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

[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".

 

[oscar21]

<= 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.

Of course young people should be taught business sense, kids at school should be taught about money, finance and the like, they should be hit in the head with a board duster until they understand about compound interest rates.

But they won't, because if they did they wouldn't get into all sorts of high interest debts when they are older using up their working life making obscenely rich people even richer.

 

[nicebutdim]

Of course young people should be taught business sense, kids at school should be taught about money, finance and the like, they should be hit in the head with a board duster until they understand about compound interest rates.

But they won't, because if they did they wouldn't get into all sorts of high interest debts when they are older using up their working life making obscenely rich people even richer.

They could also avail of all manner of free resources and provide themselves with a beneficial education.

But they won't because stuffing one's face with fast food, while watching mindless nonsense is much easier, especially when it's accepted that all of life's woes are the fault of someone else.

The real education needed in the western world is one of personal responsibility.

 

[LukeD]

They could also avail of all manner of free resources and provide themselves with a beneficial education.

But they won't because stuffing one's face with fast food, while watching mindless nonsense is much easier, especially when it's accepted that all of life's woes are the fault of someone else.

The real education needed in the western world is one of personal responsibility.

Correct ..... there seems to be a great lack of it. I am 60 and have zero debt of any description .Some of my friends are so in debt its unreal .They own a house .I dont . They can lose it all far quicker than I can .they have this believe that debt is not a issue

 

[Risteard]

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 certainly take your point, although if I'm honest when I was finishing my Apprenticeship I never had the intention of ever going out on my own. It was probably largely forced false Self-Employment which made the decision for me, where if you're being forced to register as Self-Employed to essentially be an employee without your statutory rights then I may as well become properly self-employed.

 

[nicebutdim]

Correct ..... there seems to be a great lack of it. I am 60 and have zero debt of any description .Some of my friends are so in debt its unreal .They own a house .I dont . They can lose it all far quicker than I can .they have this believe that debt is not a issue

Even best laid plans are prone to failure and people fall into debt for all manner of reasons, but I find it difficult to sympathise with people who complain about debt while failing to recognise their own extravagence.

I've been in debt once and learned some hard lessons about business, along with life in general. I don't plan on repeating that experience, but it's impossible to know what the future holds. The best we can do is plan ahead with a good measure of responsibility.

 

[baldelectrician]

I certainly take your point, although if I'm honest when I was finishing my Apprenticeship I never had the intention of ever going out on my own. It was probably largely forced false Self-Employment which made the decision for me, where if you're being forced to register as Self-Employed to essentially be an employee without your statutory rights then I may as well become properly self-employed.

Exact thing happened to me in 2003

The guy I worked for told all of us we had to go self employed.

Within 6 weeks I realised I could make double what he was paying by going on my own.

The first week his son called me on the way back from Port Patrick (just south of Stranraer) and asked me to go to Port Glasgow as I was about to reach my house on the A77. Told him NO

After his stunned silence I pointed out that if I said that 2 months ago he could have disciplined me but as I am now self employed I could pick and choose my own jobs

 

[richy3333]

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

I charge mileage on top of my hourly/day rate. I have to being in the Highlands. Local for me could easily be a round trip of 300+ miles! I rarely charge an hourly rate due to the distances involved.

Personally I think most electricians charge way too little when you look at other professions and the way the cost of living has increased so much. Over the last couple of years I have nearly doubled my rate and it has had zero effect on my workload.

 

[LukeD]

Exact thing happened to me in 2003

The guy I worked for told all of us we had to go self employed.

Within 6 weeks I realised I could make double what he was paying by going on my own.

The first week his son called me on the way back from Port Patrick (just south of Stranraer) and asked me to go to Port Glasgow as I was about to reach my house on the A77. Told him NO

After his stunned silence I pointed out that if I said that 2 months ago he could have disciplined me but as I am now self employed I could pick and choose my own jobs

I find this whole practise of people been forced to work for a company on a self employed basis a Joke and immoral .

 

[Dustydazzler]

I find this whole practise of people been forced to work for a company on a self employed basis a Joke and immoral .

Wasn't uncommon back in the day for firms to askpeople if they wanted to come off the cards and become subbies back to the firm.Happened to me and loads of blokes I knew back then.
In fact I remember one company I did work for being audited for having so many 'self employed; people working for them on a regualr basis.

 

[Mike Johnson]

The companies themselves are avoiding paying Income Tax and National Health contribution, holiday pay etc if found out the will end up in court, periodic checks are made of companies by HMRC.

A company I was consulting for had such a check together with other consultants, I was interviewed and only when I showed them the results of a VAT inspection and a list of my other clients was the investigation dropped.