Mobile Mechanic & Auto Shop Labor Rate Calculator
Stop guessing what to charge per hour. Plug in your real expenses and target income — get a defensible labor rate based on actual numbers, not a round number you picked because it sounded fair.
Your numbers
$
What you actually want to pay yourself this year
Annual business expenses
$
$
$
$
Realistic billable time
Billable hours per week
25 hrs
Not your total work hours — just the hours you're actually billing a customer. Drive time, quoting, and admin eat into this.
Weeks worked per year
48 wks
Your suggested labor rate
$77 / hr
Target income
$75,000
Annual expenses
$16,900
Total needed / year
$91,900
Billable hours / year
1,200
This is a starting point, not gospel — adjust for your market and experience.
How this number is calculated
Your suggested rate is: (target annual income + annual business expenses) ÷ (billable hours per week × weeks worked per year). It's the same math behind any real small-business pricing — work backward from what the business actually needs to bring in, not what feels like a fair number to charge.
The part almost everyone gets wrong is billable hours. A 40-hour work week does not mean 40 billable hours — drive time, quoting, parts runs, and admin all eat into it. Most independent mechanics land somewhere between 20 and 30 real billable hours a week, even when they're working much more than that.
Want the fuller picture — including how to handle travel fees and why consistent pricing protects your margin? Read the full pricing guide.
Common questions
Why isn't my labor rate just my old shop wage times 2?
A shop wage doesn't account for your own business expenses — vehicle, insurance, tools, software — or the fact that a chunk of your week goes to driving, quoting, and admin instead of billable work. This calculator starts from your real costs and realistic billable hours instead of a rule of thumb.
What counts as 'billable hours,' exactly?
Only the hours you're actually working on a customer's vehicle and charging for it — not your total hours worked. Drive time between jobs, quoting, bookkeeping, and marketing all take real time but aren't billable, which is exactly why most people overestimate this number.
Should I just charge this exact rate?
Treat it as a floor, not a target — a starting point based on your real costs. Your local market, experience, and specialization (some jobs legitimately command a premium) all factor into the final number you actually quote.
Does this account for a travel fee?
Not directly — this calculator solves for your core hourly labor rate. A separate travel fee or per-mile charge for jobs outside your core area is a smart addition on top of it, covered in our pricing guide below.