A general contractor fee runs about 10 to 20 percent of construction cost on a large project, or $50 to $150 an hour on smaller work. That fee is not profit. It covers staff, insurance, overhead and the coordination that stops six trades turning up on the same morning. The cheapest bid is usually the one that left something out, and finding out which thing is the whole job of comparing quotes.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Contractor hourly rateNational range | $50 to $150 per hour |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
On a large project the contractor takes 10 to 20 percent, applied as a markup on subcontractor labor, materials and the total. On smaller work the model is usually hourly, at the rate in the table above.
What that percentage buys is staff, operations, general liability and insurance, taxes, overhead and profit. It also buys sequencing, which is invisible until it goes wrong. Somebody has to make sure the electrician comes before the drywall, the inspector is booked, and the tile arrives the week it is needed rather than three weeks early in your garage.
A bid with no fee line has not removed the fee. It has folded it into the trade prices where you cannot see it.
Because they are rarely bidding the same job. One assumed you wanted mid-grade fixtures, one priced what you pointed at in the showroom, one left fixtures out entirely as an allowance.
Allowances are the usual culprit. An allowance is a placeholder number for something not yet chosen, and a low allowance makes a bid look competitive right up until you pick a tile. Compare the allowance lines before you compare the totals. If one bid allows $30 a square yard for flooring and another allows $70, they are not $2,000 apart, they are pricing two different houses.
The other gap is scope. Demolition, disposal, permits, temporary protection, final clean. All real costs, all easy to leave off a bid to sharpen it.
Fixed price means the contractor carries the risk of the job costing more than they thought, and prices that risk into the number. You get certainty and you pay for it.
Cost plus means you pay actual costs plus an agreed fee or percentage. You carry the risk and you see the invoices. It suits work where nobody can know the scope up front, like anything that starts by opening a wall in an old building.
Neither is the honest one. The dishonest version of each is a fixed price with a scope vague enough to argue about, and a cost plus with no cap and no reporting.
Money should follow work, not lead it. A deposit to secure a slot and order materials is normal. A schedule that has you substantially paid up while the job is half done removes the one piece of leverage you have, which is the last payment.
Tie payments to milestones that can be looked at rather than to dates on a calendar. Rough-in complete and inspected. Drywall hung. Cabinets set. And keep a final retention until the punch list is done, because the last five percent of a job is the part that takes discipline to finish.
Change orders are the single biggest source of dispute on a remodel. A contractor who writes them down before doing the work is protecting both of you.
Licensing, and whether a state fund backs you if the job goes wrong, changes at the state line. The state pages carry that.
$50 to $150 an hour nationally for labor time on site. The spread comes from the trade and skill level, the region, and whether the contractor carries employees or subcontracts the work.
On larger jobs, no. Hourly is the minority billing model once a project reaches any size; most sizeable projects are priced as a fee percentage instead. Hourly is most common on short visits and small repairs.
Materials, permit fees, and subcontractor work billed through the contractor. Those are quoted separately.
Travel and setup are real costs on a short visit, and they do not shrink because the job is small. That is part of why hourly rates on small jobs sit higher than the same trade's rate on a long project.