If you bid off the hourly wage you pay, you're losing money on every hour, because the wage is only part of what that worker costs you.
Burden is everything you carry on top of the wage: employer payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare are 7.65% before state unemployment), workers' comp, general liability, non-billable time (PTO, travel, loadout, training), and small tools or phone allowances. Add it up and a $30/hour wage commonly costs $40–$50 fully burdened.
Calculate your real burdened rate once, use it in every estimate, and revisit it when insurance or wages change. Pricing labor at the raw wage is donating the burden on every job.
Stop pricing from memory
The Contractor Authority System™ turns this into a repeatable process — burdened labor & overhead, change-order protection, and client-ready proposals. One-time $97.
FAQ
It varies a lot by trade, state, and how much non-billable time you carry — workers' comp class codes alone swing it. Calculate yours from your actual numbers rather than trusting a generic percentage.
Your time has a cost too. Even solo, price your labor at a rate that funds your taxes, insurance, downtime, and a real wage — not just 'whatever's left.'