Labour rates (Domestic electrician)?

[Forty_Two]

North England (not London) . . . What is a FAIR daily rate (just labour no materials) for an electrician, an electrician qualified to remove and replace a simple domestic consumer unit test and certify that work?

When I use the word FAIR I mean . . . plasterers, brick layers, plumbers, car mechanics etc., etc, all of whom will have (what you and I believe) is a FAIR daily labour rate, and some trades will be more than others . . . . what do you believe that should be for a domestic electrician?

Are the rates in the below link accurate?

Electrician rates near you for 2024

See how much local Electrician charge per hour & day instantly online (no need to phone around). Get quotes for your jobs and save money.

www.hamuch.com

 

[Dustydazzler]

Are you working direct for the customer or working for a builder ?

Direct for the customer I would be looking to achieve around £500 labour from a full long day doing a board change

Direct for a builder or other contractor then you will be looking at £250-300 labour rate for the same job as the builder will want to make his profit from the job as well

 

[ferg]

Those rates look a little low to me, perhaps just out of date.

In fairness location is everything so Dusty being in the South of Englandshire will be higher than the North.

I wouldn't fit a board that someone else had supplied as I would have to forgo the markup on materials and there is always something that you need that the customer didn't get or got wrong.

It would be better to let the electrician supply the materials as they will then guarantee both workmanship and materials.

 

[Forty_Two]

Direct for the customer I would be looking to achieve around £500 labour from a full long day doing a board change

£500 a day - £10,000 a month – NICE; that’s more than the Consultant Surgeon is getting after leaving school with 5 A levels, then doing 5 years at University then 5 years as a Junior Doctor – that’s ‘fair’ when your definition of fair = “as much as I can get”.

And being honest and fair I am sure we can presume that all your quotes start at the top, the first line . . . Labour x days at £500 a day?

 

[Dustydazzler]

£500 a day - £10,000 a month – NICE; that’s more than the Consultant Surgeon is getting after leaving school with 5 A levels, then doing 5 years at University then 5 years as a Junior Doctor – that’s ‘fair’ when your definition of fair = “as much as I can get”.

And being honest and fair I am sure we can presume that all your quotes start at the top, the first line . . . Labour x days at £500 a day?

Not every job will equate to £500 pay , there are jobs that go wrong , there are days you are ill and can't work , I am saying on a board change which takes about 6-7 hours on site then 1 hour at home doing the admin , I would look to get around £500 out of the job Or in other words £70-80 Per hour

 

[Forty_Two]

Those rates look a little low to me, perhaps just out of date.
I wouldn't fit a board that someone else had supplied

Thanks - I agree that it is always better for the electrician to supply the materials.
As the 'customer' unless the quoting electrician explicitly states . . . Labour charge x hours or x days at £--- a day I have to try and price up the materials and deduct that from the quote to identify whether I am being charged a fair price for his labour for that period of time.

I am 75 years old and I have had 50 years of employing various trades for various jobs in the house and we all have a rough idea of what is a fair labour charge for each trade and with nothing more than life experience I believe that £300 a day is the lost I should expect to pay for a day for am electrician, heating engineer, plumber and less for a joiner, carpenter etc.

 

[Dustydazzler]

If its say 5 days work on a job direct for the home owner then in my area you could easily put down £300 per day x 5 days = £1500 labour

No one would bat an eyelid at £300 labour rate in South England , you could probably get away with £400 per day in Surrey and 99% of home owners wouldn't flinch

 

[Pretty Mouth]

£500 a day - £10,000 a month – NICE; that’s more than the Consultant Surgeon is getting after leaving school with 5 A levels, then doing 5 years at University then 5 years as a Junior Doctor – that’s ‘fair’ when your definition of fair = “as much as I can get”.

And being honest and fair I am sure we can presume that all your quotes start at the top, the first line . . . Labour x days at £500 a day?

Bear in mind that an hourly rate charged is not an hourly rate earned. As a self employed tradesperson, there is a hell of a lot of unpaid work involved. Add to that overheads, holiday pay, pension and so on. Have an accident or get ill, out of work for however long, this has to be paid for. Plus it's really hard work, physically and mentally - this has to be compensated for, otherwise it's just not worth it.

 

[telectrix]

when I first started out early '70's , I was charging £10/hour. I always had a full wallet and funds in the bank. now charging £45/hour and permanently skint. fuel is 20 x what it was then. you do the maths.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Its a hard one as it is very subjective and individual

My starting point is £300+VAT for an easy day. if there is some physical graft involved in that then it goes up. I have recently charged some people £400+VAT per day for doing a kitchen rewire, I knew they had nobody else lined up and I was free. so 3 days work plus mark up on materials not bad at all.
As of next month it will be £350+VAT as prices are going up, from fuel to everything else... I saw in suppliers this week on a sheet from head office that a lot of manufacturers are raising prices before April lowest increase I saw was 5% one company who supply metal accessories for conduit etc are increasing prices by 18% cable is going up all the time.

 

[pc1966]

when I first started out early '70's , I was charging £10/hour. I always had a full wallet and funds in the bank. now charging £45/hour and permanently skint. fuel is 20 x what it was then. you do the maths.

Or allow the Bank of England to do it:

Inflation calculator

Use our inflation calculator to check how prices in the UK have changed over time, from 1209 to now.

www.bankofengland.co.uk

£10/hour in 1970 would be £158/hour now.

