Electrician Hourly Rate: What Customers Pay and What to Charge

The typical electrician hourly rate in 2026 is $50 to $130 per hour, according to Housecall Pro’s price guide (updated October 27, 2026), plus a separate service call fee of $100 to $200. HomeYou’s cost guide puts the average at $79 per hour ($53 to $125). Master electricians and after-hours calls cost more. If you run an electrical business, set your own rate from your costs and billable hours; the calculator below starts with electrician values.

What customers pay electricians

These are the figures each source publishes. They are national estimates; local rates depend on the city, license level and job.

Housecall Pro also notes that urban electricians often charge $100 or more per hour, while rural electricians often charge around $50, sometimes with a travel fee.

Typical prices for common electrical jobs

The ranges are wide because they include the trip, the minimum charge, parts and local labor rates. A $10 outlet can still be a $180 call.

Why an electrician’s rate is so much higher than the wage

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median wage of $30.38 per hour ($63,190 per year) for electricians in May 2025. A customer who sees a $100 hourly rate may assume most of it is profit. The rate also has to pay for:

• Payroll costs on top of wages: employer taxes, workers’ compensation, insurance and benefits.
• Overhead: the van, fuel, tools and testers, licenses and permits, liability insurance, software, office staff and marketing.
• Hours you can’t bill: driving, supply-house runs, estimates that don’t close, callbacks and paperwork.
• Profit, which pays for growth and slow months.

So the number to build from is the break-even cost per billable hour, with your margin on top.

How to set your electrical labor rate

Use five numbers from your own business: annual pay for the electrician (or yourself), payroll burden as a percentage, annual overhead, billable hours per year and your target margin. The rate is (pay × (1 + burden) + overhead) ÷ billable hours, divided by (1 − margin).

Electrician hourly rate calculator

The calculator starts with the BLS median wage for electricians plus example overhead, billable hours and margin. Switch the menu to plumber, handyman or 1099 values if you need them. It is the same tool as our standalone hourly rate calculator.

Worked example

With the starting values, $63,190 of pay plus 20% for payroll costs is $75,828. Add $40,000 of overhead and the year costs $115,828. Spread over 1,300 billable hours (62.5% of a 2,080-hour year), the break-even cost is $89.10 per billable hour, and a 15% margin gives an hourly rate of $104.82.

That rate sits inside the published national ranges, but only because the example assumes 1,300 billable hours. At 1,000 billable hours the break-even rises to $115.83 before any profit. Tight scheduling and fewer unbilled trips protect your margin as much as the rate does.

Hourly, flat rate and service call fees

Hourly billing suits troubleshooting and jobs you can’t scope until the cover is off. Flat-rate pricing works for repeatable jobs such as outlet swaps, fan installs and EV charger circuits: build each price from your hourly cost × expected hours, plus materials and a buffer for jobs that run long.

A service call fee or hourly minimum covers the trip and diagnosis on small jobs. Whatever you choose, state it before you dispatch and say whether it is credited toward the repair.

Software that protects your rate

Your rate only holds if every billable hour is captured and every job is quoted and invoiced. See our guides to the best electrical contractor software, estimating software for electricians and quoting software for electricians.

Frequently asked questions

How much do electricians charge per hour? National cost guides put typical rates at about $50 to $130 per hour, with master electricians and after-hours work higher. Treat these as ranges, not quotes.

Do electricians charge a service call fee? Many do. Housecall Pro reports $100 to $200, and HomeYou reports $84 to $135 for business-hours calls. Some electricians use a one- to four-hour minimum instead.

How much more do emergency electricians charge? The guides checked report $100 to $200 added to the standard rate, 1.5 to 2 times the hourly rate, or 50% to 100% above standard rates.

What should a small electrical business charge per hour? Enough to cover pay, payroll costs, overhead and profit across the hours you can actually bill. With the calculator’s example values, that is about $89 per billable hour to break even and about $105 for a 15% margin.

How much do electricians earn? The BLS reports a median of $30.38 per hour, or $63,190 a year, for electricians in May 2025. That is the wage, not the rate a business bills customers.