The Level Index, by trade
General contractor financial benchmarks
GC reference points; the Level pooled research has no general-contractor segment. CFMA commercial/nonresidential references differ from the selected civil/infrastructure and mixed-building public companies. Inspect subcontract scope, self-performed work, unusual project outcomes, WIP and net working capital before comparing.
4.1%
Net margin (before tax)
industrial/nonresidential respondent segment, CFMA 2024 (2023 financials)
4.6-20%
Gross margin
public-company references, different work and unusual-item mix
~47-83 days
DSO
GC, retained receivables/revenue ratios; separately presented retention is excluded
919,000+
US establishments
construction (AGC), ~$2.1T/yr
The nuance most 'GC margin' numbers miss
A GC margin comparison needs matched work type, period and unusual project adjustments.
The public spread is not one GC benchmark. Tutor Perini's 4.6% FY2024 gross margin sits in a year affected by legacy dispute resolutions. Granite reports 14.4% construction, 13.8% materials and 14.3% consolidated gross margin, a small segment-versus-blend difference. Sterling's cited segment range is operating margin, a different measure. Rebuild your comparison by work type, period, unusual project adjustments and margin definition before interpreting the gap as an operating opportunity.
Do not benchmark your GC business on gross margin alone. Overhead as a percent of revenue and how fast you turn WIP into cash decide whether a 4% or a 14% gross margin actually makes money.
How to read this: Level research pools HVAC, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, refrigeration and fire protection. Roofing and general contracting are outside that pool. The sources below are selected for relevance to general contractor contractors; some are proxies or all-contractor references (SEC filings, BLS, CFMA, industry research), each tagged by confidence tier. Level's research below combines those trades. Some older figures have not been checked again against their original sources. Each value explains the time period, businesses included and what was measured.
The public-company margin spread mixes different work and unusual project outcomes.
Public civil/infrastructure and building-contractor gross margin, FY2024
Source / sample: TPC, GVA, STRL FY2024 10-Ks
Tutor Perini reported 4.6% gross and a net loss in FY2024, but its results release identifies legacy dispute judgments and settlements affecting earnings. It also describes self-performed work across multiple trades. That year is not a clean pass-through-business benchmark. Separate unusual project outcomes, self-perform mix and gross-versus-operating definitions before comparing your book with the public-company spread.
Source: Tutor Perini FY2024 results release (linked); Granite and Sterling FY2024 filing references
Granite's construction and materials margins are close in FY2024; the segment definition still matters.
Granite: Construction vs Materials segment gross margin, FY2024
Source / sample: Granite Construction FY2024 10-K segment gross margin
Granite's FY2024 filing reports construction gross margin of 14.4%, materials of 13.8% and consolidated gross margin of 14.3%. The 0.1-point construction-versus-consolidated difference does not support a story that materials materially depresses the blend. Separate the segments to match work type, then inspect project estimate revisions and the accounting definition behind any trend.
Source: Granite Construction FY2024 10-K
Because gross is thin, a GC's real result lives in overhead control and cash velocity.
The GC true-net bridge (illustrative)
Source / sample: Fictional cost bridge; 12 - 5 - 2 - 2 = 3 points
Fictional bridge on $100 revenue: $12 initial job gross profit, minus $5 overhead omitted from that starting figure, $2 assumed financing cost and $2 separately identified remaining cost, leaves $3 before income tax. Every adjustment must be absent from the starting amount. Actual financing cost is balance × annual rate × holding days/365; public-company DSO alone does not establish a 2-point cost. This illustrates cost completeness, not measured GC margin.
Source: Level fictional cost-completeness illustration
General Contractor benchmarks, by source
5 source-verified rows (Tier A to E)Expand all 5 source-verified general contractor benchmark rowsEvery metric is tagged by confidence level, from Tier A through Tier E, with direct SEC filing, BLS wage, and CFMA source links.
Industrial/nonresidential net before tax
Tier B4.1%
Historical 2023 industrial/nonresidential respondent segment, not every GC. It is the lowest of the reported broad work segments; heavy-highway reports 7.2%, without isolating subcontract pass-through as the cause.
