horly rate

[ICE]

I know for a fact that my Boss charges me out at £350.00 per day, but then again I am worth every penny. LOL


ICE

 

[markythesparky]

£350 a day!! How many hours are yu expected to do for that? and what breaks do you get. i'm wondering if i should be charging more.

 

[ICE]

My hours are 8 to 5 (on site) (traveling time not paid for)

I have a 20 min tea break around 10 and then 30 min lunch around 1
I also run a company van which the fuel and everything that goes with it is also paid.
I am PAYE so bare in mind that he pays NI Tax Fuel Van Insurance and what ever else an employer has to pay
I gross £150 a day

what do you reckon he earns out of me a day?

ICE

 

[markythesparky]

So to get my bearings...... do you get paid per hour? for an 8 hour day or 9 hours?

We pay our sparks £140-£150 for 8 hours. this is 8 am to 5pm with hour lunch which is not paid for. This works to £17.50-£18.75. would this be the same. We charge £200 a day.

To answer your question and based on my experience, i reckon he is earning about £160 to £180 an day out of you but this of course depends on where your working and what circumstances he has to pay for.

all in all he cant loose money on that at all even if he had to pay for you to go to manchester everyday.

 

[jimmyjazz]

Just installed a new 10 way board, removed 6 storage heaters (customer loaded van) & converted points to sockets & put into new board £550. Local small company quoted £925! What do you guys charge for a straight board change? Currently charge £40/45 per hr or £250 a day.

 

[Dazza1976]

Lol, i cant beleive how much this topic has been debated.
When I mentioned £60-£80 per hour, that is what alot of companies round london/surrey are charging. As i said the Handy Squad charge £70 per hour (They also charge that sort of rate just to come and hang some pictures on the wall !) Pimlico Plumbers charge £80 per hour for their electricians and a staggering £130 per hour on a Saturday !
There are numerous companies charging these sort of rates, and they have got work coming out their ears. People are prepared to pay these prices if they get a good quality service.
Obviously if you are going to be there for the whole day you will do a more reasonable day rate, say £250-£300.
I used to get nearly £15 per hour to drive a van for a living, and didnt spend 3 years at college to still be earning that sort of money.
Say you go out to a job, it takes you 45 mins to get there, you have spent money on petrol and added wear and tear to ur van,you unload your tools and the job itself is an easy one and only takes an hour to do, is it really worth your while if you are only going to earn £15 for it ?? I wouldnt bother getting out of bed for that!!
As i said many companies are charging 60-80 and getting the work, if you are providing a similar quality service why shouldnt you charge these sort of prices ?? it shouldnt matter how large or small your firm is.
At the end of the day people will quite happily pay £100 per hour to have their car serviced, so why shouldnt we charge a decent price, when after all peoples lifes can be put at risk if we do not do things properly.
Someone also mentioned about Jib rates, they are the minimum we should expect to earn per hour if working for another company, and you will probably find that any company paying you those sort of rates are probably charging the custome 5 times more !

Anyway, i think i have done enough ranting for now, cant wait for your further responses !

 

[opm electrical]

i cant believe its got this much interest either. all i wanted was some guidance as to what to charge. i put a quote in for my first job (labour only) expecting it to take me 5 days and i quoted £600. its local so travelling isnt an issue. so i guess ill just have to graft my nuts off and do it in 4 days instead

 

[kung]

The only thing id say is you have to take into consideration a few things ! people will pay going rates if they get a good safe clean job done regardless but what one person charges £20phr might do more/less than another charging £30phr its what you feel is right for your speed/work quality if just starting out id pitch at £20phr and onece your name is out there you can tweek your pricing to suit.
Best of luck.
Regards
Kung.

P.s. if you quote 5days and it takes 4 the customer will be happy & if you run into a few probs your be glad you quoted for the extra day ! morel of this is if you quote for a day but it takes 2 days or even 1.5 days if the customer has taken time off work they wont be happy if you need more time that the day quoted but will be if you took a day or 1.5 and quoted for 2 days !

 

[dolomite]

Hi all!!

Just as an addition to this thread, does everyone have a minimum charge?? Say for the first hour or two. If so whats the usual for this?
Got to be worth your while driving there, getting tools out of the van eh?!

Ta

Dolomite

P.S. had a call today asking me to change a light bulb.....................in a street light!!!!!!!

