Contractor Hourly Rate Calculator
General contracting carries heavier overhead than smaller trades — licensing, bonding, higher liability limits and time spent coordinating subcontractors rather than doing billable work yourself.
Recommended hourly rate
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Break-even rate
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Billable hours/year
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Full-day (8h) rate
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General-contracting-specific cost considerations
- Licensing, bonding and general liability insurance are typically higher for general contractors than for single-trade handymen, reflecting greater project scope and risk.
- A meaningful share of a GC's time goes to subcontractor coordination, permitting and site supervision rather than direct billable trade work — reflected here in a lower utilization default.
- Materials are billed separately with a markup (commonly 10-20% over cost), not folded into this labor rate.
This prices your own labor/oversight rate only. Subcontractor costs should be passed through to the client, typically with a coordination markup, not absorbed into your personal hourly rate.
Worked example
$90,000 income, $30,000 overhead, 48 weeks, 45 hrs/week, 55% utilization, 10% reserve, 15% margin:
- Billable hours: 48 × 45 × 0.55 ≈ 1,188 hours/year
- Recommended revenue: $120,000 ÷ 0.75 = $160,000
- Recommended rate: $160,000 ÷ 1,188 ≈ $134.68/hour
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Frequently asked questions
How is this different from the Handyman Rate Calculator?
This tool assumes higher licensing/bonding/insurance overhead and lower utilization to reflect subcontractor coordination time — typical of general contracting rather than single-trade handyman work.
Should I mark up subcontractor invoices?
Most general contractors add a coordination/overhead markup (commonly 10-20%) to subcontractor costs passed through to the client.