Tradie Hourly Rate Calculator
Work out what you need to charge per hour to cover your costs, pay yourself and build profit into your jobs.
Free to use. Designed for Australian tradies. No sign-in needed.
Your business numbers
These are example figures. Change them to suit your business.
Recommended charge-out rate
Includes 10% GST. Only relevant if your business is registered or required to charge GST.
- Billable hours per year
- 1,288
- Income target
- $100,000.00
- Annual overheads
- $30,000.00
- Target annual revenue
- $152,941.18
- Profit built into the calculation
- $22,941.18
1,840 working hours × 70% billable time.
What does that mean for a job?
You can add materials, call-out fees and other job costs when you build the full quote.
Amounts are shown to the nearest cent. Estimates use the unrounded rate.
Got your hourly rate? Put it into a real quote.
Create a professional customer quote with labour, materials and job costs in Jirvo.
Create a free quoteThis calculator provides a general business estimate only. Your actual rate may vary depending on your costs, tax circumstances, trade, location and the type of work you perform. It does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice.
How to calculate your tradie hourly rate
Dividing your desired income by every working hour can leave you undercharging. Your charge-out rate also needs to cover business overheads, non-billable time, time off and profit.
Add your annual income target and overheads, then divide by one minus your profit margin. Divide that revenue target by your realistic annual billable hours. For example, a 15% margin means dividing by 0.85, rather than adding a 15% markup.
Your income target is the amount available to pay yourself before personal income tax. Include your relevant business costs in overheads; this tool does not calculate personal income tax or individual tax obligations.
Why billable hours matter
A 40-hour work week does not normally mean 40 chargeable hours. Quoting, driving, ordering materials, paperwork and other tasks consume time. Allow for that work and for weeks off when setting your billable time.
Use your own records to check these assumptions. A lower billable percentage means each chargeable hour needs to recover more of your annual costs. Read the Australian tradie hourly-rate guide for a worked example.
Hourly rate vs job price
Your hourly rate is a useful starting point for calculating the labour part of a job. Many customers ultimately receive a total job price that also includes materials, travel, call-out fees and other costs.
Use the estimate to plan your labour, then check the scope and full job costs before sending a quote. See how to write a professional trade quote, browse free quote templates for your trade, or learn about material markup and profit margin.