Two numbers describe a plumber’s hour, and they are not the same number.
Based on aggregated data, residential plumbing work is billed at a national average of $112 per hour. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) puts the national hourly median wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters at $30.67.
That is a difference of $81.33 an hour, or a multiple of about 3.7×. The gap is the single most misread figure in residential plumbing pricing, and it is not evidence of a markup on labor. It is the arithmetic of running a licensed, insured, truck-based service business — and it is the same arithmetic behind every trade rate on this site.
This page works through both numbers: what the billed hour has to absorb, what the wage data actually says metro by metro, how a flat-rate quote reverse-engineers into an hourly figure, and how trip fees and minimums change the effective cost of a short job far more than the headline rate does.
Where the Billed Hour Goes
A shop rate is not a wage plus a margin. It is a wage that has been loaded with employer costs, then divided by the fraction of paid hours that are actually billable, then loaded again with the fixed costs of the business.
The two endpoints below are measured — $30.67 from the BLS survey and $112 from compiled national billing data. The steps between them are an illustration of the structure, not a survey of any company’s books.
| Layer | Running cost per billable hour | What it absorbs |
|---|---|---|
| Wage on the clock | $30.67 | The BLS national hourly median for the occupation |
| Plus employer payroll burden | ~$41 | Employer payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation (a high-rate class for plumbing), paid leave, any health contribution |
| Divided by billable utilization | ~$66 | Paid hours that produce no invoice: driving between calls, dispatch and scheduling gaps, restocking the truck, free estimates, warranty return trips, training and license hours |
| Plus vehicle and inventory | — | Truck payment or lease, fuel, maintenance, tires, commercial vehicle insurance, the several thousand dollars of parts and specialty tools riding in it |
| Plus insurance, bond and licensing | — | General liability, commercial auto, surety bond, state and municipal license renewals, continuing education |
| Plus office and administration | — | Dispatcher and phone coverage, scheduling and invoicing software, bookkeeping, permit handling, marketing |
| Plus warranty reserve | — | Return visits on covered work, which are billed to nobody |
| Plus profit | — | What is left, and what funds the next truck |
| Billed shop rate | $112 | The figure on the invoice |
Three of those layers do most of the work.
Payroll burden is not optional and it is not small. The employer’s cost of an hour of a plumber’s time is the wage plus payroll taxes, unemployment insurance and workers compensation — and plumbing sits in a high-premium workers compensation class because the work involves torches, trenches, confined spaces and heavy fixtures.
Billable utilization is the layer almost nobody accounts for. A technician is paid for a full shift but bills only the hours spent on a job. Drive time between calls, the return trip for a part, the free estimate that did not convert, the warranty callback and the morning dispatch meeting are all paid and none of them are invoiced. If five of eight paid hours are billable, every fixed cost has to be recovered across five hours instead of eight — which raises the recovery rate by 60 percent before a single truck payment is counted.
Fixed costs are per-day, not per-hour. The truck, the insurance and the dispatcher cost the same whether the day holds two calls or six. That is also why the same company can quote a lower effective rate on a full-day job than on a 40-minute one, a pattern the flat-rate data further down shows clearly.
What Plumbers Are Paid: BLS Wage Data by Metro
The wage side of the gap is measured directly. The table below is the hourly median wage for Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (SOC 472152) in the 20 metros this site prices, from the BLS OEWS survey for May 2025. These are wages paid to the tradesperson — not rates billed to a homeowner.
