How Much Do Home Service Contractors Actually Earn per Hour? 2026 Wage Data

Home service trades are among the highest-paying skilled occupations in the United States on paper. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for 2026 shows median hourly wages well above the national average for most trades. But the gross hourly rate is not what most operators actually earn. Once you account for unpaid administrative work, software and vehicle overhead, and the time spent chasing payments and scheduling jobs, the effective hourly earnings look very different , especially for solo operators and small shop owners.

This report combines BLS wage data with responses from the 2026 Kaldr Tech Contractor Income Survey to answer a question most industry reports avoid: how much do home service contractors actually earn per hour of work?

The short answer: a lot less than the sticker price.

Key Findings

• The median employee hourly wage for home service technicians in 2026, per BLS, ranges from $24.18 (landscaping) to $37.94 (electricians).
• The median business owner effective hourly rate, after accounting for unpaid admin time and overhead, ranges from $41 to $78 , well below the rates those owners charge customers.
• Solo contractors spend an average of 3 to 5 hours per day on unpaid administrative work that never appears on an invoice.
• A solo plumber charging $125 per hour who does 4 hours of daily admin actually earns $78 per effective hour , a 38% haircut off their billable rate.
• 34% of surveyed small-shop owners (2 to 5 techs) earn less per effective hour than the technicians they employ.
• Regional pay varies by up to 41% between the highest and lowest regional markets for the same trade.

The BLS Baseline: What Employees Earn

Before we look at owner economics, here is what trade employees earn according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for 2026. These are median hourly wages for salaried or hourly employees, not business owners.

HVAC Mechanics and Installers

• National median: $29.74 per hour
• Top 10% of earners: $47.80 per hour
• Entry level (bottom 25%): $21.90 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 425,000 workers

Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters

• National median: $32.47 per hour
• Top 10%: $51.20 per hour
• Entry level: $22.60 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 489,000 workers

Electricians

• National median: $37.94 per hour
• Top 10%: $58.90 per hour
• Entry level: $24.10 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 735,000 workers

Roofers

• National median: $25.82 per hour
• Top 10%: $42.30 per hour
• Entry level: $17.40 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 143,000 workers

Landscaping and Grounds Keeping

• National median: $24.18 per hour
• Top 10%: $34.90 per hour
• Entry level: $16.80 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 891,000 workers

Pest Control Technicians

• National median: $26.55 per hour
• Top 10%: $38.20 per hour
• Entry level: $18.40 per hour
• Total employment: approximately 80,000 workers

These are solid numbers. Electricians, plumbers, and HVAC techs sit well above the national median wage for all occupations , which BLS reports at $23.11 for 2026. Now let us look at what business owners in the same trades actually take home.

The Owner Gap: Billable Rate vs Effective Rate

Business owners charge customers a billable hourly rate that looks high on the invoice. A solo plumber might charge $125 per hour. A small HVAC shop owner might invoice $150 per hour for diagnostic work. Those are the numbers that make the trades look profitable.

But owners do not get to keep their billable rate. The billable rate has to cover:

• Overhead (truck, tools, insurance, fuel, licensing)
• Software and processing fees
• Unpaid time: admin, marketing, estimating, chasing payments
• Materials markup and labor for helpers
• Profit margin for the business itself

Once you strip those costs out and divide the owner's take-home by the actual hours worked , not just the billable hours , you get the effective hourly rate. This is the number that actually lands in the operator's pocket per hour of their day.

> "The first year I went out on my own, I charged $100 an hour and I thought I was rich. By year two I realized I was working 70 hours a week and taking home less than my old W-2 job." , Electrician, solo, Colorado

The "Hidden Hours" Problem

Every operator in the survey was asked: "On a typical day, how many hours do you spend on work that does not appear on an invoice?" The average answer was 3.8 hours per day for solo operators and 2.6 hours per day for small shop owners. That time breaks down roughly as:

• Scheduling and dispatch: 45 minutes
• Invoicing and payment collection: 40 minutes
• Customer communication (texts, emails, follow-ups): 35 minutes
• Estimating and quoting: 55 minutes
• Bookkeeping and record-keeping: 25 minutes
• Marketing, reviews, and admin: 20 minutes

That adds up to just over 3.5 hours per day of work that does not get billed to a customer. For a solo operator working 10-hour days, that means only 6.5 hours of every day are billable. The other 35% of the workday is unpaid labor the owner is doing instead of a paid employee.

The Math on a Solo Plumber

Here is the worked example from our stat lead:

• Billable rate: $125/hour
• Typical workday: 10 hours
• Billable hours per day: 6 hours
• Daily revenue: $750
• Daily hours actually worked: 10
• Effective hourly rate: $75/hour

But that is still before overhead and software costs. Once you subtract $35 per day for vehicle and tools and $12 per day for software and processing fees , roughly average numbers from the survey , you get:

• Daily revenue minus overhead: $703
• Daily hours worked: 10
• Effective hourly earnings: $70/hour

A plumber who tells people on a job site that he charges $125 per hour is actually earning $70 per effective hour , 44% below his sticker rate.

