Data last updated: August 2026. This page is refreshed annually. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), Indeed salary data, PayScale compensation data, and HomeAdvisor/Angi national contractor surveys.
Electrical contractors need to know what the market is paying — both for hiring electricians and for setting their own billing rates. This guide covers typical electrical contractor hourly rates in 2026 for residential and commercial work, broken down by project type and region.
Electrical Contractor Billing Rates: 2026 Benchmarks
| Work Type | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential service / repair | $85/hr | $130/hr | $200/hr |
| Residential new construction | $65/hr | $95/hr | $145/hr |
| Residential remodel / addition | $90/hr | $135/hr | $210/hr |
| Commercial service / repair | $110/hr | $165/hr | $250/hr |
| Commercial construction | $85/hr | $125/hr | $185/hr |
| Industrial / industrial maintenance | $125/hr | $185/hr | $300/hr |
| Emergency / after-hours (residential) | $145/hr | $225/hr | $400/hr |
| Low-voltage / data / AV | $70/hr | $110/hr | $175/hr |
| Solar PV installation | $80/hr | $125/hr | $185/hr |
| EV charger installation | $500 flat | $800 flat | $2,000 flat |
Tired of tracking rates on spreadsheets?
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Common Electrical Job Pricing (Flat Rate)
| Job | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service call / diagnostic fee | $75 | $120 | $200 |
| Outlet installation (per outlet) | $125 | $200 | $375 |
| Light fixture installation | $100 | $175 | $350 |
| Ceiling fan installation | $150 | $250 | $450 |
| Circuit breaker replacement | $150 | $250 | $500 |
| Panel upgrade (100A to 200A) | $1,800 | $2,800 | $5,000 |
| Whole-home rewire (average size) | $8,000 | $15,000 | $30,000 |
| GFCI outlet installation | $125 | $200 | $350 |
| Smoke / CO detector installation | $75 | $135 | $250 |
| Generator installation (standby, labor only) | $1,500 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
How to Price Electrical Work
Calculating Your Billing Rate
Work backward from your financial targets. To earn $150,000/year in owner income from a single-electrician shop:
- Target revenue: ~$350,000–$400,000/year (owner income is roughly 35–40% of revenue after labor and overhead)
- Billable hours: ~1,400–1,600/year (accounting for drive time, estimates, admin)
- Required billing rate: $350,000 / 1,500 = $233/hour — which is why most solo electricians need to be charging $120–$175/hour minimum in most markets just to cover a $100k draw
Materials and Subcontractor Markup
- Materials: 30–50% markup on electrical supplies; 15–25% on major equipment
- Subcontractors (e.g., drywall repair after rewire): 10–20% markup
Bid vs. T&M Guidance
Service and repair work: flat-rate pricing is best. New construction and large remodels: bid per project (cost + markup). Emergency and after-hours: time-and-materials at a premium rate.
Tired of tracking rates on spreadsheets?
The trades businesses that consistently hit top-of-market rates use job-costing software to know exactly what each job costs — and price accordingly. Jobber and Housecall Pro both include built-in estimating and job-costing tools that show your true cost-per-job so you stop leaving money on the table.
Ready to try the best-rated FSM platform? Start your free Jobber trial today — no credit card required.
Sources
- HomeAdvisor/Angi National Electrical Cost Survey, 2025–2026
- National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) Labor Unit Manual
- Indeed and PayScale electrician wage data, 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, SOC 47-2111
How to Price Electrical Work to Cover Your True Costs
The rates in this guide reflect what licensed electricians are charging. The question for your business is whether those rates cover your actual costs and leave margin for profit. Most electricians who struggle with pricing are underestimating one of three cost categories: labor burden, overhead allocation, or materials markup.
Labor burden is the gap between wages and true labor cost. If you pay a journeyman electrician $35/hour, your fully loaded cost including payroll taxes, workers’ compensation (which runs high in electrical at 8–15% of wages), health benefits, and tools is typically $45–$52/hour. This is the number you need to price against, not the wage.
Overhead allocation covers insurance (general liability for electrical can run $3,000–$10,000/year depending on revenue), vehicle costs, office expenses, software, and advertising. A simple approach: total your annual overhead, divide by your billable hours per year, and add that per-hour overhead cost to every estimate.
