How much do electricians/plumbers earn on average?

[Cam77]

Anyone know what a self employed electrician or plumber might take home in year? Seems their call out costs are quite high (here in Ireland, €80 is typical basic call out, including the first hour’s work, but no materials etc). Course they have to travel around a lot and they don’t always have work. But seems they are always rushed off their feet whenever I call them out, which would mean they’re potentially making a good €300+ a day. Just curious.

Google will know.

@lockheart
Thanks for that!

DH used to be a tradesman and would charge an £80 call out fee. He felt it was fair as he’d either have to inconvenience his main contractors by moving work around, or work during his family time - evenings and weekends. After expenses he’d earn about £20k per year.

In the South East £225.00 - £300.00/day

£250 -£300 a day.

It isn't really a lot when you look at the reality of it.

Most tradesmen will be self employed so out of that £300 they have to pay:
Tax
NI contributions
Insurances
any trade memberships
their vehicle purchase repair and fuel.
etc etc.

When you are salaried your salary isn't the full cost of you being an employee there is employer tax NI and pension too.
A self employed person is responsible for this all themselves.

Also a salary is guaranteed a self employed tradesman is only earning if he can get work. They will be spending time trying to get that work in and dealing with business admin that isn't paid.

My brother is an electrician. He charges £30 an hour if he's on his own. If its a big job, another £15 per person per hour he has with him on the job. A typical invoice will have time + labour + parts.

He rarely does domestic work these days though. He gets a lot of work from cafes, pubs and clubs fixing sound systems and installing lighting, security, and fire alarms. Plus he can charge a day rate instead of hourly if its going to be a huge job.

I need to earn between £250 - £300 a day as a self employed PLUMBER because the overheads associated with running my business are so high.
Tax
NI
Public liability insurance
Van Insurance
Diesel
Accounting fees
A reliable van
Tools
Trade memberships

Then you need to factor in the customers that muck you about by either not being in at the agreed time or just don't pay at all after the work is complete.

At the end of the day you should be happy with £700 a week after expenses (£35k p/a)

Then you need to pray that you don't get injured and aren't able to work or you van doesn't get done and all your tools stolen.

So, 4 hours in the van on the road and 8 hours on the tools 6 days a week.......

We're not trying to make a fortune, just a living......

The reason we're all so busy is because not many people want to do this job, it's long hours and hard work for an average salary......

Hope this sheds some light......

I can tell you a few of the rates for people in business on their own:

for visiting clients to do quotes, £nil

For time spent taking waste materials to tip, £nil

For collecting tools and materials, £nil

For travelling time, £nil

For time spent pricing jobs and preparing quotes for clients who change their minds, £nil

For time taking vehicle to be serviced or repaired and waiting for it to be ready, £nil

For time preparing business accounts and tax returns, £nil

For time taking professional training and exams, £nil

For time off sick or injured, £nil

Holiday pay (per day), £nil

Our plumber charges £40/hour and I think is probably at the more expensive end of the spectrum, but we’ve known him for years and his prices have gone up over time. He’s reliable (in terms of workmanship and also in terms of showing up, answering the phone etc) and he’s really happy to try and troubleshoot over the phone and talk me through quick fixes until he can get out to us. He doesn’t get paid for any of that though, and as PP have mentioned he will have lots of business expenses out of that £40. I suspect his annual income is quite similar to my FT salary

For example, the house we just moved into he went to see at my request after we had offered on it. He would have spent a couple of hours of his time doing that (including travel) and didn’t charge me a penny. But there is probably £15-20k going through his business as a result of that. Plus, he found a death trap and had that fixed at the sellers expense

£40k plus a good one. Their tax return may say otherwise though.

Not as much as fake bullshit dailymail articles would have you believe.

Dh charges £250-£300 per day but some days he works a few jobs so will charge an hourly rate which is slightly higher to allow for travelling time. Plus all other charges as PigletJohn mentioned!

However it is certainly the best way to be, dh is much happier than he was when working for somebody else.

What they charge and what they "earn" (i.e. after expenses, unchargeable time etc) are very different. As an accountant, I have quite a number of such tradespersons as clients. Most "earn" i.e. after expenses, around the national average so £25k-£30k p.a. and they "charge" typically £250-£300 per day for their time.

A "call out" charge of, say, £90 for an hour, probably means £45 ph before costs as it probably takes them 30 mins to get to you and 30 mins back to where they were on average. (Some jobs will be closer, some further away), so it's 2 hours work for your 1 hour call out. Then out of that are the overheads (cost of running a decent van), insurance, tools, consumables, telephone, etc etc.

Your call out fee isn't representative as to longer work, i.e. a full day or a week, where they don't get anywhere near the £90 per hour, more like £30-£40 per hour worked backwards from a typical day or week rate.

Also depends on area. I've no doubt some trades could earn a lot in the richer areas such as London/SE, but out in the regions, they'll be earning a lot less.

Where I am in London the call out cost hasn't increase in over 10 years. I was horrified when I found that out this year.

My company employ plumbers and electricians and pay between £28-36k- electricians are the highest paid.

Obviously they’re not self employed but clearly they’re not choosing to work for that if they could earn a fortune self employed

I have to clear £120 a day for my running costs before i take a penny home to keep a roof over head and food on the table.
This cover my van, fuel, insurance, gas-safe registration inc the £2000 every 5 years for resits, business insurance, van wrapping, uniforms, email and website hosting, SEO/PPC/google ads, tool recalibration, the list gets quite ridiculous when you break down how much it actually costs to run a business.
Theres also the hidden hours people dont see, training courses, resits, travel, invoicing, quoting, collecting materials, keeping the van stocked and working, advertising etc.
I actually love my job/business n wouldn't want it any other way, but people need to realise it cant be done for £10p/h 👍

@Zzzz19

No? Surely not?