| Metro | Hourly median wage (USD) | Ratio to national median |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 49.70 | 1.62 |
| Minneapolis, MN | 48.86 | 1.59 |
| Portland, OR | 48.56 | 1.58 |
| Seattle, WA | 45.78 | 1.49 |
| New York, NY | 37.79 | 1.23 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 35.99 | 1.17 |
| San Diego, CA | 34.86 | 1.14 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 34.19 | 1.11 |
| Denver, CO | 30.72 | 1.00 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 30.65 | 1.00 |
| Austin, TX | 30.20 | 0.98 |
| Houston, TX | 29.47 | 0.96 |
| Dallas, TX | 29.45 | 0.96 |
| Nashville, TN | 28.90 | 0.94 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 28.70 | 0.94 |
| Charlotte, NC | 28.22 | 0.92 |
| Atlanta, GA | 28.07 | 0.92 |
| San Antonio, TX | 27.97 | 0.91 |
| Miami, FL | 27.77 | 0.91 |
| Tampa, FL | 25.00 | 0.82 |
National hourly median for the occupation: 30.67 USD.
Two features of this table are worth stating plainly.
The spread is nearly two to one. The top metro pays close to double the bottom one for the same occupation. That is a larger spread than most trades on this site show, and it is why a single national hourly rate describes no actual market.
The union-density metros sit at the top, not the coastal-cost metros. Chicago, Minneapolis and Portland outrank New York and Los Angeles on plumber wages. Chicago also carries the highest labor adjustment factor in the site’s city data, at 1.33 — so on this trade the wage survey and the cost model point the same direction, which is not true everywhere. High cost of living and high trade wages are related but they are not the same variable, and plumbing is one of the clearer illustrations.
City-Adjusted Shop Rates
Applying the site’s city labor adjustment factors to the $112 national shop rate gives the billed figure a homeowner is likely to see. The factors are derived from BLS wage data across the ten trades this site prices, so the adjustment moves with measured labor economics rather than with a cost-of-living index — the derivation is set out on the methodology page.
| City | Labor Adjustment Factor | Adjusted Shop Rate per Hour | vs. National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 1.33 | $148.96 | +33% |
| Seattle, WA | 1.29 | $144.48 | +29% |
| New York, NY | 1.23 | $137.76 | +23% |
| Denver, CO | 1.07 | $119.84 | +7% |
| Houston, TX | 0.93 | $104.16 | −7% |
| Tampa, FL | 0.87 | $97.44 | −13% |
National average billed rate of $112 per hour, adjusted by metro labor factor.
Labor adjustment factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025): the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the trades that do this work. How this is calculated.
Hourly or Flat Rate — and the Hourly Rate Hiding Inside a Flat Quote
Most residential plumbing companies now quote flat rates for defined jobs and reserve hourly billing for work whose scope cannot be seen from the doorway.
| Billing structure | Typically used for | What the homeowner carries | What the company carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat rate per job | Fixture replacement, water heater swaps, drain clearing, anything with a visible scope | Price certainty before work starts | The risk that the job runs long |
| Hourly plus parts | Diagnostics, hidden leaks, older galvanized or cast iron systems, remodels, anything opened up | The risk that the job runs long | Certainty of cost recovery |
| Flat dispatch fee plus hourly | After-hours and emergency calls | Both, partly | Guaranteed travel recovery |
| Time and materials with a not-to-exceed cap | Larger repipes and rough-ins | Capped exposure | Risk above the cap |
A flat rate does not remove the hourly figure — it hides it. Dividing the labor portion of each priced plumbing job on this site by that job’s typical duration returns the hourly rate the quote implies:
| Job (national mid figures) | Labor portion | Typical duration | Implied rate per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bathroom sink installation | $400 | 2–4 hours | $133 |
| Drain cleaning | $225 | 1–3 hours | $113 |
| Faucet repair or replacement | $200 | 1–3 hours | $100 |
| Shower valve replacement | $300 | 2–4 hours | $100 |
| Water heater installation | $600 | 4–8 hours | $100 |
| Pipe repair | $500 | 2–8 hours | $100 |
| Bathtub replacement | $1,500 | 1–3 days | $94 |
| Bathroom plumbing rough-in | $2,200 | 2–4 days | $92 |
| Toilet installation | $200 | 2–4 hours | $67 |
The median implied rate across these nine jobs is $100 per hour, against a $112 national shop rate. Taking the fast and slow ends of each range instead of the midpoint widens the implied spread to roughly $50 to $213 per hour — and that full spread, not the average, is what makes published hourly figures disagree so violently with each other.
