What is your hourly rate as a self employed electrician? (2024-25)

[UNG]

Of course it depends what your doing.if your sub contracting 40 hours a week then a reduced rate is perfectly fine .

There is a reduced rate and a sub economic rate and sub contracting comes with a cost over and above earning a wage, 5 - 6 years ago the going rate for a subby was around £200/10 hr day and there are still companies offering that now and nobody seems to realise the wage rates at Aldi & Lidl are catching up and come with far less responsibility and risk. As a self employed electrician earning £18/hr once all the overheads are accounted for stacking supermarket shelves would in real terms probably pay better

I suppose it comes down to expectation on the part of the employer and employee
Looking at job adverts for electricians and many offer no wage or salary info and of those that do many are offering rates that in no way properly reward the employee for what the employers job description expects

 

[sheppertonspark]

Not exactly "self employed" but a small business. We try to work on a quoted price mostly but our daywork rate is £72.00 inc. VAT. I have to say we struggle to make ends meet at this rate after overheads. I can't see how anyone could work for less than £50.00 if they are doing things the right way, i.e. insurance, memberships, assessments, training.
Fully expecting to be called greedy !!

 

[Jock from the north]

Not exactly "self employed" but a small business. We try to work on a quoted price mostly but our daywork rate is £72.00 inc. VAT. I have to say we struggle to make ends meet at this rate after overheads. I can't see how anyone could work for less than £50.00 if they are doing things the right way, i.e. insurance, memberships, assessments, training.
Fully expecting to be called greedy !!

Is that 72 per hour plus vat

 

[sheppertonspark]

Is that 72 per hour plus vat

Inclusive Jock.

 

[Brian Taylor]

Is that 72 per hour plus vat

Well I guess from the previous posts that these high rates are possible for some. To a very large extent I'm thinking that it depends on your skills and what sort of work you carry out. I get the impression that industrial jobs command a better rate than domestic, and as some have stated, industry is more willing to pay than the domestic sector. It depends where your talents are....for my part(apart from college work) I have never been involved with 3phase installations and would baulk at accepting such work....likewise construction sites..never worked on them and would not know what I was doing. But by the same thinking I guess many would not want to engage in domestic work with all it's problems eg the requirements to be ultra clean, ultra polite and to be mindful of people's possessions at all times. My work is what might be described as small in and out jobs, replace a damaged socket or switch or replacement of a lighting fitting....maybe half a day at most so as you might imagine charging 30,40 or 50 pounds an hour would not get me too many recommendations....I am dealing with members of the public who have (particularly in the current climate) very restricted budgets, indeed the incidents of non payment have increased over the last 12 months, and it's not really worth persuading anyone for a £20 invoice
Any further advice as to how I can increase money coming in would be welcome but as I have stated my experience is limited to small domestic works and as I'm not Part P registered I don't think I'm allowed to do rewires.

 

[Jock from the north]

Inclusive Jock.

Sorry I should have read it more carefully.i guess where your based and having staff costs can mount up.one thing I will say there's always plenty jobs where you think your finnished but get called back because either you've missed something or a mistake has been made and your back there for free .I don't know any electrician or tradesman who dosnt make a howler once in a while ,even the best of them despite what they might think of themselves.with plumbers it's leaks ,days or even a week after fitting new rads /boiler etc .with sparkys consumer units rcds /rcbos and if it's not an appliance you can't charge for that realistically.

 

[Jock from the north]

Inclusive Jock.

I got a phone call at 3.30 on Xmas day from a random hotel saying they'd lost power to kitchen [alot of unhappy diners I bet] the guy that phoned was offering 250 plus vat an hour to sort it .Good luck I said .the laugh is it's prob being doing it for ages and they've just been resetting supply

 

[Jock from the north]

Well I guess from the previous posts that these high rates are possible for some. To a very large extent I'm thinking that it depends on your skills and what sort of work you carry out. I get the impression that industrial jobs command a better rate than domestic, and as some have stated, industry is more willing to pay than the domestic sector. It depends where your talents are....for my part(apart from college work) I have never been involved with 3phase installations and would baulk at accepting such work....likewise construction sites..never worked on them and would not know what I was doing. But by the same thinking I guess many would not want to engage in domestic work with all it's problems eg the requirements to be ultra clean, ultra polite and to be mindful of people's possessions at all times. My work is what might be described as small in and out jobs, replace a damaged socket or switch or replacement of a lighting fitting....maybe half a day at most so as you might imagine charging 30,40 or 50 pounds an hour would not get me too many recommendations....I am dealing with members of the public who have (particularly in the current climate) very restricted budgets, indeed the incidents of non payment have increased over the last 12 months, and it's not really worth persuading anyone for a £20 invoice
Any further advice as to how I can increase money coming in would be welcome but as I have stated my experience is limited to small domestic works and as I'm not Part P registered I don't think I'm allowed to do rewires.

