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

[LukeD]

£60- a hour ... But Currently on a big project so have done a Day rate that suits the customer.Its a 2 bed full refurb and its me and one labourer .Marylebone High Street , so a nightmare for logistic ! 3 months worth I think

 

[Baddegg]

Really hard one to answer…..any small hour jobs, of which there seem to be an endless supply round here are always £70 plus materials and no one ever complains so I may up it a bit, I also find that rate tends to keep me away from the people who want something for nothing or the jobs that will be a ball ache….any other jobs I always do as price work and try to aim at around £300-£400 a day, but being multi trade and living in a heavily Populated area I never have to travel further than a mile or two and I never leave this little island for work, which I love,
Obviously those rates are for electrical work and other work I do I couldn’t get the same rates unless it’s for bespoke carpentry stuff but that’s few and far between….but as I say I’m happy to work for less doing other stuff as long as I’m not travelling….sitting in a van for hours in traffic is just dead money and time away from my family

 

[Dustydazzler]

...this is why trying to stick to a flat hourly rate is too simplitsic for a lot of people but works for others..

a rewire 250 yards from your house you could easily do cheaper than say the very same rewire 50 miles from your house.

But for me proper high hourly rate is the only way I can seem to make things work over the course of a week, it covers for lostt time / traffic time / trying to find a parking space etc and everyone pays the same when I walk through the door.
I have tried pricing work over the phone via video call but I don't like this and have ofetn under cut myself this way

 

[pc1966]

When I did design/consultancy work on my own I found that I had to charge about double what I theoretically needed to live on to cover the overheads (computing equipment, accountancy fees, etc) and for the times there was no work coming in. It was also the sort of "feast or famine" work where you might win a good 12-18 month project and be well paid, and when that ends nothing comes along for another 6-9 months or so.

So for folks working on small hourly-charged jobs I would expect much the same, you need to earn a day's wages in half a day.

 

[Dustydazzler]

...the same could be said for all self employed / trades etc who literally only get paid when they are 'on the job'

you have to charge enough to make sure you are covered for all down time / quiet spells & lost time in traffic / off sick etc

I see a few on this poll only charging £20-30 per hour, I was charging that almost 20 years ago

 

[Baddegg]

...the same could be said for all self employed / trades etc who literally only get paid when they are 'on the job'

you have to charge enough to make sure you are covered for all down time / quiet spells & lost time in traffic / off sick etc

I see a few on this poll only charging £20-30 per hour, I was charging that almost 20 years ago

Agree, at that rate I doubt you are even hitting minimum wage?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Agree, at that rate I doubt you are even hitting minimum wage?

In the mid 00s when I first went self delpoyed I charged £20 per pour ( £160 per day ) becuase I roughly worked out that would pay me an £11 per hour wage ( after my set up costs & running costs )

 

[HappyHippyDad]

You have to take the following average with far more than just a pinch of salt. the last poll ran for a year , this poll has only been going a week, but I just fancied doing a quick comparison.

Mean average hourly rate for 2022 was £41.48
Mean average hourly rate for 2023 (so far) is £41.92

It'll be a much better comparison when I tot up the stats in 11 months when the poll closes.

 

[Dustydazzler]

In other words people have been charging roughly the same rate for the last 2 years

 

[JBW175]

I had a heating engineer (plumber) round to do a job I couldn’t do myself, he charged £85+VAT and was only here around 15 minutes. I had absolutely no problem paying him that as I understand he’s running a business and needs to make profit.

So to that end, I don’t mind charging £80 an hour for smaller one off jobs.

Day rate, I’m never less than £350 but push for more where I can.

I’ll also price by postcode.

For context, I’m in pretty much the same area as Baddegg, but most my work is off the island.