How much should an electrician charge per hour? Service call, first hour and hourly rate (free rate sheet)

Published November 3, 2026 · Numbers checked November 2026

• Free. The rate sheet comes as a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file; the links come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, a price book). One section, the one before the FAQ, says how it connects to this page.
• The owner rates below are what electricians said on Reddit, counted by us. They aren't a survey, and nobody measures what electricians bill by state.
• Not legal or tax advice. A few lines touch payroll tax and hiring rules; your accountant and your state's electrical board have the last word.

An electrician should charge enough per billable hour to cover a year of pay and business costs, plus a profit. For a one-person shop paying itself its state's median electrician wage, with the example costs on this page, that comes to about $95 an hour in Arkansas, $110 to $115 in the middle-tier states and $130 in the high-tier states, with a service call (the trip and the first hour) of $145 to $195. Electricians who post their own numbers mostly charge $100 to $150 an hour and $125 to $180 for the first hour.

The rate sheet does that arithmetic with your state and your own costs, then turns the answer into a first-hour fee, a minimum charge, a helper rate and a rate card for customers. Get it two ways: make your own copy in Google Sheets or download the Excel version (.xlsx). Pick one, enter your email and I'll send the link.

Before writing this I read the pages that rank for the question. Most are electrical shops writing for homeowners. The figure you'll meet everywhere, $50 to $130 an hour plus a $100 to $200 service call, is on HomeAdvisor and HomeGuide, and Housecall Pro's pricing guide for electricians repeats it.^{1, 2, 3} Housecall Pro's job prices come from 636,022 service entries by its own customers, but the page says its hourly rates and service-call fees were compiled from cost guides such as Angi's, HomeAdvisor's and Thumbtack's. So that hourly range is one homeowner figure, passed around. Its bottom end, $50, is less than the $88 break-even of the example shop further down. Nobody publishes a measured bill rate for electricians by state. What does exist is the wage employers pay in each state, and owners stating their own rates. This page uses both and says which is which.

Electrician hourly rate: what owners say they charge

We counted US electricians on r/electricians and r/AskElectricians who stated their own rate between August 2024 and October 2026.⁴ Hourly rates came from 21 people and ran mostly $100 to $150. First-hour or service call fees came from 22 people: $75 to $375, mostly $125 to $180. Most of them read as owners, though few say so outright. These are the ones who named a place or spelled out how they charge:⁵

Two cautions. People post their rate when they're proud of it, so these lean toward owners doing well. And Reddit can't be cut by state: of the 13 states on this page, only Arkansas, Iowa and Colorado have even one owner's hourly rate, plus a Massachusetts comment on the going rate. The Arkansas owner put that number in context: "We are definitely among the cheapest in the area though, the company I used to work for was $150 and they were more middle of the road."⁵

A better way to a number is the one a Reno electrician took in September, with a brand-new Nevada contractor license and electricians on payroll at about $50 an hour. The post added up wages, payroll costs, insurance, licensing, vehicles and overhead: "I've calculated that I would need to charge around $150/hour for labor to maintain approximately a 20% profit margin."⁶ The post then asks whether that's too high for the Reno market. Costs first, market check second. That's the order the rest of this page follows.

Your state's wage floor

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes what employers pay electricians in every state.⁷ That's employee pay, with the truck, tools, insurance and slow weeks on the employer's side. So it's a floor under your own pay, not a price. Owners turn it into a rate with a rule of thumb. "To pay yourself $40 an hour, you need to triple that so estimate at $120 an hour. Don't cheat on this, you'll fail," one told a new contractor in January.⁸ Another splits a $150 rate this way: "$50 is saved for taxes, $50 grows the business, and $50 goes in my pocket."⁹

Find your row. The floor is three times the median wage.

The tiers are the wages grouped. The five high-tier states sit within about a dollar of each other, the seven middle-tier states within about a dollar of the US median, and Arkansas is alone at $23.59. These are statewide medians. The New York metro area (which takes in northern New Jersey) comes in at $37.99 and the Denver metro area at $30.36, both close to their states' figures.⁷

The few real owner rates sit above the floor: Arkansas $95 against $71, Iowa $110 against $88, Colorado $125 against $90. Treat three times the wage as the least you charge. The next section shows why a rate worked out from real costs usually lands higher.

