Plumbing
Plumbing Labor Markup Calculator
Check what your billed labour rate recovers against what an hour genuinely costs.
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
- Burdened hourly cost rather than the wage.
- Unsold hours, which have to be recovered across the sold ones.
- Overhead per billable hour.
Where this one goes wrong
Assuming overhead is already in the rate when the rate was set from the wage. That is the most common way a busy plumbing business makes no money.
Questions
About this calculator
What multiple of the wage should the rate be?
Whatever your burden, utilisation and overhead require. Companies paying the same wage can need very different rates depending on how many hours they actually sell.
Does flat rate pricing change this?
It changes the presentation, not the arithmetic. A flat rate book is profitable only if the hours behind it were costed honestly.
Where does the van belong?
Somewhere, counted once. Attaching it to the labour hour is common because the van follows the plumber, and it makes short distant jobs show their true cost.
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 $250.
- 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 | $250 |
| Markup on cost | 45% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price main result | $362.50 |
| Gross profit | $112.50 |
| Margin that gives you | 31.0% |
A 45% markup on $250 prices the job at $362.50, which is 31.0% margin, not 45%.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only your cost, this is what happens to price. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Your cost ($) | Price |
|---|---|
| $125 | $181.25 |
| $188 | $272.60 |
| $250 example above | $362.50 |
| $375 | $543.75 |
| $500 | $725 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Your cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $250.
- 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
Pipe sizing, flow and pressure figures depend on the actual fittings, the run, the material and local code. Code requirements vary by jurisdiction and override any general calculation, so check what applies where the work is happening.
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.