Free tool
Hourly rate calculator for trades
What does an hour really cost you? Most tradies charge off the wage and forget the rest. This works out your true cost per billable hour, with overheads, on-costs, leave and utilisation all factored in, so you know the floor you can't charge below.
Your overheads
The running costs of the business, spread across your billable hours.
Factory / office Subtotal $0/yr
Vehicles Subtotal $0/yr
Totals across all vehicles. Running more than one? Add the costs together.
Non-billable staff Subtotal $0/yr
People in the business who don't bill, including what the owner draws when off the tools.
Other business costs Subtotal $0/yr
Roughly how many workers are billed out, e.g. tradespeople on the tools.
Standard paid hours each works per week.
The worker
How you pay them changes the maths. Pick one.
Super guarantee is 12% from 1 July 2025.
Workers comp insurance. Set your own rate.
LeavePlus is the Victorian fund. Swap for your state.
Redundancy fund paid weekly. Incolink is Victorian, swap for your state.
Often 8, sometimes 7.6 depending on the award.
Share of paid hours you actually bill. 90% means 9 in 10.
Days off per year
Public holidays vary by state, Victoria has about 11. 'Other' covers paid non-work days like union picnic days.
Total cost per billable hour
- /hr
What this worker costs you per hour worked. Charge below it and you lose money.
Overtime 1.5x
-
Overtime 2.0x
-
Suggested charge-out
- /hr + GST
See the gap between your rate and what the numbers say you need.
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A guide, not financial advice. Defaults use Victorian funds (Incolink, LeavePlus, Coinvest) and the 12% super rate. Adjust for your state and situation.
How it's worked out
The whole calculation comes down to 5 steps:
- 1
Overhead per hour
Add up every business cost for the year, then divide by your billable hours (52 weeks x employees x hours each). That's the overhead carried by every hour worked.
- 2
Loaded wage cost
Take the wage and add super, WorkCover, long service contributions and redundancy fund. A $50k wage really costs around $64k loaded.
- 3
Days actually worked
Start at 365, take out weekends, public holidays, annual and personal leave, RDOs and any other days off. What's left is the days you can actually bill.
- 4
Utilisation
Not every worked hour is billable. Travel, breaks, quoting and admin eat into it. Dividing by your utilisation rate (e.g. 90%) reflects the hours you actually charge.
- 5
Add it together
Utilised hourly cost plus overhead per hour gives your true cost per billable hour. Charge above it to make a profit.
Want this tracked automatically per job? Trak's timesheets and job costing do it as the job runs.
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