ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Payscale

I'm a independent electrical contractor and am in the process of looking for another electrician in my area to hire for full time/ part time work. I charge by the job and a few friends are telling me I need to pay by the hour. I have no idea what a non-union electrician charges a hour. All the other electricians I know are union scale and affilated. Would appreciate hearing from a few independents what they charge per hour for residential/commercial electrical work. I work in the Chicagoland area.

Hi Rowd,
The company I work for charges $30/hour, but it is probably time to raise that again, rural Nebraska.

As a journeyman I would not consider working for you unless you could pay hourly and provide at least 40 hours per week.

Good luck, sounds like your business is growing.

GJ

Thanks GJ. I've heard 35hr and as much as 55hr in my area. Hope to hear from a broader cross section of electricians so I can get a good estimate. I've also heard as low as 20hr.....When I was an apprentice for a private firm I think I was making 10 to 11 dollars an hr.....but that was 20 years ago.

you got to pay enough so your employees can afford titelist golf balls and play the local resort course once a month

In Long Island we charge $75.00/hr for service calls and maintenance. $65 to $70 for mechanics rate and $45 for apprentice if we are doing a time and material job.



[This message has been edited by tsolanto (edited 09-14-2002).]

"you got to pay enough so your employees can afford titelist golf balls and play the local resort course once a month "

Damn Right!

GJ
"Wiring America to support my habit"

Here around the Omaha Ne area I charge 45.00/man hour for all jobs that are not bid. If I have to pay union scale the price goes up to 65.00/man hour.
Union scale for is about 32.00/hour for a journeyman. This includes the union dues and other union contract items. Non union journeymen get around 18.00 to 25.00/ hour depending on the type of work they do. These figures are for commercial/industrial work.
Residential is about 20-30% less.
As you can see even the approxamatley 150 miles between golf junkie and me can make a difference.

I'm a one man show and I charge $55.00 hr in Arkansas. I hire another contractor to help me sometimes and he charges $30.00 hr. but he's not carrying insurance or workmans comp.

WOW! what a range so far. $30.00 to $75.00 an hr. depending on what part of the country your in. Also I'm curious as to why the commercial work is more. To me , depending on the location,....commercial or residential it's still work.The only way I can see charging more for commercial would be higher permit costs or need to hire additional manpower.

I charge more for commercial work simply because I can... Not sure why it works that way but it does.