Work out your own rate from a year

Your hourly rate is what you need to average on the hours a customer pays for. The rate sheet starts from a year, in five steps:

1. Start with the pay you want before income tax. The template's example is your state's median wage times 2,080 hours, a full-time year: $63,190 at the US median.⁷
2. Add the payroll tax an employer would have paid on that wage. Self-employment tax is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security, 2.9% Medicare), and the IRS calls half of it the employer-equivalent portion.¹⁰ That half, 7.65%, is $4,834 on $63,190.
3. Add a year of business costs. The list below totals $38,000. Every number in it is made up, so replace each one with a bill or a quote.
4. Divide by the hours you can bill. Driving, estimates, supply runs, callbacks and paperwork are work, but nobody pays for them by the hour. An Iowa owner: "You will only be able to bill around 1000-1200 hours as a one man band so need to base your price on that at a minimum."¹¹ The example uses 25 a week for 48 weeks, so 1,200. ($63,190 + $4,834 + $38,000) ÷ 1,200 = $88.35 an hour. That's break-even.
5. Add profit, as a share of the rate. A Northeast shop: "we shoot for 20%, sometimes have to go 10% to get a project."¹² At 20%, $88.35 ÷ 0.8 = $110.44, which the template rounds up to $115.

Break-even and your rate are different numbers, and owners know it. A one-man shop: "$135 is the minimum I could charge and break even. I usually charge around $185 but depends on what I'm doing."¹³

Here are the same made-up costs run through each state's median wage. I kept the costs identical so only the wage moves; yours won't be identical.

• The wage moves the rate less than you'd expect. Massachusetts pays electricians 62% more than Arkansas, but the rate is only 37% higher, because in this example the truck and the insurance cost the same in both.
• Billable hours move it more. At 1,000 hours a year instead of 1,200, the $115 rate becomes $135. At 1,400 it drops to $95.
• With costs in, every rate lands at 3.4 to 4 times the wage. So the triple rule works as a minimum, and real costs push past it.
• The Arkansas line lands exactly on the one Arkansas owner's $95. That's partly luck.

Electrician service call fee: the trip and the first hour

A service call fee (owners also say trip charge or first-hour fee) is what the customer pays for you to show up and work the first hour, even when the fix takes ten minutes. Owners set it up a few ways:

• First hour, trip included, then hourly. The Greenville contractor: "I charge $125 for the first hour, which will be charged even if I'm there for 5 minutes. Every hour after is $100 an hour."¹⁴
• A fee for the trip and part of the hour. The Wisconsin owner: "I do $120 service call that covers the first 30min and charge/bid $120/hr."¹⁵
• A service fee plus hourly with a one-hour minimum. North Carolina: "We charge $99 service fee but will credit $50 to customer if they go with us for the work. Our hourly rate is $150 per hr and min 1 hr."¹⁶
• One price to show up. The Tennessee two-man shop: "I charge $300 just to show up, but I definitely drop the price if it's something stupid like a GFCI reset or something that takes under 30 mins."¹⁷

The rate sheet uses the first: first-hour fee = your hourly rate × (1 + the trip and setup time you charge). With a $115 rate and half an hour of trip and setup, that's $172.50, rounded up to $175. Your rate already spreads ordinary drive time over the year. The half hour inside the first-hour fee makes a 15-minute call pay for its own trip. The Greenville contractor's reason is the same: customers "need to be charged from the time you get out of the drivers seat, and get back in."¹⁴

Decide what happens to the rest of the hour. Owners split here too. "If I fix the problem in 15 minutes I'm not sticking around for the remaining 45 minutes doing odd jobs," wrote one who charges $175 for the first hour.¹⁸ Another charged a $375 minimum call-out on a fan job that took about two hours: "I tell people that's my half-day rate, so they had me clean up a couple of other things."¹⁹ Either works if you say it on the phone before you book.

Should you credit the service call toward the job?

Some owners do, to win the bigger job. Besides the North Carolina shop's $50 credit, an owner who had started an electrical contracting business the year before: "I charge $50 to come out, and tell the customer it will be applied to the price of the job if hired."²⁰ A former owner who worked only by referral had "no free estimates", charged a trip fee and applied it to the job.²¹ Another started charging after realtors kept using free estimates as "bargaining chips": "Started charging $250 for an estimate, to be deducted from the cost of the job if I'm hired. I write way fewer BS estimates now."²² The owners in the table whose fee pays for time on the job, such as Montana and Wisconsin, don't mention a credit.