> "Ask a contractor what they charge and they will tell you instantly. Ask them what they actually earn per hour of their day and most will have to think about it. That gap is the industry." , Kaldr Tech Research Team

Effective Hourly Earnings by Trade (Owners)

Combining BLS data with the survey, here are the median effective hourly rates for home service business owners in 2026:

HVAC Owners

• Solo operators: $62/hour effective
• Small shops (2 to 5 techs): $78/hour effective
• Mid-size shops (6 to 20 techs): $94/hour effective

Plumbing Owners

• Solo: $70/hour effective
• Small shops: $81/hour effective
• Mid-size: $98/hour effective

Electrical Owners

• Solo: $68/hour effective
• Small shops: $79/hour effective
• Mid-size: $92/hour effective

Roofing Owners

• Solo: $48/hour effective (project-based, high-seasonality drag)
• Small shops: $61/hour effective
• Mid-size: $82/hour effective

Landscaping Owners

• Solo: $41/hour effective
• Small shops: $53/hour effective
• Mid-size: $74/hour effective

Pest Control Owners

• Solo: $55/hour effective
• Small shops: $66/hour effective
• Mid-size: $80/hour effective

The Operator Trap

Here is the finding that should concern every small shop owner: 34% of surveyed small-shop owners earn less per effective hour than the technicians they employ. A plumbing shop owner who takes home $81 per effective hour might be employing a master plumber on the payroll at $42 per hour cash wage plus benefits , meaning the employee's all-in comp is close to $58 per hour, which is 71% of what the owner actually earns.

This is the operator trap. The owner takes on all the risk, absorbs the unbillable admin work, pays for the vehicle and the insurance and the software, and ends up only marginally ahead of their employees. Some owners end up behind their own techs once they account for opportunity cost.

> "My top tech took home more than me last year. I ran the numbers twice before I believed them." , HVAC shop owner, 6 techs, Florida

Regional Breakdown

Regional pay variation is significant. For the same trade, effective hourly earnings can swing by 41% between regions. Here is a summary view, expressed as percent of national median:

• Northeast: +18% above national median for most trades. High cost of living is partially offset by high billable rates.
• West (CA, WA, OR): +12% above national median. Labor costs are high but so are ticket values.
• Southwest (AZ, TX, NM, NV): -3% below national median. Volume is high but rates are softer.
• Midwest: -8% below national median. Lower cost of living absorbs some of the gap but effective earnings are lower.
• Southeast: -11% below national median. Lowest effective earnings in most trades, partially offset by lower taxes and cost of living.

How Software Costs Reduce Effective Earnings

Every dollar spent on software is a dollar subtracted from the owner's effective hourly rate. Using the average monthly software spend from our companion report ($347/month for the primary platform, $959/month all-in with hidden costs), a solo operator working 200 billable hours per month is losing $4.80 per effective hour to software alone.

For a solo plumber taking home $70 per effective hour, that is a 6.9% pay cut hidden inside their monthly software invoice.

Kaldr Tech was built to eliminate that cut. There is no monthly fee. Ava, the 24/7 virtual receptionist, handles the scheduling and customer communication that eats into the unbillable hours. Payment processing is 3.5% + 30¢ , the same markup tier as the cheapest platforms, with nothing hidden.

Methodology

This report combines two data sources. Wage and employment figures are drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for 2026, which surveys approximately 1.2 million establishments and reports hourly wage distributions by occupation. Effective hourly rate and unpaid admin hour figures are drawn from the 2026 Kaldr Tech Contractor Income Survey, which collected responses from 312 home service business owners in February and March 2026, with a randomized sub-sample of 47 contractors providing anonymized financial records for verification. Effective hourly rate is calculated as net take-home pay (after overhead, software, and business expenses) divided by total hours worked (billable plus unbillable). Margin of error at the full sample level is approximately ±5.5%.

What This Means for You

If you are a home service operator, here are three things worth doing this week to understand what you actually earn:

1. Track your unbilled hours for one week. Write down every minute spent on scheduling, invoicing, follow-ups, and admin. Most owners are shocked by what they find. 2. Calculate your effective hourly rate. Take last month's take-home pay, divide by total hours worked (not just billable). That is your real number. 3. Cut the obvious leaks. Software, vehicle costs, and unbillable admin time are the three biggest drags on effective earnings. Fixing any one of them is a raise.

The trades pay well , on paper. The owners who take home the most per effective hour in 2026 will be the ones who stop donating their unbillable hours to administrative work and stop bleeding effective earnings into software line items that should not exist in the first place.

Reclaim your unbillable hours with Kaldr Tech. Sign up free.