Edit: From 1975 less painful at £86/hour, I guess the '73 oil crisis and the UK trouble needing the IMF around '76 hit hard.

 

[James]

Or allow the Bank of England to do it:

Inflation calculator

Use our inflation calculator to check how prices in the UK have changed over time, from 1209 to now.

www.bankofengland.co.uk

£10/hour in 1970 would be £158/hour now.

Oh poo, I have set my rate far to low, I wonder how my customers will react to my rate being multiplied by a factor of 3?

 

[cliffed]

1972 35p hour
1977 £1.00 hour
1999 £10.00 hour
Nowadays not that much more, £300 hour no way

 

[UNG]

What is a fair, reasonable or real world hourly or daily rate is a debateable subject that is very often misunderstood by a lot of customers as the tradesman's actual earnings when this is far from the reality once all the overheads are taken into account.

I've lost count of the number of times that customers have asked why my hourly rate adds up to much more than they earn in an hour, many are totally unaware of the overheads that a business incurs and how holidays, ongoing training, the periodical updating of the necessary publications to name a few are actually paid for out of the rate. When they are employed they never see what it actually cost their employer to employ them

20 years ago when I had a couple of companies running one of them did mast and rope access work, the course, assessment and cert lasted 3 years so every three years there was a weeks course to pay for 6 - 8 employees, after taking in to account wages, lost earnings for the company, accommodation costs and course costs the cost to the company was well over £2k and probably nearer £3k per employee add in all the PPE for that work and the costs ramped up again and a few people wanting our services baulked at the rate we charged for what appeared to them to be a simple job

The ones that think they understand what is a fair rate to pay is solicitor's had it quite often where they try to under pay for work carried out yet they will charge exorbitant hourly fees even for the lowly secretary typing the letters when you want them to work for you

As we can all see on this group rates vary a lot across the country and if you want the tradesman you pay the rate they set, the bigger issue is how do you assess the skill set of the tradesman you are looking to employ and are they worth the rate they charge

 

[pc1966]

What is a fair, reasonable or real world hourly or daily rate is a debatable subject that is very often misunderstood by a lot of customers as the tradesman's actual earnings when this is far from the reality once all the overheads are taken into account.

This ^^^

For most of the companies I have worked for as a consultant I know they are assuming around 100% overheads (i.e. end customer pays them twice what I get) to allow for all of the expenses needed to actually get that work that can be forwarded to me to be done and then to invoice for it and sort out accounts/tax/etc after it is completed.

 

[Forty_Two]

What is a fair,
I've lost count of the number of times that customers have asked why my hourly rate adds up to much more than they earn in an hour, many are totally unaware of the overheads that a business incurs and how holidays

Indeed but that is also the case for the plumber, joiner, brick layer etc., and every other trade or business. And talking to the builders who are working on huge multilevel extension next door (who also have overheads) I asked them what I (not them) should expect to pay an domestic electrician for a days work and they said £250 - £300 max.

 

[Diddy]

Indeed but that is also the case for the plumber, joiner, brick layer etc., and every other trade or business. And talking to the builders who are working on huge multilevel extension next door (who also have overheads) I asked them what I (not them) should expect to pay an domestic electrician for a days work and they said £250 - £300 max.

Put it this way if you can get a qualified person to do work for you at £300 per day or even lower then you are correct. If you can't then you are simply incorrect. The market decides not the individual customer nor the builder next door.
I am pretty tight in what I pay my electrician (ME) but my company likes to make huge profits and the company overheads sending the lazy spark out to work are huge, Sometimes 70% of the price is going to the company....Maybe I will have a stern word with myself lol see if I can negotiate a pay rise for the employee...

 

[oracle]

£500 a day - £10,000 a month – NICE; that’s more than the Consultant Surgeon is getting after leaving school with 5 A levels, then doing 5 years at University then 5 years as a Junior Doctor – that’s ‘fair’ when your definition of fair = “as much as I can get”.

And being honest and fair I am sure we can presume that all your quotes start at the top, the first line . . . Labour x days at £500 a day?

I wouldn't compare income with other career choices. Things may be different now but after finishing high school, a five year apprenticeship, full trade test similar to the AM2, two hour closed book exam Wiring Regulations, two hour closed book exam inspection and testing, then two hour closed book exam design and also a design project based on a sub station supplying a small town. Then I read about a seven day Domestic Installer course and the guy can trade.

Not every job will equate to £500 pay , there are jobs that go wrong , there are days you are ill and can't work , I am saying on a board change which takes about 6-7 hours on site then 1 hour at home doing the admin , I would look to get around £500 out of the job Or in other words £70-80 Per hour

 

[DRhook]

I wouldn't compare income with other career choices. Things may be different now but after finishing high school, a five year apprenticeship, full trade test similar to the AM2, two hour closed book exam Wiring Regulations, two hour closed book exam inspection and testing, then two hour closed book exam design and also a design project based on a sub station supplying a small town. Then I read about a seven day Domestic Installer course and the guy can trade.

 

[DRhook]

I'm with you oracle, to be called an electrician ( or any trade ) and being able to trade after doing one of these courses is an insult to all who have done apprenticeships, and every exam through to the 18th edition.
As for daily rates, I am way behind, I live and work in Hampshire and my labour rate per day is £200. Needs to be adjusted I think !!!