It's the question every tradie asks when they go out on their own, and the one most get wrong for years. The honest answer is that nobody else can tell you, because the right rate comes from your costs, not theirs. Here's why the going rate lets you down, and how to find your own number.
Why the going rate is a trap
The bloke down the road might charge $85 an hour. You don't know if he's making money at $85. He might have no ute payment, a partner doing the books for free and a crew of apprentices. Or he might be going backwards and not know it yet. Copying his rate copies his mistakes.
What a worker really costs you
A worker on $38 an hour costs you a lot more than $38 an hour. Super, workers comp, annual leave, sick leave, public holidays and wet days all sit on top. A fair rule of thumb is about 1.37 times the wage, so that $38 worker costs around $52 for every hour they're on the clock. These are example figures: check your own super rate, comp premium and award.
And that's before you've paid for a ute, insurance, tools, a phone, the accountant or yourself.
Not every hour gets paid
Travel between jobs, quoting, pick ups at the supplier and fixing your own mistakes are all hours nobody pays you for. Most crews end up charging around 85% of the hours they're on the tools. If you price as if every hour is billable, you're short before you start.
So what should you charge?
Add up what your crew really costs, what you want to pay yourself and your overheads for the year. Divide by the hours you can actually charge. That's break-even. Add your profit on top. The full method, with a worked example for a three person crew, is in how to work out your charge-out rate.
Or skip the maths: the free rate check runs the sum on your own numbers in two minutes, and you don't have to sign up to see the answer.
Check it more than once
Wages, super, insurance and fuel all move every year. A rate that was right two years ago is probably a few dollars short now. Run the numbers again whenever a big cost changes, and look at whether your jobs are taking the hours you quoted. A right rate on a wrong quote still loses money.