FAQ

It is a public-works figure rather than a residential one, and that distinction is the whole answer. California's Department of Industrial Relations issues a prevailing wage determination per county and per craft, and it governs state-funded construction — not work on your house. It is worth knowing about anyway, because it is public and unusually specific: each determination states a base hourly rate AND the fringe on top of it, meaning health, pension, training and vacation. That makes it the clearest public statement anywhere of what an hour of this trade costs an employer, and you can look up the current Los Angeles County figure on the DIR's own site. We do not quote it here on purpose: the rates change, and a number this site cannot keep current would be worse than none at all.

$95 to $200 an hour in regular hours in Los Angeles County, plus a $75 to $150 service call; $200 to $400 an hour after hours. But the more useful answer is why that is higher than any wage figure you will find, and it is not margin. A charge-out rate carries the wage and its fringe, then the van, the fuel, the tools, state licensing, and every unbilled hour spent driving between jobs and answering the phone. A tradesman earning one figure and a company charging another are both being fair; they are simply not the same number.

A visit is three things and they should be quoted as three. THE SERVICE CALL, $75 to $150, which buys attendance and diagnosis. THE LABOR, $95 to $200 an hour in standard hours or $200 to $400 after them. AND THE PARTS, which vary from a few dollars for a washer to several hundred for a component. The typical emergency job lands between $114 and $568 and averages about $193. If a single number is quoted for the whole visit before anybody has seen the problem, it is a minimum rather than a price, and it is worth asking which.

The service call itself is $75 to $150 in this market, and the question worth asking is what happens to it. Some businesses credit it against the work if you go ahead; some waive it entirely on a job over a certain size; some charge it flat regardless. Those three policies produce very different final invoices from the same headline number, and none of them is dishonest — but only one of them will be theirs. Ask before they drive out rather than after.

Rather than a figure, the comparison that actually works: get two quotes and ask each the same two questions. WHAT IS INCLUDED — parts, disposal, the return visit if one is needed, patching after a wall or floor is opened? AND WHAT IS EXTRA? Two quotes that look identical stop being identical the moment you ask. What does not work is comparing either of them to what you imagine the plumber is paid: a wage and a charge-out rate are different numbers, and the gap between them is the cost of running a van rather than profit.

Across Los Angeles County the typical emergency job runs $114 to $568 and averages about $193 — but the average is doing very little work there, because the range spans a washer and a burst supply line. More useful by job: a blocked drain cleared is $110 to $345; a burst section repaired is $150 to $600; a water heater repaired is $150 to $700; a main water line is $400 to $2,500; and a sewer line REPAIR, as distinct from a clearing, is $1,000 to $4,000 and beyond. Knowing which of those you have is worth more than knowing any average.

The premium is 1.5 to 2 times the standard rate, or a minimum uplift of around $150 — so $200 to $400 an hour against $95 to $200. What that buys is availability, not different work: the job at eleven at night is the same job at nine tomorrow. Which makes the hour you call the largest part of the price you actually control. For a single slow fixture while the rest of the house works, waiting costs you an inconvenient evening and saves a third to a half. For water you cannot stop or sewage indoors, it does not.

Because the rate has to cover everything that puts a qualified person outside your house with the right part on the van, and the wage is only the first item on that list. The rest: employer payroll costs and the fringe benefits a prevailing wage determination itemizes separately; the vehicle, its fuel and its maintenance; tools and equipment; the cost of keeping a contractor's license current; and the unbilled hours — driving, quoting, answering a phone that rings whether or not it becomes work. A useful rule of thumb is that billable hours are a minority of the working day, which is why an hourly charge and an hourly wage were never going to match.