What Tradespeople Charge Per Hour in 2026 — Real Hourly Rates by Trade and Region

Most tradespeople are guessing.

We talk to plumbers who’ve been charging the same hourly rate for four years. Electricians who don’t know what their competitors quote. Heating engineers undercutting themselves by £15/hr because they “don’t want to seem expensive.” It’s the single biggest hidden tax on a small trades business — quietly leaving 15-30% on the table on every job.

So this post is the unvarnished answer: what tradespeople actually charge per hour in 2026, broken down by trade, country, region, and experience. No fluff, no surveys-of-50-people — these are the same benchmarks we use in Clara’s free rate checker, updated for 2026.

If you only want the number for your trade and region, skip to the rate checker. If you want to understand the full picture — read on.

The three things that move your rate

Before the numbers, three forces explain almost all the variance:

1. Experience band. A junior tradesperson (0-2 years) is somewhere around 50-65% of the senior rate (10+ years). The mid band (3-9 years) sits in the middle, but the climb from junior → mid is usually steeper than mid → senior. Most of the rate growth happens in the first 5 years.

2. Region. London and the South East sit ~30% above the rest of the UK. California, New York, and Washington are 30-50% above the US median. In Canada, Ontario and BC sit ~20% above the prairie provinces. This isn’t because people there are better tradespeople — it’s purely cost-of-living and demand density.

3. Job type. Standard scheduled work is the baseline. Emergency callouts add 30-60% on top. Specialist work (e.g. EV charger install, smart-home retrofit, gas safety inspections) adds 20-40%. Out-of-hours work (evenings, weekends, bank holidays) typically gets a 25-50% surcharge.

Now the numbers.

Plumbers

UK mid-experience plumbers in 2026:

• London / South East: £55-£75/hr
• Birmingham / Manchester / Leeds: £45-£60/hr
• Scotland / Wales / Northern Ireland: £40-£55/hr
• Senior (10+ years): add 20-30% on top
• Emergency callouts: add 30-50%

US mid-experience plumbers:

• California / New York / Washington: $95-$140/hr
• Texas / Florida / Georgia: $70-$105/hr
• Midwest states (Ohio, Michigan, Illinois): $65-$115/hr
• Senior: add 25-35%
• Emergency callouts: add 40-60%

Canadian mid-experience plumbers:

• Ontario / BC: CA$95-$135/hr
• Alberta / Quebec: CA$80-$115/hr
• Atlantic / Prairie provinces: CA$70-$100/hr

The London-vs-rest-of-UK gap is bigger for plumbers than most trades because emergency callout demand in London is uniquely concentrated.

If you’re sending estimates rather than firm quotes, our quote generator for plumbers handles VAT, validity periods, and payment terms in 2 minutes. For invoicing, the plumber invoice generator covers callouts, materials, and late-payment terms.

Electricians

UK mid-experience electricians in 2026:

• London / South East: £50-£72/hr
• Major cities (Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol): £42-£60/hr
• Rest of UK: £38-£52/hr

US mid-experience electricians:

• California / Washington / New York: $90-$140/hr
• Texas / Florida: $70-$105/hr
• Most other states: $65-$110/hr

Senior electricians with specialist certifications (EV chargers, solar, commercial three-phase) can charge £75-£95/hr in the UK and $140-$180/hr in coastal US states for that specific work. EICR inspections are usually flat-fee around £180-£280 (UK) / $300-$450 (US) rather than hourly.

For job documentation that protects you on big rewires and consumer unit changes, the electrician job sheet captures works completed, materials, and customer signature on site — useful evidence for any compliance follow-up.

We’ve also written about why electricians lose leads they never knew they had — it’s the other half of the rate question (no rate matters if you’re missing the calls).

HVAC technicians

US-focused, since HVAC is more dominant in North America:

• California / New York: mid $100-$140/hr, senior $140-$190/hr
• Texas / Florida: mid $75-$110/hr, senior $115-$160/hr
• Midwest: mid $70-$110/hr, senior $110-$155/hr
• Service call / diagnostic flat fee: $90-$150 in most regions
• AC install: $4,500-$8,000 (3-ton system, fully installed)
• Furnace install: $3,800-$6,500
• Heat pump install: $6,500-$12,000

For UK heating engineers (the closest equivalent), Gas Safe Registered installers charge £55-£85/hr mid-experience, with boiler installs at £2,200-£3,200 fully installed. We’ve written about why heating engineers lose more leads in April than December — spring servicing season is where most of the year’s revenue actually slips through.

Carpenters

UK mid-experience carpenters:

• London / South East: £42-£65/hr
• Rest of UK: £35-£55/hr
• Day rate (more common than hourly): £220-£340 in London, £180-£280 elsewhere

US mid-experience carpenters:

• California / New York: $75-$120/hr
• Texas / Florida / Georgia: $55-$85/hr
• Most other states: $50-$90/hr

Carpenters are more often quoted by the job than the hour — a kitchen install, a deck, a loft conversion fit-out. Our carpenter quote generator handles labour and materials breakdowns properly.

Gardeners and landscapers

UK mid-experience gardeners:

• London / South East: £30-£48/hr
• Rest of UK: £24-£40/hr
• Senior with design qualifications: add 25-40%

US mid-experience landscapers:

• California / New York: $55-$95/hr
• Most other states: $40-$75/hr

Gardening rates have the biggest range of any trade — a one-person mowing operation charges very differently from a landscape designer with a planting team. Read more about keeping a gardening business ticking through the off-season for the seasonality picture.

Cleaners

UK mid-experience domestic cleaners:

• London / South East: £18-£28/hr
• Rest of UK: £14-£22/hr
• Specialist (end-of-tenancy, deep clean, oven): £25-£45/hr
• Office / commercial recurring: typically lower hourly, but billed in fixed visits

US mid-experience cleaners:

• California / New York: $35-$60/hr (or $150-$280/visit for 3-bed)
• Texas / Florida: $25-$45/hr
• Midwest: $25-$40/hr

Cleaning has the strongest case for per-visit pricing rather than hourly — it’s predictable, easier to quote, and customers prefer the certainty. Most successful cleaning businesses we talk to have moved away from hourly entirely. Jess from our case studies took on more clients without losing the personal touch by getting the pricing model right first.

How to know if you’re undercharging

The easy test: if you’ve been trading 5+ years and you’re below the mid-experience figure for your region, you’re undercharging — usually because the rate hasn’t moved with inflation.

The harder test is your effective hourly rate: revenue divided by all hours worked, not just billable hours. Most owner-operators bill 60-70% of their working hours. The other 30-40% is quoting, admin, travel, chasing payments, and answering calls. So a £55/hr quoted rate is really £33-£38/hr effective.

Three levers to fix it:

1. Stop quoting low. Use the rate checker for your region and band. Quote at the mid-to-high range, not the low. Most customers don’t shop on price beyond ±10%; you lose more jobs to slow quoting than to high quotes.
2. Reduce admin time. Faster invoicing means more billable hours. The invoice generator and quote generator cut quote/invoice time from 20-30 minutes to 2.
3. Stop missing calls. Every missed call to a tradesperson averages £180-£420 in lost lifetime value (we’ve written the maths up before). If you’re missing 2-3 calls a day on the tools, that’s £36k-£90k/year quietly walking away.

That’s the rate problem in one paragraph: the number on your invoice matters less than the number of invoices you actually send.

For a 2-minute personalised benchmark, run the rate checker — it’ll show your number against your region and band.