Williams Air Solutions

Loaded Labor Rate Calculator

What a technician actually costs you per billable hour — not just what you pay them.

Compensation

$ /hr
What you pay the tech before taxes, benefits, or anything else. This is the number on their pay stub.

Payroll Taxes

%
FL new employer rate is 2.7%. Find yours on your FL Department of Revenue notice. It changes annually based on your claims history.
%
FL HVAC default is 5.29% (NCCI class code 5537). Check your workers' comp policy declaration page for your actual rate.

Benefits

$ /yr
Your cost, not the employee's. Check your insurance invoice for the employer-paid portion per employee per year. Enter $0 if you don't offer health insurance.
%
401(k) or IRA employer match percentage. Enter 0 if you don't offer retirement matching.

Time Off & Training

days
Paid vacation, sick days, personal days, and federal holidays (typically 7). Include all days the tech is paid but not working. These reduce billable hours because you're paying the tech but they're not generating revenue.
days
Days spent in training instead of running calls. Like PTO, these reduce billable hours.
$ /yr
NATE certs, manufacturer training, tuition, and conference fees. This is the dollar cost of training. Training days above reduce billable hours separately.

Other Costs

$ /yr
Specialized hand tools, power tools, gauges, company cell phone, and work shirts or boots you provide per tech per year.
hrs/wk
Time a tech is on the clock but not billing a customer. Includes morning meetings, paperwork, driving between jobs, and stocking the truck.
Enter your tech count to see total team cost and billable hours below. Leave at 1 for per-tech only.

Vehicle

Enter a base hourly wage to calculate the loaded rate.

What to do with this number
  1. Use it for pricing, not payroll. This is what each hour of labor costs your business. It is not what you pay the tech. It is what you need to recover in every job price to avoid losing money on labor.
  2. Update your price book. If your flat-rate prices are based on the tech's hourly wage instead of the loaded rate, every job is underpriced by the gap between those two numbers. Use the Price Book Builder to reprice jobs with the correct cost.
  3. Feed it into your break-even. The loaded rate is a required input for the Break-Even Calculator. It tells you how many billable hours your shop needs per month to cover overhead.
  4. Run it for each tech. Senior techs with benefits and a company vehicle have a higher loaded rate than apprentices without. Your price book should reflect the tech you are sending, not a shop average.
  5. Recalculate annually. Workers' comp rates change, health insurance premiums change, and pay raises change this number. Run this at least once a year, ideally when you renew insurance.

These calculations use industry benchmarks from NCCI, FL Department of Revenue, Profitability Partners, and IMA/Horngren-Datar-Rajan cost accounting frameworks. They are estimates for planning purposes. Consult your accountant or financial advisor for business-critical decisions.

Related Topics

Pricing & Cost Accounting Hiring, Pay & Benefits Financial Dashboard & KPIs
Sources (5)
  • NCCI — Workers Comp Code 5537 (HVAC, FL 2026 rate)
  • FL Department of Revenue — SUTA/Reemployment Tax rates
  • Profitability Partners — burden multiplier methodology
  • ACHR News — billable utilization benchmarks
  • IMA/Horngren-Datar-Rajan — cost accounting framework