My rule: credit the trip, never the work, and only toward a bigger job you quote. If the first hour fixed the problem, the fee was the job. In the rate sheet the most you'd credit is your rate times the trip time, $57.50 at $115. Put the credit and a deadline on the quote ("$50 off if you approve within 30 days"), so it reads as a reason to say yes this week. The electrician invoice template has a row for a credited service call.

Hourly rate after the first hour

After the first hour most owners bill their hourly rate. Some go lower, since the first hour already paid for the trip: "We are $175 for the first hour and $90 every hour after that." "I charge $180 for the first hour and about $100-$120 for each hour after that." "My rate is $325 for the first hour, $195/hr after that."^{18, 23, 24} Others keep one number. "I charge $140 for a service call. 140 a hour after first hour," says a North Carolina owner who has worked alone for four years.²⁵

Bill it in blocks (the rate sheet uses half hours) and print the block on your rate card, so ten minutes over never turns into an argument. For work where you can't see the end, such as troubleshooting or finishing someone else's job, stay on time and materials (T&M: your hours at your rate, plus parts at your price). For jobs you've done before, a panel swap or a ceiling fan, owners mostly quote a flat price, and it should be worked out from the same rate.⁴

Helper or apprentice rate

A second person on the job adds to your hourly rate. Owners add anywhere from $30 to $150 an hour:

• "take my labor rate (125 for 1 man, 155 for me and the helper)"²⁶
• "minimum four hours at $150 for the lead and $105 for the helper"²⁷
• "$150 an hour for one guy, and $300 an hour for 2 guys", from the Tennessee shop¹⁷
• "If you charge $50-100 for your labor, charge $30-60 for the helper."²⁸

Work out the least it should be. Take the helper's pay, add payroll taxes, workers' comp and unemployment insurance, divide by the share of their paid hours you can bill, then add your profit. The BLS median for electrician helpers is $20.51 an hour nationally, and your state's figure is in the table above.⁷ With 30% on top for payroll costs, 80% of their hours billable and 20% profit (the first two made up): $20.51 × 1.3 ÷ 0.8 ÷ 0.8 = $41.66, rounded up to $45. That makes the example's two-person rate $160. Owners who add $100 or more are well above that floor. The formula only tells you where a helper starts costing you money.

Get a workers' comp quote before the first hire, and read your state board's rules for supervising apprentices.

Electrician minimum charge and the small-job problem

The Wisconsin owner, three years into working alone: "The jobs under 2 hours are rarely profitable but aren't losers and you have to do them to get reviews and positive word of mouth."¹⁵ A residential contractor put the problem plainly: "It even pains me when it's something quick and easy. But if you do service calls for $20 and a sandwich, you'll go broke." Small calls rarely line up end to end, the same contractor went on, and "they are usually taking away time from a job that is paying all day."²⁹

Owners handle it four ways:

1. A first-hour fee that pays for the trip, as above.
2. A minimum for small jobs you schedule ahead: one fixture, one outlet, a smoke detector. "I have a $300 labor minimum that covers the first two hours."³⁰ "I don't go anywhere for less than $300."³¹ The rate sheet's two-hour minimum is the first-hour fee plus one more hour: $175 + $115 = $290.
3. Filling the visit. Ask what else needs doing before you book and price the list as one visit, like the owner whose fan job turned into a half day.¹⁹
4. Routing. "If a service call happens to be on the way to or back from another job I will give people a break if they are decent deserving people."²⁹

It also helps to know what a day has to bill. A Maryland one-man shop: "my goal for any job is i need to be billing at least $1500/day to be covering expenses and be making good money working for myself."³² In the rate sheet's example, 25 billable hours over five days at $115 is $575 a day. When a short call breaks up a day that would have billed more, the call costs you the difference.

Electrician hourly rate calculator (free rate sheet)

The rate sheet has five tabs. Your rate is the internal one: pick your state, keep its median wage as your pay or type your own, then fill in a year of costs, your billable hours and your profit. It works out the hourly rate, the first-hour fee, the rate after the first hour, the two-hour minimum, an after-hours fee and the helper add-on, and checks your rate against break-even and against three times your state's wage. Visit quote prices one call from those numbers: time on site, whether a helper came, whether it was after hours, materials at your markup (it starts at 30%, the most common markup owners stated) and any permit at cost. A service call never comes in under the first-hour fee, and a small scheduled job never under the minimum. Grey columns outside the print area show what the visit paid per hour of your time.

