Tradesperson day rates in the UK (2026)

What should you charge per day? Below are the 2026 day and hourly rates for the main UK trades, each from a named and dated cost guide, followed by a simple method to work out your own minimum rate. Figures were checked on 12 October 2026.

What do UK trades charge per day in 2026?

Cost guides survey or quote what customers pay, so treat these as market rates, not rules. Rates vary by region, experience and type of work.

Electrician day rate UK

Checkatrade's average of about £400 assumes £50 an hour over 8 hours. Emergency work is usually around £90 an hour, and urgent call-outs £80 to £100. Logic4training's lower average (£312) covers a wider spread, from £96 to £600. Commercial and specialist work tends to sit at the top of the range.

Plumber hourly and day rate UK

MyBuilder's figures show how much experience matters: about £15 to £25 an hour for an apprentice, £40 to £60 for a mid-level plumber and £60 to £80 for an experienced one. Its day rate of £325 to £375 is roughly 8 hours at the lower end of the hourly range, which is why day rates often work out cheaper for customers on long jobs.

Gardener hourly rate UK

Checkatrade's average is £30 an hour or £240 a day. The range is wide (£15 to £40 an hour) because it covers everything from mowing to skilled planting and hard landscaping.

London and the South East

Whito's 2026 research says London and the South East add 15 to 30 per cent on most jobs. BestBuilders puts a general carpenter at £280 to £450 a day in London and the South East, against £180 to £320 elsewhere.

Who is this guide for?

• Self-employed tradespeople setting or reviewing their rates.
• New starters who need a sense of the going rate before their first quote.
• Small firms pricing staff time. If you employ people, remember the floor: from April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over (GOV.UK). Your charge-out rate needs to cover wages, employer costs and profit.

The market rate tells you what customers will accept. It does not tell you what you need. A rate that looks fine can still lose money once you count the days you cannot bill.

How do you set your own day rate, step by step?

1. Set a profit target. What do you want to earn in a year, before Income Tax and National Insurance?
2. Add up your yearly business costs. Van, fuel, insurance, tools, phone, software, accountant, trade body fees, training and certificates.
3. Count your working weeks. Take off holidays, bank holidays and a buffer for illness and bad weather. 46 weeks is a realistic starting point.
4. Count billable days per week. Quoting, buying materials, admin and travel eat time. Assume 4 billable days out of 5 unless your records show otherwise.
5. Divide. (Profit target + costs) divided by billable days gives your minimum day rate. Divide by hours per day for an hourly rate.
6. Compare with the market. If your minimum is above the cost guide range, cut costs, raise billable days or specialise. If it is well below, you are probably undercharging.
7. Add materials markup separately. Your labour rate should not have to cover the cost of materials. See our guide to markup vs margin to price materials correctly.

Our free day rate calculator does steps 1 to 5 for you.

What costs does your day rate have to cover?

This is where most underpricing happens. A rate of £300 a day sounds like £78,000 a year (260 working days). It is nothing like that.

At £300 a day, 184 billable days brings in £55,200 before any costs. Take off the van, insurance, tools and software and the profit is much lower than the headline rate suggests.

Day rate, hourly rate or fixed price: which should you use?

Most trades use all three, depending on the job. The trick is knowing which one protects you.

Customers usually prefer a fixed price because they know what they will pay. You can still build it from your day rate: estimate the days, multiply by your rate, add materials with markup, and add a contingency for the unknowns. Checkatrade notes that some electricians use a minimum call-out fee covering travel, the first hour and basic fault finding, which is a sensible way to stop small jobs losing money.

What should you charge out an employee at?

If you employ someone, their charge-out rate has to cover far more than their wage. From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, which is £101.68 for an 8-hour day (GOV.UK). On top of that come holiday pay, employer pension contributions, employer National Insurance, tools, van time and the hours they are paid but not billing. Work out the full yearly cost of each employee, divide by their billable days, and then add your profit. Never charge an employee out at "wage plus a bit".

Worked example: an electrician's minimum day rate

A self-employed electrician outside London wants £40,000 a year profit before tax. Business costs come to £12,000 a year (van, fuel, insurance, tools, scheme membership, software, accountant).

The minimum (£283) sits well below Checkatrade's £400 average, so this electrician has room to charge the market rate. At £350 a day over 184 days, revenue is £64,400 and profit before tax is £52,400. If they could only bill 3 days a week (138 days), the minimum rises to £376.81, close to the market average. That is why time lost to admin matters as much as the rate itself.

What are the most common pricing mistakes?

1. Copying a mate's rate. Their costs, van and region are not yours.
2. Assuming 5 billable days a week. Quoting and admin take time you cannot bill.
3. Forgetting holidays and sick days. 52 weeks of income does not exist.
4. Leaving out materials markup. Supplying materials at cost means working for free on that part of the job.
5. No minimum charge. A 20-minute job across town still costs you an hour or more.
6. Never reviewing rates. Costs rise every year. Review your rate at least once a year.
7. Vague VAT. If you are VAT registered, say "plus VAT" clearly on every quote.

What software helps you charge properly?

Your rate only works if you bill every hour you work and quote every job consistently. Job management software helps in three ways: saved labour rates and price lists so every quote uses the same figures, timesheets so you can see where hours really go, and job costing so you can see if a job made money.

• Tradify includes timesheets from its Pro plan (£37 per user per month) and lets you import price lists.
• Fergus tracks materials against each job and adds full reporting on Pro (from £45 a month list price), useful for checking real profit per job.

For a step-by-step on turning your rate into a clear price, read our guide on how to write a quote, and see our quote and invoice software comparison for the tools.