Electrical
Electrical Labor Markup Calculator
Apply markup to a defined electrical labour cost and inspect the resulting selling price and margin.
Result
Markup is measured against your cost, margin against the price you charge. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin, not a 50% one. Pricing off the wrong one is the most common way a job that looked profitable turns out not to have been.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- The starting cost should include the employment costs you intend to recover.
- Paid but nonbillable time changes the labour cost attributable to sold hours.
- Hourly costs and total job costs must not be mixed in one comparison.
Where this one goes wrong
Marking up the wage alone can leave paid travel, benefits and support time unfunded. State whether the input is a burdened hourly cost or the entire labour cost of a job, then compare the result with a selling price on that same basis.
Questions
About this calculator
Does the calculator convert wages into burdened cost?
No. It marks up the number entered. Establish payroll burden and productive-hour assumptions separately before using the input as a cost base.
Are apprentices priced identically to licensed electricians?
The tool does not choose a staffing rate. Build the cost of the actual crew and supervision requirements before applying a pricing assumption.
Is the shown margin company net profit?
It is the spread on this labour cost. Any overhead or other costs not included in the input still have to be paid.
The formula
price = cost x (1 + markup%); margin = profit / price
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How to use this calculator
- Your cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $300.
- Markup on cost (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 45%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Your cost | $300 |
| Markup on cost | 45% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price main result | $435 |
| Gross profit | $135 |
| Margin that gives you | 31.0% |
A 45% markup on $300 prices the job at $435, which is 31.0% margin, not 45%.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only your cost, this is what happens to price. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Your cost ($) | Price |
|---|---|
| $150 | $217.50 |
| $225 | $326.25 |
| $300 example above | $435 |
| $450 | $652.50 |
| $600 | $870 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Your cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $300.
- Markup on cost (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 500, starting at 45%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Gross profit | A money figure. |
| Margin that gives you | A percentage. |
Before you rely on this number
Conductor sizing, voltage drop and load figures are governed by code, and the code takes precedence over any calculator. Ambient temperature, conduit fill, continuous load factors and the specific installation all change the answer. Treat this as a first pass, not a design.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.