Two patterns fall out of the table.
Short jobs imply the highest hourly rates and long jobs the lowest. A bathroom sink installation implies $133 an hour; a multi-day bathroom plumbing rough-in implies $92. The trip, the setup, the truck stock and the paperwork cost the same on both, so on a two-hour call they are recovered over two hours and on a three-day job over twenty-four.
Competitive fixture work prices below the shop rate. Toilet installation implies $67 an hour — the lowest figure in the table — because it is a high-volume, highly comparable job that is frequently bundled with a fixture purchase. Shower valve replacement sits at $100 despite being the harder job of the two, because it usually means opening a wall.
Trip Fees and Minimums: Why a 30-Minute Repair Is Not Half an Hour
The headline hourly rate is a poor predictor of a small invoice, because two other structures dominate it.
Based on aggregated data, a service call, trip or diagnostic fee is commonly quoted between $50 and $150, and a minimum billing period of one to two hours is standard. Applied to a genuine 30-minute repair at the $112 national rate:
| Billing structure | What is billed | Total for a 30-minute repair | Effective rate per hour worked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure hourly, no minimum | 0.5 h at $112 | $56 | $112 |
| One-hour minimum | 1.0 h at $112 | $112 | $224 |
| Two-hour minimum | 2.0 h at $112 | $224 | $448 |
| $100 trip fee plus one-hour minimum | $100 + $112 | $212 | $424 |
| $100 trip fee, credited against the job | $112 | $112 | $224 |
The last row is the structural difference that matters most on a small job: whether the diagnostic fee is credited against authorized work or charged on top of it changes the invoice by the full amount of the fee. It is a line on the quote, not a negotiation.
This is also why bundling is arithmetic rather than a tip. Three small items handled on one visit — a running toilet, a dripping faucet and a slow drain — pay the trip fee and the minimum once. Handled on three visits, they pay both three times, and the labor content has not changed.
Apprentice, Journeyman, Master — What the Tiers Do to the Rate
The three tiers are licensing stages, and they map onto the invoice indirectly.
| Tier | What the license permits | Effect on the billed rate |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | Works only under the supervision of a licensed plumber, on a documented hour count toward the journeyman exam | Lowest billed rate; often the second body on a two-person job |
| Journeyman | Works unsupervised on installation and repair within the licensed scope | The standard residential service rate |
| Master | Holds the license a company pulls permits under; carries code, design and sign-off responsibility | Highest billed rate; typically appears on diagnosis, permitted work and sign-off |
The published wage data does not break these apart. The BLS survey reports one median, $30.67 an hour, for the whole occupation, apprentices and masters together — which is one honest limitation of using it as the wage anchor. What the tier structure does explain is why two quotes for the same job can differ by 40 percent without either being unreasonable: a permitted water heater or gas line job requires a master plumber’s license on the permit, and a fixture swap does not.
Permitted work sits on the master side of that line. Water heater installation and gas line work typically require a permit and an inspection — the cost structure is worked through in gas water heater installation, where the $600 mid-range labor figure covers a 4-to-8-hour permitted install rather than a service-call hour.
Emergency, After-Hours and Holiday Pricing
Based on aggregated data, work outside standard business hours is priced at a premium over the daytime rate:
| Window | Typical uplift over the standard rate |
|---|---|
| Standard weekday hours | Base rate |
| Same-day or rush weekday | 10 to 20 percent |
| Evening and weekend | 25 to 50 percent |
| Overnight, holiday, true emergency dispatch | 1.5 to 2 times the base rate |
Two things drive the premium, and neither is opportunism. Overtime payroll is a statutory cost on the wage side, and an emergency slot displaces scheduled revenue on the business side. Emergency calls also carry higher minimums — an after-hours dispatch is commonly a flat charge plus time rather than pure hourly billing.
