Burden belongs with labor
Employer payroll taxes, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, benefits, paid time, and supervision support can make a $30 wage cost much more than $30. Treat burden as part of direct labor before adding overhead.
Business cost calculator
Find the hourly rate your painting labor needs.
Base wages rarely cover the true cost of field labor. Add burden, overhead allocation, billable hours, and margin to create a more realistic billing rate.
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Hourly rate calculator
Convert payroll cost into a billing rate
Use this page before pricing labor-heavy work, service calls, small jobs, or change orders where an hourly rate matters.
Target billing rate
Recommended hourly rate$0per billable labor hour
Loaded labor$0
Overhead per hour$0
Break-even$0
Rate building notes
Why a low hourly rate quietly loses money
Billable hours are limited
A full-time painter is not billable every paid hour. Training, travel, callbacks, shop time, estimates, weather delays, and admin time reduce the hours available to recover overhead.
Overhead needs a home
Vehicles, insurance, software, phones, bookkeeping, marketing, rent, and management time must be recovered through jobs. Allocating overhead by billable labor hour is one practical way to keep small jobs from being underpriced.
Margin is not markup
A 20 percent margin means profit is 20 percent of the selling price, not 20 percent added to cost. This calculator uses margin math so the result lines up with job profitability reports.
Hourly rate FAQ
Questions to review before using the rate
Should every painter have the same billable rate?
Not always. Some companies use one blended field rate for easier estimating, while others separate apprentice, journeyman, lead painter, and supervisor rates. A blended rate is simpler, but it should be based on the actual mix of labor used on jobs.
What counts as overhead?
Common overhead includes insurance, vehicles, office time, estimating time, software, phones, bookkeeping, rent, marketing, training, and non-billable management. Materials and job-specific equipment are usually estimated separately.
Why do billable hours matter so much?
Overhead must be recovered from hours that customers actually pay for. If weather, callbacks, travel, and admin time reduce billable hours, the required rate rises even when the wage stays the same.