Garage Labour Rate Calculator

Work out what hourly labour rate your workshop needs to cover costs and profit.

Useful for

Checking if your current hourly labour rate is too low
Planning a rate increase before updating invoices or job sheets
Understanding how non-billable time affects workshop profit

Example labour rate check

If weekly overheads are £850, technician cost is £650, target profit is £500 and there are 28 billable hours, the target labour rate is about £71.43 per hour.

Billable hours

Break-even

£53.57/hr

Target rate

£71.43/hr

Target profit

£500/wk

A labour rate should not be guessed. It needs to cover the real cost of opening the workshop, paying staff, lost non-billable time and the profit the business needs to stay healthy.

Use this calculator as a quick sanity check. Enter your weekly costs and realistic billable labour hours, then compare the target rate against what you currently charge.

Want labour and profit tracked per job?

Mechanics Hub lets you record labour on job sheets and invoices, then keep profit and margin visible internally without showing it to customers.

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FAQ

What should a garage include in overheads?

Include rent, insurance, utilities, subscriptions, equipment, waste disposal, card fees and other weekly costs that exist before parts or labour profit.

Should I use total hours worked or billable hours?

Use realistic billable hours. Admin, cleaning, quoting, ordering parts and customer calls take time but are not always invoiced, so using total hours can make the labour rate look too low.

Is this a full profit and loss calculator?

No. It is a labour-rate planning tool. Full profit and loss also needs actual invoices, stock costs, wages, rent and expenses over time.