Grounds ToolkitEstimating and Pricing
What Does This Crew-Hour Need to Bill to Hit Target Margin?
Enter your wage and target margin. This shows the minimum revenue one crew-hour needs to bill, from the loaded labor rate plus any other cost allocated to that hour.
Want to learn more?
- GuideThe Loaded Labor Rate GuideA $20 wage is not a $20 cost. This guide shows what burden actually pays for, and why pricing off the wage instead of the loaded rate quietly loses money on every job.
- GuideThe Break-Even Revenue GuideBreak-even is not the goal, it is the floor. This guide shows the revenue a crew needs just to cover its costs, and the larger number it actually needs to hit a real margin.
How this is calculated
Total cost per crew-hour is the loaded labor rate (wage plus burden, see Loaded Labor Rate) plus any other cost allocated to that hour. Required revenue divides that cost by one minus the target margin, the same relationship Gross Margin and Markup uses.
Worked example
At a $20 wage with a 30% burden, the loaded rate is $26.00 per hour. With no other cost allocated and a 35% target margin, this crew-hour needs to bill at least $40.00 ($26.00 ÷ 0.65) to hit that margin.
Guide: The Loaded Labor Rate Guide, the loaded rate this bar is built on top of.
Guide: The Break-Even Revenue Guide, the whole-business version of this same floor.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is one "crew-hour"?
One hour of one paid crew member's time, the same unit used everywhere on this site (Job Labor Cost multiplies crew size by service hours to get total crew-hours for a job). This calculator prices one crew-hour on its own. A 3-person crew working one hour needs 3 times this figure in revenue, not 1 times it.
How is this different from Minimum Profitable Job Price?
Minimum Profitable Job Price works from a specific job's total cost. This works from a single crew-hour, useful for setting a baseline hourly billing rate rather than pricing one job.
What counts as other cost per crew-hour?
Anything beyond labor allocated to each hour of work, like an hourly share of equipment ownership or materials. It is optional, leave it blank to see labor cost alone.
Why is target margin a primary input, not an advanced setting?
Margin is a business decision specific to the operator, not a default to accept quietly. It is always visible and editable, never buried.
Does this account for non-billable hours like drive time?
No, this prices one billable crew-hour. See Drive-Time Burden to understand how much of a week is spent driving rather than billing.