The category where this matters most is a failure that cannot wait for Monday. A burst pipe repair is the clearest case: the underlying pipe repair labor runs $150 to $1,500 nationally depending on access and length, and an after-hours multiplier applies on top of the labor line, not to the parts.
Residential, Commercial, Franchise and Independent
The same licensed hour is priced differently by four different kinds of business, and the structure explains more of the variance than the individual company does.
| Type of company | How the hour is usually priced | Why it lands where it does |
|---|---|---|
| Independent one-truck plumber | Hourly plus parts, or a quoted price on inspection | Carries the lowest overhead — no dispatcher, no fleet — and often the narrowest availability window |
| Regional residential service company | Flat rate from a price book, trip fee, dispatch inside a day | Carries a dispatcher, a fleet, marketing and a warranty department; the price book is the shop rate spread across the job list |
| National franchise | Flat rate from a national price book, 24-hour dispatch | Adds franchise royalties and national advertising to the overhead layer; buys guaranteed after-hours availability |
| Commercial and service-contract plumbing | Hourly under a contract rate, or time and materials | Higher insurance and prevailing-wage exposure, code and inspection requirements, and scheduling around a tenant’s operating hours |
Commercial rates typically exceed residential rates for the same nominal task, and the reason is not the pipe. It is the insurance limits a commercial property requires, the after-hours scheduling, the documentation, and on public work the prevailing-wage rules that set the labor input above the market median in the BLS table above.
What the Hourly Rate Does Not Cover
An hourly rate is a labor line. On a real invoice it is usually one of five or six.
| Line item | Typical structure |
|---|---|
| Parts and fixtures | Billed at cost plus a markup, commonly 10 to 30 percent over trade price, covering procurement, stocking and the parts warranty |
| Permits | The jurisdiction’s fee, commonly $50 to $500 for residential plumbing, plus any handling charge |
| Specialty equipment | Sewer camera inspection, hydro-jetting, pipe locating and leak detection are normally separate line items, not hourly labor |
| Excavation and access | Trenching, slab cutting, drywall opening and concrete restoration are separate scopes and often separate trades |
| Disposal | Removal of an old water heater, tub or cast iron pipe, commonly $30 to $100 |
| Second technician | A water heater, tub or heavy fixture is a two-person lift; some companies bill the second body, some fold it into the flat rate |
Comparing two quotes on the hourly number alone therefore compares one line out of six. A lower hourly rate paired with a higher parts markup and an uncredited trip fee can produce the larger invoice.
What Common Plumbing Jobs Cost End to End
An hourly rate is only useful next to the jobs it produces. These are the national figures behind the plumbing work priced on this site — total cost, the labor share of it, how long the job typically takes, and whether it normally pulls a permit.
| Job | National total cost | Labor portion (mid) | Typical duration | Permit typically required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drain cleaning | $150–$500 | $225 | 1–3 hours | No |
| Faucet repair or replacement | $150–$500 | $200 | 1–3 hours | No |
| Toilet installation | $200–$700 | $200 | 2–4 hours | No |
| Shower valve replacement | $200–$900 | $300 | 2–4 hours | No |
| Bathroom sink installation | $280–$1,400 | $400 | 2–4 hours | No |
| Pipe repair | $200–$2,000 | $500 | 2–8 hours | No |
| Water heater installation | $800–$3,000 | $600 | 4–8 hours | Yes |
| Bathtub replacement | $1,500–$8,000 | $1,500 | 1–3 days | No |
| Bathroom plumbing rough-in | $1,500–$5,000 | $2,200 | 2–4 days | Yes |
| Basement bathroom addition | $8,000–$25,000 | $8,500 | 1–3 weeks | Yes |
The labor share is the part that responds to the hourly rate, and it is not constant. On drain cleaning it is roughly four fifths of the invoice; on a bathtub replacement with a high-end tub it can fall under a third. Those two words also cover very different jobs on an invoice — a $100 to $400 fixture clearing or a $300 to $900 main-line hydro-jet — which drain cleaning cost separates by scope. That is why a metro with expensive labor raises a drain-clearing bill far more than it raises a fixture-heavy remodel bill.