Rate card is what the customer sees: the service call, each additional half hour, a second person, the small-job minimum, after hours, materials and permits, and one line saying whether the service call is credited. No wages, costs or hours. State wages holds the table above, and Notes explains every formula and where each example number comes from. Sourced examples are marked EXAMPLE, placeholders MADE-UP EXAMPLE.

To fill it in:

1. Copy the Google Sheet or open the .xlsx, start on Your rate and pick your state.
2. Replace every MADE-UP EXAMPLE cost with a real one, from a bill or a quote.
3. Be honest about billable hours. One electrician who was self-employed for three years: "remember you might working closer to 20 hours a week at the start than 40 until you get a good reputation and repeat customers."³³
4. Look at the rate, the two checks and the first-hour fee. Type over any of them if you want a rounder number; the formula stays beside it.
5. Set your minimum hours, your credit rule and your after-hours multiplier.
6. Fill in the Rate card header and print it, or copy the prices to your website.
7. For the first month, run each call through Visit quote and see what it paid per hour of your time.

Then say it on the phone, before you book: "It's $175 for the service call. That covers the trip and the first hour. After that it's $115 an hour, billed by the half hour, and I'll tell you before I go past the first hour. Parts are extra."

More for new electrical contractors

• Flat rate, per opening or hourly: how electricians price each kind of job, with a free price sheet.
• 200 amp service upgrade checklist: scope, permit, utility, inspection and price.
• Someone asked to use your master license: what being a company's qualifier pays, and what it can cost you.
• Your license and first 30 days, by state: Arkansas, Colorado and Denver, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York City, Utah, Virginia.

Where Deepsel fits

A spreadsheet is the right place to work your rate out. Charging it happens on a phone in someone's kitchen. In Deepsel, each price book item has a name, a description that shows on the quote, a unit such as hour or each, a price, and a cost that never appears on anything the customer sees. Put your service call, your hourly labor, the helper hour and your minimum in as items. Adding one to a job copies its name and price onto the line, and the job's lines carry over to the invoice. New accounts start with a few sample HVAC items to edit or delete, and Add a trade in the price book loads an electrical starter list of 32 items with example prices, among them a $175 service call and labor at $115 an hour, to change to your own numbers. What it won't do: work your rate out from your costs, apply a minimum by itself, or credit a service call fee for you. The one automatic credit is a deposit taken when a customer approves a quote, which comes off the final invoice. The terms text you write once is copied onto each new quote, so that's the place for your service call and credit rule. The Free plan covers 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month for your whole team; Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How much should an electrician charge per hour?

Enough to cover a year of pay and business costs on the hours you can actually bill, plus a profit. For a one-person shop paying itself its state's median electrician wage, with $38,000 of example costs and 1,200 billable hours, that comes to about $95 an hour in Arkansas, $110 to $115 in middle-tier states such as Virginia, Colorado and Iowa, and $130 in high-tier states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts. Electricians on Reddit who state their own rate mostly charge $100 to $150. Don't go under three times your state's median electrician wage.

What is a typical electrician service call fee?

A service call fee is what the customer pays for you to show up and work the first hour, even if the fix takes ten minutes. Among 22 electricians on Reddit who stated one, it ran from $75 to $375, mostly $125 to $180. Cost sites tell homeowners $100 to $200, one figure copied between HomeAdvisor, HomeGuide and Housecall Pro. To set yours, multiply your hourly rate by one plus the trip and setup time you charge: at $115 an hour and half an hour, $175.

Should an electrician credit the service call fee toward the job?

It's a sales choice, and owners split. Those who credit it do it to win a bigger job: a North Carolina shop charges $99 and credits $50 if the customer goes ahead, and another owner charges $250 for an estimate and deducts it if hired. Credit the trip, never the work, and only toward a job you quote. If the first hour fixed the problem, the fee was the job. Put the credit and a deadline on the quote.

How much should I charge for a helper or apprentice?

Owners on Reddit add $30 to $150 an hour for a second person: $125 alone and $155 with a helper; $150 for the lead and $105 for the helper; $150 for one and $300 for two. The least it should add is the helper's pay plus payroll taxes and workers' comp, divided by the share of their hours you can bill, plus your profit. At the national median helper wage of $20.51 an hour, that's about $45.

