Field Service Labor Burden Calculator
The truck, the fuel, and the drive time are labor burden too. Field service burden starts near 39% before the first invoice.
Pre-filled with field service estimates: workers comp 4.0%, benefits 9.0%, 12 PTO days, overhead 10.0%. Edit any field below.
Social Security + Medicare (7.65%)
Federal unemployment (effective 0.6%)
Health, retirement, etc.
$41.57/hr
Fully burdened rate
38.5%
Burden added
$86,455
Annual cost
Burden breakdown
A $41.57/hr fully burdened rate is real money per placement. Skillora's AI screens every candidate so you only pay for the right ones.
Estimates only, using editable 2025 US defaults. Tax and insurance rates vary by employer, classification, and locality. Verify with a licensed accountant before relying on these figures.
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An HVAC technician paid $30 an hour costs the company about $41 an hour, and that is before counting the hours the technician spends driving instead of billing. Field service is the industry where the vehicle is part of the labor cost and where a third of paid time is never invoiced. This field service labor burden calculator pre-fills trade defaults so the hourly rate on the invoice covers what the technician costs.
Why labor burden is different in field service
Field service burden is different because the biggest cost is not a tax. A service van, its fuel, insurance, maintenance, tools, and the tablet running the dispatch software are consumed hour by hour, and none of them shows up in payroll. Companies that price them as general overhead undercharge on labor-heavy jobs. The 10% overhead default is a starting estimate; a company that divides its true fleet cost by technician hours often finds a higher number.
Workers comp for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service classes sits well above office rates because the work involves ladders, confined spaces, refrigerants, and live circuits. NCCI classifies most residential and commercial service work in the low to mid single digits as a percentage of payroll, and rates vary by state. The 4% default is a midpoint estimate for a mixed service crew.
Then comes utilization. A technician paid for eight hours typically bills five or six after drive time, parts runs, callbacks, and paperwork. The burden percentage in this calculator applies to every paid hour, but revenue only comes from billed hours. Divide the fully burdened hourly cost by your utilization rate to get the cost per billable hour, which is the number the labor rate on your price book has to beat.
Worked example with field service defaults
Take a hvac technician at $30.00 an hour. Add employer FICA at 7.65%, FUTA at 0.6%, state unemployment at the 2.7% US default, workers comp at 4.0%, benefits at 9.0%, and 14.6% for overhead plus 12 PTO days. Total burden is 38.5%, so the fully burdened rate is $41.57 an hour, or $86,455 a year on 2,080 hours against $62,400 of base wages.
| Role (pay estimate) | Pay rate | Burden | Fully burdened | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC technician | $30.00/hr | 38.5% | $41.57/hr | $86,455 |
| Plumber | $32.00/hr | 38.5% | $44.34/hr | $92,219 |
| Field service technician | $27.00/hr | 38.5% | $37.41/hr | $77,810 |
Pay rates are rounded estimates near national medians, and the SUI line uses the US default. Open a state page from the labor burden by state list to swap in a local SUI estimate, then enter your own class rate for workers comp.
What drives the range
Vehicle and fuel cost
Total the annual cost of the van, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and telematics, then divide by paid technician hours. Enter that as a percentage of the pay rate in the overhead field, replacing the 10% estimate with your own number.
Utilization rate
Track billed hours against paid hours. At 65% utilization, a $41 fully burdened cost becomes $63 per billable hour. Pricing below that on a time-and-materials job loses money on every call.
Trade class code
Plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and appliance repair carry different workers comp classes, and residential often differs from commercial. Enter the rate for your dominant trade, or split the crew by class.
On-call and overtime
Emergency service means overtime and on-call pay that raise the average hourly rate the burden is applied to. Use a blended rate that includes the overtime premium a typical technician earns.
Field Service burden defaults
| Input | Default | Typical spread (estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Workers comp (% of payroll) | 4.0% | 2.0% to 8.0% by class code |
| Benefits (% of wages) | 9.0% | Health and retirement only |
| Paid time off | 12 days | 4.6% of a 2,080-hour year |
| Overhead (% of wages) | 10.0% | Entered as 14.6% with PTO |
| Typical total burden | 38.5% | 30% to 45% |
Sources: benefits share from the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release; workers comp variation from NCCI class codes and state rating bureaus; pay estimates near BLS OEWS medians. PTO, overhead, and the burden range are estimates, not published figures.
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC): benefits share of total compensation by industry
- NCCI class codes and state workers compensation rating bureaus: rate variation by classification
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS): median hourly wages by occupation
- PTO, overhead, and burden range defaults are Skillora estimates from staffing practice, not published figures
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Labor burden calculator with the generic US defaults, and labor burden by state for local SUI estimates in all 50 states and DC.
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