Source: CFMA 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker (n=1,290)
Public civil/infrastructure and building contractors, gross margin
Tier A4.6% to 20%
Tutor Perini 4.6% (legacy-project impacts), Granite 14.3%, Sterling 20.1% (different work mix), FY2024. These selected civil/infrastructure and mixed-building companies are not a measured commercial-building GC cohort. Work type, unusual project outcomes and accounting definitions differ; these examples do not isolate self-perform effects.
GC DSO (implied)
Tier D~47 to 83 days
Year-end receivables divided by annual revenue times 365: Granite 511,742/4,007,574 × 365 = 46.6 days; Tutor Perini 986,893/4,326,922 × 365 = 83.2 days (inputs in $000, FY2024). Granite including contract assets: (511,742 + 328,353)/4,007,574 × 365 = 76.5 days, a different measure excluded from the displayed 47-83 range. Tutor retention and excess-of-billings balances are also excluded. These are balance ratios, not invoice cohort days or net financing cost.
Source: Level calculations from Granite and Tutor Perini FY2024 results tables; linked Granite inputs
Best-in-class contractor gross margin / net
Tier B21.8% GM / 11.9% net
Historical 2023 all-respondent Best in Class group, the top 25% ranked by performance metrics, not a GC-only sample or net-margin percentile. Net income is before tax.
US construction establishments
Tier B919,000+
8.0M employees, ~$2.1T structures/yr across the sector.
Source: AGC of America
Tier A = stated public-company SEC or BLS observations; verify the exact period and scope. Tier B = trade-association survey or research-firm report (CFMA, IBISWorld). Tier C = industry publications or planning references, directional only. Tier D = Level calculations from filing inputs. Tier E = Level pooled research. Public-company figures describe large operators, not typical private firms or attainable upper bounds. Where sources conflict, both are shown, never averaged.
What the public general contractors actually earn
These public references differ in civil/building work, self-perform share, unusual project outcomes and segment definitions. They do not isolate a single margin cause.
| Company / scope | Gross | Operating | Net | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tutor Perini (TPC)Consolidated, FY2024 | 4.6% | -2.4% | -3.8% | Self-performs across multiple trades; FY2024 includes legacy dispute impacts and a net loss. |
| Granite Construction (GVA)Construction segment, FY2024 | 14.4% | 9.1% | n/d | The GC read, with meaningful self-perform. |
| Granite Construction (GVA)Materials segment, FY2024 | 13.8% | n/d | n/d | Aggregates/asphalt manufacturing. FY2024 GAAP gross margin verified; previous segment operating-margin source unresolved. |
| Sterling Infrastructure (STRL)E-Infra vs Transportation op margin, FY2024 | n/d | 22.0% / 6.5% | n/d | Same company, roughly a 15-point spread across segment mix. |
n/d = not disclosed at that cut. Granite and Sterling segment operating margins exclude unallocated corporate G&A, so they slightly overstate fully-loaded segment profitability.
The Level lens: cost-completeness scenario (fictional)
Fictional GC job: a 12% incomplete contribution estimate becomes 3% after three separately identified costs.
Illustrative cost-completeness bridge, percentage of revenue
Source / sample: Fictional scenario; assumed cost percentages, not a measured cohort
Illustrative assumptions on $100 of revenue: an initial incomplete contribution estimate of $12, then separately omitted costs of $5, $2 and $2, leaving $3. This is not measured gross or net margin. Check your ledger before each adjustment: subtract only cost missing from the starting estimate. Fully burdened direct labor already included in gross profit must not be subtracted again. Allocate shared overhead once, distinguish economic contribution from financial-statement margin, and do not treat a rounded scenario as a trade benchmark. Financing is balance × annual rate × actual days/365, divided by revenue to express percentage points. The assumed final reduction is not derived from the public-company DSO range; build it from your own financed balance, rate and holding period.
Public-company anchors used
Tutor Perini (TPC), Granite Construction (GVA), Sterling Infrastructure (STRL). These are large, publicly traded operators. Filing observations and Level calculations labeled Tier D are separately scoped reference points, not a stand-in for a typical private general contractor shop, which runs on different economics.
Level's pooled contractor references
These are pooled references from Level's 2,242-contractor research universe, with a separate eligible sample for each metric. Trade variation is not measured here. The pool covers HVAC, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, refrigeration and fire protection; it has no roofing or GC segment. Match your definitions and work mix before comparing.
