Contractor bill rates by role
Helpers bill around $34/hr, journeymen around $76/hr, roughly double. The company-level average bill rate median is $79/hr. The sharpest jump in the ladder is apprentice to journeyman, which is why your staffing mix moves margin more than small rate tweaks.
Median rate-card rate by role
Median rate-card rate across 18,000+ tracked field employees. The rate-card field is entered inconsistently across companies (some use it for customer billing rate, others for loaded cost or base wage), so read the spread between roles, not the absolute level.
| Role | Median rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Helper | $34/hr | Entry level, lowest spread over wage |
| Apprentice | $39/hr | Below the journeyman cliff |
| Technician (general) | $54/hr | The workhorse role |
| Journeyman | $76/hr | Widest spread over loaded wage |
| Mechanic | $75/hr | Highest overtime and double-time premiums |
Company-level average bill rate
The blended average bill rate across 1,770 companies. Companies at the low end are usually residential-heavy or apprentice-heavy; those billing at true commercial rates cluster at the 75th to 90th percentile.
| Percentile | Avg bill rate |
|---|---|
| Bottom 10% | $39/hr |
| 25th percentile | $55/hr |
| Median | $79/hr |
| 75th percentile | $116/hr |
| Top 10% | $148/hr |
Source: The Level Index, 18,000+ employees and 1,770 companies. Aggregated and anonymized. Also in the machine-readable JSON. For state-level rates, see the market-size tool.
Frequently asked questions
What should a contractor bill per hour by role?
Use these for the relative ladder, not as absolute billing targets. Median rate-card rates across 18,000+ tracked contractor employees are: helper $34/hr, apprentice $39/hr, technician $54/hr, journeyman $76/hr, mechanic $75/hr. The rate-card field is entered inconsistently across companies (some record customer billing rate, others loaded cost or base wage), so what is reliable is the spread (a journeyman is roughly 2x a helper), not the absolute dollar level. For an absolute billing benchmark, use the cleaner company-level average bill rate: median $79/hr, top quartile $116/hr, top decile $148/hr (n=1,770).
How do I know if I'm undercharging?
If your blended bill rate is under about $55/hr you are in the bottom quartile, usually because you are residential-heavy or apprentice-heavy. The median is $79 and commercial-billing shops cluster at $116 to $148. The tell: if your rate card says journeyman but you are billing closer to helper rates, you are leaving margin on every ticket. A $10 to $20/hr correction across a crew is six figures a year.
How much more does a journeyman bill than a helper?
The median journeyman rate-card rate is about $76/hr versus $34/hr for a helper, roughly double. The sharpest single jump in the ladder is apprentice to journeyman ($39 to $76), which is why staffing mix and the apprentice-to-journeyman pipeline move margin more than small rate changes.
Am I charging enough? What does the middle of the market bill?
The company-level average bill rate median is $79/hr, with the 25th percentile at $55/hr, the 75th at $116/hr, and the top decile at $148/hr (n=1,770). If you are billing under $79, you are below the middle of the market and probably residential-heavy or apprentice-heavy. The shops billing at true commercial rates sit at $116 and up. A $10-20/hr rate increase across a crew is six figures a year.
How are these bill rates measured?
Rates by role come from the rate-card field across 18,000+ tracked field employees in Level's contractor benchmark research; company-level average bill rate is a separate distribution across 1,770 companies. All figures are aggregated and anonymized. The rate-card field is entered inconsistently across companies, so the relative spread between roles is more reliable than the absolute dollar level.
From clients
What contractors say after working with us.
“Honestly I was kind of proud we kept our rates low, I figured that's what made us competitive. Turned out we were billing under $60 an hour when the middle of the market was closer to $80. We weren't cheap, we were undercharging and calling it a strategy. Bumped rates about 15% and, I don't know, we lost almost nothing.”
“We had journeymen billing out barely above what we charged for apprentices, and nobody had looked at the rate card in years. Once we saw it laid out, the spread between roles is where the margin actually lives, and ours was squished flat. Fixed the rate card by role and the same crew started throwing off noticeably more margin.”
“My rates were a gut-feel number from 2021. When the Level team benchmarked us we were bottom-quartile on a commercial book that should've been top-quartile. The fix wasn't complicated, it's that nobody was ever holding the number up against anything. That one conversation was worth more than my last software purchase.”
Analysis by Sam Yang, Founder, Level. Compiled from Level's proprietary contractor benchmark research.
Source: The Level Index, Contractor Bill Rate Benchmarks, 18,000+ tracked employees, 1,770 companies. US contractors. Data vintage 2022 to 2026, last updated Q3 2026. Aggregated and anonymized.
Suggested citation: "The Level Index, Contractor Bill Rate Benchmarks, Level (levelcfo.com), 2026." Method: see the benchmark methodology.
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