Best" nothing about what they charge...I dunno maybe im the fool here lol

 

[pc1966]

I have been banging on for years that ALL apprenticeships should tag on even a basic business course on the end of it for those who may want to go solo.

<= This!

Should be one any sort of trade really, but what of ten p***** me off are folks objecting to £XX fee when they are on a decent salary and their employer is having to find that plus 100% overheads income to make it work.

 

[nicebutdim]

<= This!

Should be one any sort of trade really, but what of ten p***** me off are folks objecting to £XX fee when they are on a decent salary and their employer is having to find that plus 100% overheads income to make it work.

Lack of business acumen aside, I think a lot of newly self employed people feel an obligation to under value their time and struggle to justify necessary labour rates to themselves, much less to customers. I know quite a few guys who charge the same rate to individual customers as they do to contractors when subbed in for long term labour only contracts. It doesn't seem to occur to them that running around various small jobs is much less profitable than solid 8 hour days on site and therefore need to be charged at a much higher rate. It's as though every job is a favour to them and they should be greatful at being asked to do it - it leaves people with the impression that a plumber's time is worth £80 for the hour it takes to service a boiler, but an electrician should be able to do an hour's work for £5.

Idiots.

 

[Diddy]

As if by magic IT happened on Facebook Electricians UK group today. The chap had been charging himself out for a few years at just over JIB rates lol. This year's rates for him were £22 per hour now this was his own work not even a subby which if people took time to look are hovering between £20-£25 per hour..but anyway.....
The unfortunate chap has just had someone crash into him on his way to work and "the company" has zero cash reserves. He also has zero cash reserves.
He is now facing time out of work awaiting either insurance paying him out and/or providing him with a loan vehicle.
This exact situation could have been less stressful if the guy had been charging appropriately with an eye on PROFIT for the company as well as paying himself a wage. He says he is now going to put up his prices, so i suppose a harsh and unlucky lesson learned.
There are a million and one other things that can happen to the sole trader that can leave the "business" in tatters for those who ignore the actual business.
Keep an eye on those profits people. Keep a fund that is not your wages for the company and it will be there for you to invest/re-invest in the business itself.
BTW I DO feel sorry for the fella but just thought I would share as an example of why we need to cover the overheads and profit "properly".