Expand all 4 pooled cross-trade contractor reference metrics (n=2,242 universe)Includes blended gross margin, net profit, labor share, AR days, and cash reserve references across mechanical and specialty trades.
n=464 (blended). Cash collected divided by billed revenue across the six-trade pool; top decile 96.0%. The benchmark window is not published. Timing, credits and write-offs need separate reconciliation.
n=733 total; post-completion subset count not published (blended). 1 day with progress billing included; 7 days among post-completion invoicers. Subset and bottom-decile populations are not separately counted.
n=794 (blended). On decided quotes; 38.1% across all quotes.
n=1,747,089 jobs / 1,791 companies (blended). Blended across trades. Compare only jobs where revenue and direct costs are assigned to the same job.
Tier A and B rows name their source and link the record or source index where available. The full tiered dataset for all six trades (public-company actuals, BLS wages, CFMA and market figures, each with its source URL) is downloadable and free to cite with attribution. Download the per-trade benchmark facts (JSON).
See where your general contractor numbers land
We pull your margin, labor economics, and collections and compare your matched-scope figures with public references and the pooled Level Index, with each sample identified, then show you the first leak to fix.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.
Frequently asked questions (4 questions)
Margin definitions, confidence tiers, and data source scope
Expand / Collapse
Frequently asked questions (4 questions)
Margin definitions, confidence tiers, and data source scope
What is a good profit margin for a general contractor?
It depends on whether you mean gross or net, and on commercial vs residential work. The best hard reference points are public-company actuals: Public civil/infrastructure and building contractors, gross margin: 4.6% to 20%. Tutor Perini 4.6% (legacy-project impacts), Granite 14.3%, Sterling 20.1% (different work mix), FY2024. These selected civil/infrastructure and mixed-building companies are not a measured commercial-building GC cohort. Work type, unusual project outcomes and accounting definitions differ; these examples do not isolate self-perform effects. This is a scoped reference, not a measured distribution of private general contractor firms.. The retained CFMA 2024 Benchmarker (2023 financials, 1,290 valid financial respondents) reports 6.3% net income before tax for all respondents and 11.9% for its Best in Class group, the top 25% ranked by performance metrics rather than a net-margin percentile. These are historical all-contractor references, not a measured GC-only cohort or a current target. Small private shops vary widely, so use the tiered sources on this page rather than a single number.
Where does this GC benchmark data come from?
Named sources selected for relevance to GC contractors, including separately labeled proxies and all-contractor references: public-company SEC 10-K filings, BLS wage data, CFMA's Construction Financial Benchmarker, and industry research, each tagged by confidence tier with a source link. Level's pooled research covers HVAC, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, refrigeration and fire protection; it excludes roofing and general contractors. Its collection, billing and quote metrics are adjacent specialty-trade context only on this page, not measured GC contractor benchmarks. The broader 2,200+ research universe is not the contributing sample for each metric.
Why is a general contractor's gross margin so low?
Because a GC passes most job cost straight through to subcontractors, so there is little gross spread to begin with. Tutor Perini reported 4.6% gross in FY2024, but legacy dispute judgments and settlements affected that year; it also self-performs several trades. Granite's construction segment reported 14.4%. Self-perform mix is one candidate driver, but the companies differ in work type and unusual project outcomes; these examples do not isolate its effect. The retained CFMA 2024 reference reports 4.1% net income before tax for the 2023 industrial/nonresidential respondent segment, not a GC-only cohort. Check job margin, overhead and net working capital together; this aggregate does not prove which lever matters most for your firm.
What should a general contractor benchmark on instead of gross margin?
Overhead as a percent of revenue, WIP discipline (earned revenue, costs, billings and contract balances reconciled), DSO and retainage carry, and net before tax. Because reported gross margin varies with work type, unusual project outcomes and cost definitions, it is a poor standalone benchmark. The two FY2024 receivables-only calculations range from 46.6 to 83.2 days; they exclude separately presented contract assets/retention, so compare the actual net financed balance and financing cost alongside matched job margins; these gross receivable ratios do not rank the profit impact of billing speed against job pricing.