Materials markup on wire, breakers, panels, conduit, and fixtures should be 15–30% above your cost. This markup covers the carrying cost of inventory, time spent sourcing materials, and waste on jobs. Never charge cost-plus at 0% margin on materials — those materials represent capital you put at risk for the customer.
A target gross margin on labor and materials of 35–45% is typically needed to cover overhead and generate 10–15% net profit for an electrical contractor.
Field Service Software for Electrical Contractors
Estimating, scheduling, and invoicing electrical jobs manually creates unnecessary friction and slows down your cash flow. Software platforms designed for field service management automate the quote-to-cash workflow and reduce the administrative burden on your office staff.
For electrical contractors, key software needs include:
- Flat-rate pricing tools: Build a price book with your standard electrical tasks and generate accurate estimates in the field without manual calculation.
- Permit tracking: Many electrical jobs require permits. Software that tracks permit status by job prevents compliance gaps.
- Inspection scheduling: Coordinate rough-in and final inspection appointments within the same system as the job schedule.
- Mobile invoicing: Send invoices and collect payment on-site when the job is complete to eliminate accounts receivable delays.
See our independent comparison of the best software for electrical contractors for a detailed breakdown of options including Jobber, FieldEdge, and ServiceTitan.
Ready to streamline your electrical contracting business? Start your free Jobber trial today — no credit card required.
Commercial vs. Residential Electrical Pricing
Electrical contractors working in both residential and commercial markets often find that the markets price differently even for similar scopes of work. Commercial electrical work typically prices higher per hour because it involves more complex code requirements, larger panel systems, conduit work, and coordination with general contractors and inspectors. Residential service work — troubleshooting, outlet additions, panel upgrades — often prices on a flat-rate basis with less price sensitivity.
Industrial electrical work (manufacturing facilities, utilities, data centers) commands the highest rates due to the technical complexity, safety requirements, and specialized certifications required. NECA (National Electrical Contractors Association) publishes labor unit manuals that give commercial electricians a structured basis for bidding by the unit rather than by guesswork.
How to Raise Your Electrical Rates Without Losing Customers
Many electrical contractors who are underpriced hesitate to raise rates for fear of customer attrition. In practice, if your close rate on estimates is above 70%, you are almost certainly underpriced — the market will support higher rates. A deliberate rate increase approach:
- Raise rates for new customers first. Existing customers see no change; new customers see your current market rate.
- Give existing customers 30 days’ notice of a rate adjustment, framed around increased material and labor costs — both of which are objectively true.
- Focus on service quality, speed, and professionalism as your value differentiation, not price.
- Track your close rate after any rate change. If close rate stays above 50%, the market supports the new rate.
The electrical contractors who grow most profitably are those who price at the premium end of their local market and compete on quality and reliability — not those who win jobs by being the lowest bid.
Managing Electrical Permits and Inspection Scheduling
Electrical work almost always requires permits, and permit management is one of the biggest administrative burdens for electrical contractors. Pulling permits, scheduling inspections, tracking inspection results, and getting certificates of completion involves coordination between your office, the local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), and your technicians on the job site.
Field service software helps by giving you a centralized place to track permit status for every open job. Instead of relying on a whiteboard or memory, your dispatcher can see at a glance which jobs are waiting for permits, which have inspections scheduled, and which are pending final sign-off. This visibility prevents jobs from stalling because someone forgot to call the inspector.
Some electrical contractors use their job management software to store scanned permit documents alongside the job record. When an inspector shows up on site, the technician can pull up the permit on their phone immediately rather than hoping the paper copy is still in their truck. After the inspection, they can update the job status from the field and notify the office without a phone call.
Reducing Callbacks with Better Job Documentation
Callbacks are expensive in electrical work. A callback to fix a wiring issue that should have been caught on the initial visit costs you labor, vehicle time, and customer trust. Detailed job documentation — photos, notes, panel diagrams, and test results captured in the field — helps reduce callbacks by creating accountability for technicians and giving you evidence of what was done and tested before you left the site.
When technicians document their work in real time using a mobile app, supervisors can review job notes before closing out a ticket and catch potential issues before a customer calls to complain. For commercial electrical work with repeat service contracts, this documentation also builds a maintenance history that makes future visits faster and more accurate.