What a tech hour really costs
A tech who earns $30 an hour costs you a lot more than $30 for every hour you can bill. Put in your numbers and see the real cost of a billable hour.
Cost of one billable hour
$67.97
Every hour you bill has to bring in at least this before parts and overhead, just to cover the tech and the truck.
- Cost per paid hour
- $44.18
- Billable hours a day
- 5.7
- Cost of the tech and truck per day
- $389
- Per year (260 working days)
- $101,088
How the math works
Labor per paid hour is the wage plus payroll taxes, insurance and benefits. The truck is miles a day times your cost per mile, spread over the paid hours.
Techs don't bill every hour they're paid for. Drive time, parts runs, paperwork and gaps between jobs eat the rest. So the cost of a billable hour is the cost of a paid hour divided by the share of hours you actually bill.
The defaults are national figures. The wage sits at the BLS median for HVAC, plumbing and electrical. The benefits load is 30% of wage: BLS puts the private-industry average near 43%, and many smaller shops offer less. The truck uses the IRS mileage rate, which covers fuel, maintenance, insurance and depreciation.
Where the defaults come from
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: HVAC mechanics and installers, median pay $29.33/hour (May 2025)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, median pay $30.67/hour (May 2025)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: electricians, median pay $30.38/hour (May 2025)
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: benefits averaged $14.07/hour on $32.82/hour of wages in private industry
- IRS standard mileage rates: 76 cents per business mile from July 1, 2026
- ACHR News (June 2026), Field Promax data from 300 HVAC companies: 65% of paid technician time is billable, 5.7 of 8.8 paid hours a day
Defaults are national starting points. Your own numbers will always beat them.
More free tools
Flat-rate price builder
Price a job from hours, parts and overhead, at the margin you actually want.
Daily revenue target per truck
What each truck has to bring in every day to cover the shop and hit your profit goal.
What callbacks cost you
The labor, parts and paying work you lose every time a crew goes back to fix a job.
Let’s talk about your shop.
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