What is a good hourly rate for a self-employed electrician?

One above your break-even: your pay plus your business costs, divided by the hours you can bill, which for a one-person shop is often 1,000 to 1,200 a year. Self-employed electricians on Reddit mostly say $100 to $150 an hour. If yours comes out under three times your state's median electrician wage, check the costs and the hours again. An electrician who was self-employed for three years: 'I charged $30 per hour when I should have been charging $100 per hour and that was part of why it didn't work out.'

What are electrician rates in 2026?

Nobody measures what electricians bill, nationally or by state. What exists: the BLS median wage employers paid electricians in May 2025, $30.38 an hour nationally and $23.59 (Arkansas) to $38.18 (Massachusetts) in the 13 states on this page; the $50 to $130 an hour plus a $100 to $200 service call on cost sites, which is a homeowner figure; and owners stating their own rates on Reddit, mostly $100 to $150 an hour and $125 to $180 for the first hour.

Can you make $100,000 a year as a self-employed electrician?

Yes, if the rate and the hours hold up. In this page's example, 1,200 billable hours at $115 bring in $138,000. After $38,000 of business costs and $4,834 of payroll tax, about $95,000 is left for you before income tax: the $63,190 pay plus the profit. At the high-tier rate of $130 it's about $112,000. Bill only 1,000 hours at $115 and it falls to about $72,000.

What is a reasonable day rate for an electrician?

Few owners quote one. Most bill service work by the hour and price bigger jobs flat. A Maryland one-man shop sets a daily target instead: 'my goal for any job is i need to be billing at least $1500/day to be covering expenses and be making good money working for myself.' Work out yours as your hourly rate times the hours you can bill in a full day: at $115 and 7 billable hours, $805.

Is there an electrician hourly rate calculator?

Yes. The free rate sheet on this page works out your hourly rate from your state's median wage or your own pay target, a year of business costs, your billable hours and your profit. Then it gives your first-hour fee, the rate after the first hour, a minimum charge, an after-hours fee and a helper rate, prices a single call, and prints a rate card for customers. It comes as an Excel file or a Google Sheets copy.