 

[mazdaman]

£15 an hour, you may as well work for someone else and save yourself the hassle of all the other work you need to do to run a business. If you work for yourself you need to factor in that you do not get paid, as you would if you worked for someone else, for bank holidays, 8 of approx, annual leave, plus the other time you need to put in such as your free quotes, visits to accountant, time when being audited for Part P, HMRC audits, van servicing, repairs etc on top of all the other overheads that have been mentioned, insurance, advertising cost software licences, etc. I charge £35-£40 per hour for domestic, £45-£50 for commercial and from £60 upwards for industrial, max so far I have charged is £120 per hour working in dusty environment at heights. If I can give you some sound advice that is if you are self employed you are a Business man first, electrician second!! If you are a brilliant sparky but a crap businessman your business will fail! Do you sums for a full 12 months and allow for the jobs you don't get paid for or someone going bankrupt as has happened to me.

As a rule of thumb to get your cost right, if you quote and you get every job you quote on, your to cheap!!
Look at getting approx 60% of the jobs you quote on. If you are still getting 85% upwards, put your cost up.

Its better to do less work for more money. If I charged 50% more than a competitor but only get 50% of the work I quote on for similar work, we both end up with same pay but my competitor has to do twice as much work, including paper work, running around to suppliers etc for the same amount of pay and I can have more time off. Some think it's a competition if they 'win' the job but it's all about getting more pay for the work that you do, do!

Charge what you think you are worth but many electricians do not charge enough because we are fighting with each other for business and with those doing jobs on the side. We should charge like solicitors, they will not drop the price but they also know there competitors will not drop either. They work together and have a pricing policy. I am an Electrical Engineer and worked for the electricity board and have managed many high cost projects. I now have my own electrical contracting business. All sparks should put there cost up. Do you know you can get paid more for removing rubbish!! I mean that, these online sites for work people will pay £400 to have rubbish removed from there garden and it takes about 2-3 hours for £400!! Employ a couple of numpties so you don't get your hands dirty. I sometime wonder if its worth being a spark at all but certainly not for £15/h!! No disrespect but its business novices like yourself who are driving prices down.

 

[danzor]

Just installed a new 10 way board, removed 6 storage heaters (customer loaded van) & converted points to sockets & put into new board £550. Local small company quoted £925! What do you guys charge for a straight board change? Currently charge £40/45 per hr or £250 a day.

Usually £450+ for a new CU and certs?

I agree with what people are saying, if you want to charge yourself out for £15-20 ph then go work for a company/agencie, hassel free.

mazdaman gave some sound advice

 

[thepurple1]

I work for a controls company, electricians are charged to the Client at £300 per day BMS controls engineers are charged at 450 per day plus V.A.T

 

[Rulin]

£15 an hour, you may as well work for someone else and save yourself the hassle of all the other work you need to do to run a business. If you work for yourself you need to factor in that you do not get paid, as you would if you worked for someone else, for bank holidays, 8 of approx, annual leave, plus the other time you need to put in such as your free quotes, visits to accountant, time when being audited for Part P, HMRC audits, van servicing, repairs etc on top of all the other overheads that have been mentioned, insurance, advertising cost software licences, etc. I charge £35-£40 per hour for domestic, £45-£50 for commercial and from £60 upwards for industrial, max so far I have charged is £120 per hour working in dusty environment at heights. If I can give you some sound advice that is if you are self employed you are a Business man first, electrician second!! If you are a brilliant sparky but a crap businessman your business will fail! Do you sums for a full 12 months and allow for the jobs you don't get paid for or someone going bankrupt as has happened to me.

As a rule of thumb to get your cost right, if you quote and you get every job you quote on, your to cheap!!
Look at getting approx 60% of the jobs you quote on. If you are still getting 85% upwards, put your cost up.



Its better to do less work for more money. If I charged 50% more than a competitor but only get 50% of the work I quote on for similar work, we both end up with same pay but my competitor has to do twice as much work, including paper work, running around to suppliers etc for the same amount of pay and I can have more time off. Some think it's a competition if they 'win' the job but it's all about getting more pay for the work that you do, do!

