How much does an electrician charge per hour?
Electrician rates sit toward the top of the trades - and they should, because the overhead does too. Rate surveys put self-employed tradies at roughly $60 to $100 an hour across all trades, with licensed trades like electrical usually above the middle of that band. But the going rate is not your rate: yours has to cover your licence, compliance, test gear and unbillable hours - and still pay you.
Ask three sparkies what they charge and you'll get three numbers - a solo domestic electrician with a paid-off ute carries nothing like the overhead of a two-van business with an apprentice. Copying another business's rate means copying a number built for someone else's costs. Here's what pushes electrical rates up, and how to build yours from your own numbers.
Why electrical rates sit toward the top
Every hour an electrician bills has to carry costs most trades never see:
- Licence and registration renewals - your electrician's licence and, in most states, a separate contractor registration, each with periodic fees. Fees differ by state - see our licence costs by state pages for current sourced figures.
- Per-job compliance certificates - in Victoria, a Certificate of Electrical Safety runs around $40 to $120 per job depending on the work (Energy Safe Victoria). Other states run their own certificate schemes with their own fees.
- Test equipment and calibration - testers and meters need buying, replacing and periodic calibration to stay compliant.
- Higher insurance - public liability priced for electrical risk, plus any state-required cover.
None of these are optional, and none of them appear on an invoice as a line item. They only get paid one way: through the hourly rate.
The rate you charge isn't the rate you keep
Out of every billed hour you're also covering the hours you can't bill - quoting, travel, supplier runs, paperwork - plus the vehicle, super and your own pay, before a cent of profit. A rate that looks healthy against the market can still leave you behind once your real costs come out. Busy and broke usually means the rate was set from the market, not from the costs.
Build your rate from your numbers
The method is four lines of arithmetic. As a worked example - these are illustration figures, not market data; put your own numbers in:
- Yearly overhead - say $32,000: ute running costs, insurance, tools and test gear, phone, software, licence renewals and certificate fees.
- Your pay plus super - say $95,000 wages, plus 12% super = $106,400.
- Divide by billable hours - say 1,100 hours you can actually invoice in a year. ($32,000 + $106,400) / 1,100 = about $126 an hour just to break even on those numbers.
- Add a margin - 10% on top brings it to about $138 an hour (ex GST).
Change any input and the answer moves - that's the point. Your overhead, your wage, your billable hours: your rate.
Work out your real hourly rate
Callout fees and small jobs
Getting a licensed electrician and a stocked van to the door has a fixed cost before any work starts - travel time, fuel, booking admin. A callout fee recovers it honestly. If you'd rather not charge one, that's a legitimate choice, but the cost doesn't vanish: it has to sit inside the hourly rate instead. What loses money is waiving it and charging a market-average rate.
Sources Average hourly rates: ServiceSeeking tradie rate data. Certificate of Electrical Safety fees: Energy Safe Victoria. Licence and registration fees by state: figrd licence costs guide (sourced per state regulator). Super guarantee rate (12%): Australian Taxation Office. Employee award baseline: Fair Work Ombudsman (Electrical Award pay guide). Fees vary by state and change yearly - check your own regulator. Worked example figures are illustrations only.
Straight answers.
Why do electricians charge more per hour than many other trades?
Because the overhead is higher, not because the maths is different. A licensed electrical business carries licence renewals, per-job compliance certificates, test-equipment calibration and higher insurance - costs a general trade doesn't carry. Spread over the hours you can actually bill, they lift the rate the business needs.
Should an electrician charge a callout fee?
A callout fee covers the real cost of getting a licensed tradesperson and a stocked vehicle to the door. Whether you charge one is a business decision - but if you don't, those costs still exist and must be recovered in the hourly rate instead.
I was on wages - can I just charge my old hourly rate plus a bit?
No - as an employee your wage was the smaller part of what you cost the business. On your own you now carry the super, leave, quiet weeks, vehicle, insurance, licence and compliance fees, and every unbillable hour. Build the rate from your own costs, not your old payslip.