Sources

1. HomeAdvisor, "How Much Do Electricians Charge?" (updated June 19, 2026; the page says it "was updated using automation technology") - "Licensed electricians charge $50 to $130 per hour, plus a service-call fee of $100 to $200 for your first hour of work." homeadvisor.com, read November 3, 2026.
2. HomeGuide, "How Much Does An Electrician Cost Per Hour? (2026)" (February 12, 2026) - "Electrician hourly rates are $50 to $130 on average, with a $100 to $200 service call fee covering the first hour." homeguide.com, read November 3, 2026.
3. Housecall Pro, "Electrician pricing guide 2026: average costs & how to set rates" (posted July 21, 2026, updated October 27, 2026) - "Electricians typically charge $50–$130 per hour in 2026, plus a $100–$200 service call fee"; "The service prices and regional prices in this guide come from 636,022 electrical service entries across 67 service categories from Housecall Pro customers over a 12-month period, ending September 2026"; "Hourly rates, urban and rural rate differences, service call fees, emergency premiums, permit and inspection fees, and the rows marked * were compiled from national sources, including cost guides from Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Thumbtack and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics." housecallpro.com, read November 3, 2026.
4. Deepsel research, rates stated by US electricians on r/electricians and r/AskElectricians, August 2024 to October 2026, one figure per person, Canadian posters and known promotional accounts removed. Hourly bill rate: 21 people, mostly $100 to $150. First-hour or service call fee: 22 people, $75 to $375, mostly $125 to $180. Materials markup: about 40 stated, most often 30%, range 15% to 100%. Unit by job: service work as a first-hour fee plus hourly; panel and service upgrades priced flat per job by all 27 people who gave a price; ceiling fans flat per fan. Most speakers read as owners from their wording ("my company", "we charge"); few say so. Counted November 2, 2026.
5. The table's rows, each an r/electricians or r/AskElectricians comment, quotes checked November 2026: Arkansas, February 19, 2025, "I own an electrical company in AR our hourly rate is $95 for a single licensed electrician. We are definitely among the cheapest in the area though, the company I used to work for was $150 and they were more middle of the road." (reddit.com); Iowa, March 14, 2025, "I'm in Iowa and charge $110 per hour T&M and markup materials by 1.35. For bid work I use $160 per hour" (reddit.com); Colorado, November 3, 2024, "I own my own company in Colorado USA, but work in the field daily. I bill myself at $125/hr." (reddit.com); Massachusetts, August 22, 2025, "Going rate is at least $100/hour on the South Shore and most guys are charging more." (reddit.com); Maryland, November 4, 2024, "Maryland. Work for myself as a 1 man shop. I bill $150/hr" (reddit.com); North Carolina, September 19, 2025 (source 16); North Carolina, October 30, 2025 (source 25); Greenville, South Carolina, October 24, 2024 (source 14); Wisconsin, October 31, 2025 (source 15); Montana, July 8, 2025, "I usually charge $125 to show up and it includes the first hour" (reddit.com); Tennessee, May 6, 2025 (source 17); Northeast, September 20, 2025 (source 12); $175 and $90, February 15, 2026 (source 18); $180, February 15, 2026 (source 23); $325, October 30, 2025 (source 24).
6. r/electricians, "Job costing" (September 25, 2026) - a new Nevada C-2 contractor in Reno paying electricians "around $50/hour": "I've calculated that I would need to charge around $150/hour for labor to maintain approximately a 20% profit margin." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
7. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, median hourly wage. Electricians (47-2111): national $30.38 ($63,190 a year, 757,220 employed); MA $38.18, NY $37.86, MN $37.58, CT $37.28, NJ $37.14, ID $30.29, VA $30.24, CO $29.92, UT $29.81, LA $29.59, IA $29.26, NE $29.24, AR $23.59; New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area $37.99, Denver metro area $30.36. Helpers, Electricians (47-3013): national $20.51; MA $23.24, NY $22.70, MN $22.48, CT $26.93, NJ $21.42, ID $18.98, VA $21.41, CO $27.12, UT $20.79, LA $18.54, IA $20.01, NE $21.18, AR $18.99. Read from the BLS public data API (series OEUN000000000000047211108 and the matching state, metro and 47-3013 series); May 2025 tables at bls.gov, read November 3, 2026.
8. r/electricians, "Underbidding" (January 26, 2026) - "What are your hours? To pay yourself $40 an hour, you need to triple that so estimate at $120 an hour. Don't cheat on this, you'll fail." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
9. r/electricians, "Did I overbid myself out of a job?" (August 22, 2025) - "Remember that on T&M you need to charge triple what you wanna put in your pocket. I do $150/hr and $50 is saved for taxes, $50 grows the business, and $50 goes in my pocket." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
10. IRS, "Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)" (last reviewed or updated October 30, 2026) - "The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance)"; "you can deduct the employer-equivalent portion of your SE tax". irs.gov, read November 3, 2026.
11. r/electricians comment, March 14, 2025 - "figure out your overhead (salary, truck, insurance, phone, gas, etc) and divide it by around 1000 hours for a one man shop. You will only be able to bill around 1000-1200 hours as a one man band so need to base your price on that at a minimum." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
12. r/electricians, "How do you guys estimate service work?" (September 20, 2025) - a Northeast shop with four field electricians: "Add in profit (we shoot for 20%, sometimes have to go 10% to get a project)"; "Ours comes out to about $105/man/hour"; "We charge customers $150 for a service call, and then $125 an hour if it takes more than one. The $150 covers travel and the man hour to do the job". reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
13. r/electricians comment, May 6, 2025 - "1-man show. $135 is the minimum I could charge and break even. I usually charge around $185 but depends on what I'm doing." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