Two rows in that table are opened up elsewhere on this site. The $600 labor line on a water heater installation is broken into its phases, the code items that add hours rather than parts, and the permit handling in water heater replacement labor cost. And the clearest case of a minimum charge dominating an invoice is water heater thermostat replacement, where a $15 part sits inside a $135 labor floor — a tenth of the bill is the component and the rest is the visit.
The two permitted jobs in the table are also the two that pull a licensed contractor’s credentials onto the paperwork, which is one of the reasons their labor lines carry a different structure from a same-day service call.
The DIY Comparison, in the Site’s Own Numbers
The labor share also sets the ceiling on what avoiding the billed hour can save, because the parts have to be bought either way.
| Job | Parts only | Full job with a plumber | Difference | Tools the job needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drain cleaning | $10–$75 | $150–$500 | $140–$425 | Hand auger $20–$60; drum auger rental $40–$80 per day |
| Faucet repair or replacement | $30–$250 | $150–$500 | $120–$250 | Basin wrench $15–$30, adjustable wrench |
| Toilet installation | $100–$400 | $200–$700 | $100–$300 | Wax ring, level, socket set |
| Shower valve replacement | $20–$350 | $200–$900 | $180–$550 | Torch or press tool, tile access, wall repair |
| Water heater installation | $400–$1,500 | $800–$3,000 | $400–$1,500 | Permit, gas or electrical connection, disposal of the old unit |
Two figures reframe the comparison. A wall opened for a shower valve is a tiling and drywall repair afterwards, which is a separate cost and a separate trade, so the difference column overstates the saving on that row. And on the two permitted rows, the permit and inspection are part of the job regardless of who does the work — the fee follows the work, not the worker.
What This Looks Like on an Actual Invoice
Applying the same city factors to a common small job — a faucet repair or replacement, with a national mid figure of $300 split into roughly $100 of parts and $200 of labor — shows how the hourly economics land on a real bill. Only the labor half moves with the metro.
| City | Labor Adjustment Factor | Materials + Labor (mid) | Labor Portion Only | vs. National |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 1.33 | $365 | $265 | +33% |
| Seattle, WA | 1.29 | $360 | $260 | +29% |
| New York, NY | 1.23 | $345 | $245 | +23% |
| Denver, CO | 1.07 | $315 | $215 | +7% |
| Houston, TX | 0.93 | $285 | $185 | −7% |
| Tampa, FL | 0.87 | $275 | $175 | −13% |
Faucet repair or replacement, national mid figures from the project data, labor adjusted by metro.
Labor adjustment factors are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025): the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the trades that do this work. How this is calculated.
Materials are broadly national — a cartridge or a supply line costs the same in either metro — so the entire metro spread on a small plumbing job sits in the labor line. On a parts-heavy job such as a bathtub replacement, where materials run $400 to $4,000 against labor of $500 to $3,500, the metro effect is diluted; on a pure-labor call such as drain clearing it is undiluted. A replacement rather than a repair widens the top of that band from $500 to $680, because the fixture itself joins the invoice — bathroom faucet replacement cost separates the two.
Related Plumbing Costs
- Toilet installation cost and bathroom sink installation cost — the fixture jobs that price below the shop rate
- Shower valve replacement cost and bathtub replacement cost — where opening a wall changes the labor line
- Bathroom plumbing rough-in cost — the multi-day job with the lowest implied hourly rate
- Burst pipe repair cost — where after-hours multipliers apply
- Gas water heater installation cost — permitted work on the master-license side of the line
- All plumbing costs · Methodology