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Loaded labour rate calculator
The wage on the cheque is not what the hour costs you. Add the burden and the hours you pay for but can't bill, and the real number is usually 40–70% higher.
The middle number is what belongs in your estimates. It is still only labour — overhead and profit go on top.
What "loaded" actually includes
Three layers sit on top of the wage. The statutory burden you have no choice about: employer CPP and EI, workers' compensation premiums, vacation and statutory holiday pay. The discretionary costs you chose: benefits, allowances, training, the phone. And the paid hours that produce no invoice line.
That last one is the one contractors leave out, and it's the largest. If you pay for 40 hours and bill 32, every billable hour has to carry 25% more cost than the payroll register suggests.
A worked example
A $32/hour framer with a 24% burden and $3.50/hour of allowances costs $43.18 per paid hour. Pay 40 hours, bill 32, and each billable hour costs $53.98. Quote that framer at $55/hour and you have made $1.02 — before the truck, the insurance, or a single minute of the evening you spent writing the quote.
What about you, the owner?
Owner-operators usually run this two ways at once. Your field hours are a labour cost and belong in this calculator at whatever you'd have to pay someone to replace you. Your office hours — quoting, invoicing, chasing suppliers, answering the phone — are overhead, and belong in the overhead calculator instead. Counting yourself in neither column is the most common way a one-truck operation prices itself out of business slowly.
Questions contractors actually ask
What burden percentage should I use?
Pull the real number from last year's payroll summary: total employer remittances and comp premiums divided by total gross wages. Guessing puts you within a few points at best, and a few points on every hour is real money.
Should overtime be in this?
If overtime is routine, blend it in by raising the base wage to your true average paid rate. If it's occasional, price it as a line on the job that needs it rather than inflating every quote.
Is 20% non-productive time realistic?
For most residential trades it's conservative. Track two weeks honestly — drive time, supply runs, loading, waiting on inspections — and use your own number instead.
Does this replace my accountant?
No. It gives you a pricing number. Your accountant reconciles the year. If they disagree with this figure, use theirs.
Your rates, carried into every quote
Enter wages once in the Vault's pricing calculator and it computes your loaded rate, spreads your overhead across billable hours, and prices each job off both — so the number in the estimate is never a guess.
Pricing calculator, 10 trade estimate templates in Word, pre-written exclusions and terms, and the 10-minute pricing guide. One payment, no subscription, 30-day guarantee.