Can you not get part p registered ,that would be the best way to increase your hourly rate .80 percent of my work comes from word of mouth ,that's always the best way .if you can get yourself teamed up with a joiner or plumber they'll pull your rate up no doubt.i used to get stick from the joiner I worked with because I was charging 30 and he was charging 35 ,dosnt look good for them better if everyone's rate is similar for Kitchens and bathrooms etc .how do you get your work if you don't mind me asking

 

[Brian Taylor]

I got a phone call at 3.30 on Xmas day from a random hotel saying they'd lost power to kitchen [alot of unhappy diners I bet] the guy that phoned was offering 250 plus vat an hour to sort it .Good luck I said .the laugh is it's prob being doing it for ages and they've just been resetting supply

 

[Brian Taylor]

I got a phone call at 3.30 on Xmas day from a random hotel saying they'd lost power to kitchen [alot of unhappy diners I bet] the guy that phoned was offering 250 plus vat an hour to sort it .Good luck I said .the laugh is it's prob being doing it for ages and they've just been resetting supply

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood but are you saying you turned down a job paying £250 an hour.....I'd give them Chistmas day and New Years day for £250 and be pleased to do it.

 

[Jock from the north]

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood but are you saying you turned down a job paying £250 an hour.....I'd give them Chistmas day and New Years day for £250 and be pleased to do it.

Yeh normaly I would but getting parts for a burnt out isolator or what ever the problem was might have been tough on Xmas day.sometimes it's best not to get involved.i did do a job years back where the local pub had lost a phase because one of the forks on the isolator had disintegrated[ if I remember right ] for the kitchen board.had to work thru the night changing it

 

[mainline]

Well I guess from the previous posts that these high rates are possible for some. To a very large extent I'm thinking that it depends on your skills and what sort of work you carry out. I get the impression that industrial jobs command a better rate than domestic, and as some have stated, industry is more willing to pay than the domestic sector. It depends where your talents are....for my part(apart from college work) I have never been involved with 3phase installations and would baulk at accepting such work....likewise construction sites..never worked on them and would not know what I was doing. But by the same thinking I guess many would not want to engage in domestic work with all it's problems eg the requirements to be ultra clean, ultra polite and to be mindful of people's possessions at all times. My work is what might be described as small in and out jobs, replace a damaged socket or switch or replacement of a lighting fitting....maybe half a day at most so as you might imagine charging 30,40 or 50 pounds an hour would not get me too many recommendations....I am dealing with members of the public who have (particularly in the current climate) very restricted budgets, indeed the incidents of non payment have increased over the last 12 months, and it's not really worth persuading anyone for a £20 invoice
Any further advice as to how I can increase money coming in would be welcome but as I have stated my experience is limited to small domestic works and as I'm not Part P registered I don't think I'm allowed to do rewires.

If I were you I would phone some local electricians to see if they would be interested in giving you some work.
It will give you some experience.

 

[Brian Taylor]

Can you not get part p registered ,that would be the best way to increase your hourly rate .80 percent of my work comes from word of mouth ,that's always the best way .if you can get yourself teamed up with a joiner or plumber they'll pull your rate up no doubt.i used to get stick from the joiner I worked with because I was charging 30 and he was charging 35 ,dosnt look good for them better if everyone's rate is similar for Kitchens and bathrooms etc .how do you get your work if you don't mind me asking

Yes, getting Part P would definitely help i think...the only think I would be worried about is what I am expected to know to get it,.....I do have the 18th edition exam (after 4 tries)....but I understand that you have to some new circuits to be inspected....but if I am excluded from installing new circuits by virtue of my non Part P status i will have nothing to be inspected on.....a bit of a catch 22 situation i think......how do others get around this?

 

[Brian Taylor]

Yeh normaly I wouldn't but getting parts for a burnt out isolator or what ever the problem was might have been tough on Xmas day.sometimes it's best not to get involved

ah sorry I understand your reluctance now.

 

[mainline]

Yeh normaly I wouldn't but getting parts for a burnt out isolator or what ever the problem was might have been tough on Xmas day.sometimes it's best not to get involved

I would have bridged the isolator and stayed until they closed for that £££