14. r/electricians comment, October 24, 2024 - a residential contractor in Greenville, SC, three years in: "I charge $125 for the first hour, which will be charged even if I'm there for 5 minutes. Every hour after is $100 an hour. Material is marked up 30%."; "Most companies charge 175 for the first hour, and somewhere around 125 an hour for the next hours."; "they need to be charged from the time you get out of the drivers seat, and get back in." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
15. r/electricians, "Is $75 diagnostic (1-1.5 hours) + $75/hr + 10% markup on materials fair fairly priced for residential installs/repairs?" (October 31, 2025) - "I'm a 1 man shop in Wisconsin on year 3. I do $120 service call that covers the first 30min and charge/bid $120/hr."; "The jobs under 2 hours are rarely profitable but aren't losers and you have to do them to get reviews and positive word of mouth." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
16. r/electricians, "How do you guys estimate service work?" (September 19, 2025) - "We charge $99 service fee but will credit $50 to customer if they go with us for the work. Our hourly rate is $150 per hr and min 1 hr. Im in NC for reference." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
17. r/electricians comment, May 6, 2025 - "I charge $300 just to show up, but I definitely drop the price if it's something stupid like a GFCI reset or something that takes under 30 mins. After that $150 an hour for one guy, and $300 an hour for 2 guys. We are only a small 2 man shop". reddit.com, quote checked November 2026. The same author names Tennessee in a July 2025 comment.
18. r/electricians, "Minimum charge ideas" (February 15, 2026, 41 points) - "We are $175 for the first hour and $90 every hour after that. If I fix the problem in 15 minutes I'm not sticking around for the remaining 45 minutes doing odd jobs." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
19. r/electricians, a ceiling-fan pricing thread (February 26, 2026) - "charged $375 because that's my minimum call out charge (they bought the fan on-line). Took me about 2 hours, but I tell people that's my half-day rate, so they had me clean up a couple of other things". reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
20. r/electricians comment, June 25, 2025 - "I started my electrical contracting business last year."; "I charge $50 to come out, and tell the customer it will be applied to the price of the job if hired." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
21. r/electricians, "Do customers think skilled labor grows on trees? What do you charge for service upgrades?" (June 25, 2025, 35 points) - "I worked only by referral"; "no free estimates. Charge a trip fee (my minimum was $125, but that was 10 years ago). Trip fee gets applied to the job cost." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
22. r/electricians, "More landlord problems" (September 27, 2024) - "I went through a real run of writing estimates for realtors. I finally realized that they were just using them as bargaining chips. Started charging $250 for an estimate, to be deducted from the cost of the job if I'm hired. I write way fewer BS estimates now." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
23. r/electricians, "Minimum charge ideas" (February 15, 2026) - "I charge $180 for the first hour and about $100-$120 for each hour after that" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
24. r/electricians, "Is $75 diagnostic (1-1.5 hours) + $75/hr + 10% markup on materials fair fairly priced for residential installs/repairs?" (October 30, 2025) - "My rate is $325 for the first hour, $195/hr after that. Material is marked up 60%." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
25. Same thread (October 30, 2025) - "Im in North Carolina. Been on my own 4 years now. I work alone. I charge $140 for a service call. 140 a hour after first hour. Materials is minimum 30% on top" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
26. r/electricians comment, February 11, 2026, a one-man shop with a part-time helper - "take my labor rate (125 for 1 man, 155 for me and the helper) and multiply it by actual labor hours worked" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
27. r/AskElectricians, "How much would you charge your neighbor to install a chandelier 16 feet high" (January 13, 2025) - "For high ceiling work like this I charge $450 for the ladder, minimum four hours at $150 for the lead and $105 for the helper, and materials at 125%." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
28. r/electricians, "One man show" (December 14, 2024) - "You're gonna charge a reduced rate for a helper/apprentice. If you charge $50-100 for your labor, charge $30-60 for the helper." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
29. r/AskElectricians, "Electricians - how do you price small jobs that turn into 1+ hour visits?" (March 17, 2026) - "Residential Contractor here. I charge $150 for the first hour of service calls. It even pains me when it's something quick and easy. But if you do service calls for $20 and a sandwich, you'll go broke."; "And they are usually taking away time from a job that is paying all day. If a service call happens to be on the way to or back from another job I will give people a break if they are decent deserving people." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
30. r/electricians, "Am I Charging to much?" (February 28, 2025) - "as a professional contractor I have a $300 labor minimum that covers the first two hours. And then 25% material markup." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
31. r/AskElectricians, "How do you quote?" (June 13, 2026) - "My rate is usually about $125 an hour and I don't go anywhere for less than $300." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
32. r/electricians comment, November 6, 2024, by the Maryland one-man shop in the table - "my goal for any job is i need to be billing at least $1500/day to be covering expenses and be making good money working for myself." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
33. r/electricians, "Is being self-employed all that?" (August 18, 2024) - "I was self employed for about 3 years"; "remember you might working closer to 20 hours a week at the start than 40 until you get a good reputation and repeat customers. I charged $30 per hour when I should have been charging $100 per hour and that was part of why it didn't work out." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.