Charge what you think you are worth but many electricians do not charge enough because we are fighting with each other for business and with those doing jobs on the side. We should charge like solicitors, they will not drop the price but they also know there competitors will not drop either. They work together and have a pricing policy. I am an Electrical Engineer and worked for the electricity board and have managed many high cost projects. I now have my own electrical contracting business. All sparks should put there cost up. Do you know you can get paid more for removing rubbish!! I mean that, these online sites for work people will pay £400 to have rubbish removed from there garden and it takes about 2-3 hours for £400!! Employ a couple of numpties so you don't get your hands dirty. I sometime wonder if its worth being a spark at all but certainly not for £15/h!! No disrespect but its business novices like yourself who are driving prices down.

Well said that man...amen

 

[opm electrical]

thanks no disrespect taken. and point defiantly taken. im sure ill get a feel for it soon enough

 

[Gravid]

Great post Mazdaman.

 

[Mark.W]

they charge £70 for the 1st hour and £35 per half hour after that.

So they charge £70 an hour then?!?!

 

[dixon9]

I have had to drop my rate drastically to stay competitive, If you are still landing jobs at £60 an hour you are very lucky, i am charging a maximum of £20 an hour at the moment and we are still getting undercut by huge amounts.

Where abouts in the country do you work AM?

 

[gaffer]

I used to feel guilty charging £30ph now after reading this thread I dont.Not being big headed but I know I can do my job so why shouldnt I be well paid for it.We are worth it!

 

[mazdaman]

I used to feel guilty charging £30ph now after reading this thread I dont.Not being big headed but I know I can do my job so why shouldnt I be well paid for it.We are worth it!

You shouldn't feel guilty. Think what a solicitor would change for writing a letter. £50 upwards and is done by an assistant in about 15 minutes. No visit to site, not stuck in traffic etc.

You sparks who have worked for employers say on £16 per hour, when you set up on your own you charge £16 per hour to your customers or not much more. Did you think your ex employer wasn't making money out of you? If he wasn't then why was he employing you in the first place?


Another way to think of this.

If you were very busy and decided to employ an electrician yourself and pay him £16 per hour then you could not charge the customer £16 per hour as you would loose money. On top of this you will need to pay employer National Insurance Contributions, have employer liability insurance and pay him his bank holidays and annual leave which are non productive days for you. You need to charge at least 60% on top of his hourly rate, in this case £25.60 p/h.
That's to cover your employer cost, then you have to make a profit and put a % aside for new vehicles, tools etc. and a profit for your business. So based on this you are looking at £30 min per man hour that you should charge be it an employee of your self. If two of you are on site that's £60 per hour you charge your customer. Your company profits should be around 25% of the total charged to your customer. This is for reinvestment, depreciation, training etc.
You should put at least 10% on top of materials to but I am not going into that. Lets stick to labour only for this example.

I can't see what is guilt about this it is straight forward sums to run a business.

Another way, if you did a rewire costed at say £2300, £300 materials and £2000 labour which is reasonable depending on house type etc. then assume it takes 4 days for 2 sparks, that's 32 hours on site, but 64 man hours in total which equates to:

£2000/32hours= £62.5 per hour (what you charge your customer)
or
£2000/64man hours= £31.25 per hour per man. (what you charge your customer)

Take away your (basic) wage of £25 per hour = £6.25 profit x 32h =£200
You employees wages and cost to you @ £20 per hour = £11.25 profit x 32h =£360

Company profit = £560 = approx 25% of £2300 the target profit you should be working to.

(Your basic pay of £25 per hour has to take account of unpaid work such as paper work and quotes etc so in reality you don't get £25 p/h of hours actually worked) remember this!

So when you look at a cost of a typical rewire and break it down the figures work out similar. Now do you still feel guilty??

Like I said in my previous post you have to be a business man first electrician second.

The sparks who don't do there sums run around in old tatty vans.
The good businessmen sparks who do there sums have new vans.

Hope this helps

Mazdaman striving for reasonable pay for sparks.

 

[The Truth]

i work in london and i know that a decorator charges £ 150 per day and the market rate for a plasterer is £ 250!

so.... for me anything less than double the price of a decorator is ridiculos! and it should definately be a lor more than a plasterer. So i charge £300 - 400. If those pipe monkeys can charge £ 60 p/h + then we should in theory be costing more but its whatever the market will pay and the value of your service

£15 p/h ??? a labourer costs £ 10 p/h