Pricing for plumbers

How much should a plumber charge per hour?

Your rate has to pay you, your truck, your insurance, your taxes, and the hours you can't bill for. Here's how to work out yours.

Short answer: a solo plumber who wants to earn $63,800 a year, what a plumber on a W-2 paycheck typically makes, needs to charge about $79 per billable hour with our starting numbers, or $67 just to break even. Your number depends on your costs, so change the calculator to match your shop.

Plumber hourly rate calculator

Why your rate is so much higher than a plumber's wage

A plumber on payroll earns $30.67 an hour at the national median (May 2025). If you charged that, you'd lose money. Four things close the gap:

Hours you can't bill. Driving between jobs, estimates that don't close, supply-house runs, invoicing and callbacks all take time nobody pays for. Most owners bill far fewer hours than they work.
Costs an employer used to cover. Your truck, tools, insurance, license, phone and software come out of your rate now.
Both halves of payroll tax. As a self-employed owner you pay self-employment tax of 15.3% on most of your earnings, where an employee pays 7.65%.
Benefits. Health insurance, retirement and paid time off are yours to fund.

How the math works

Add up everything the business has to pay in a year, then divide by the hours you can actually bill:

Yearly costs = your pay + self-employment tax + business costs + health insurance + helper costs.
Billable hours = weeks you work × billable hours a week × people billing (you plus any helpers).
Break-even rate = yearly costs ÷ billable hours.
Your rate = break-even rate ÷ (1 − profit %). With 15% profit, divide by 0.85.

Parts and materials aren't in this number. Bill them separately, usually with a markup to cover the time you spend buying, hauling and warrantying them.

Hourly or flat rate?

Many plumbing shops quote a flat price per job instead of an hourly rate, because customers like knowing the price up front. Your hourly rate is still the base: a flat price is the hours the job usually takes times your rate, plus materials. Work out the hourly number first, then build flat prices from it.

If your number looks too high for your area

Don't just cut the rate. Look at what's driving it:

Few billable hours? Group jobs by area to cut drive time, and charge a trip or diagnostic fee so first visits pay.
High business costs? Check insurance quotes and software you don't use every year.
Small jobs? Set a minimum charge so a 20-minute fix still covers the drive.

Questions plumbers ask

Should I charge for travel time?

Either charge a trip fee or build drive time into your rate. The calculator does the second: only billable hours count, so drive time raises your rate.

What should an apprentice or helper cost me?

More than their wage. Add employer payroll tax (7.65%) plus unemployment insurance and workers' comp. Pick a helper count in the calculator to see the effect.

Does this include income tax?

No. "What you want to earn" is before income tax, the same way a W-2 salary is quoted.

Sources

Plumber wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 47-2152 "Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters" (bls.gov).
Self-employment tax: IRS, Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes).
Business costs, health insurance, helper extras and billable hours are starting guesses, marked in the calculator. Replace them with your own.