Appliance repair wages and the real cost of labour

What to take away

This article covers business operations, not legal, tax, electrical, gas or refrigerant work. Appliance repair licensing and technical scope vary by jurisdiction, so check the licensing board for your state before quoting a job.

What a technician actually costs per hour

The wage is what shows on the job posting. The cost is everything else you pay to put a technician in a van with the right parts.

Burden starts with payroll taxes, workers' compensation by class code, liability and vehicle coverage, and paid time off. Three lines follow close behind: a phone, uniforms, and the van itself. Burden commonly lands between 25 and 40 percent of base wage, and it varies by state and by your carrier.

Workers' compensation alone can swing that: California appliance repair class codes typically carry a higher rate per $100 of payroll than Texas, which can move total burden by 5 to 10 percentage points.

BLS estimates for home appliance repairers put the median annual wage near $48,000, which is about $23 an hour. The middle half of the occupation earns roughly $37,000 to $62,000 a year. Certification, metro area and the mix of gas and refrigeration work drive the spread.

Metro estimates make that concrete: BLS puts the New York-Newark-Jersey City median for home appliance repairers typically in the low $50,000s, above the national figure.

Indeed and ZipRecruiter postings in 2026 typically list $17 to $22 an hour for entry technicians. Experienced technicians with refrigerant or gas certification usually see $25 to $40 an hour. Manufacturer and retailer service arms, including Whirlpool and GE Appliances, typically add benefits and factory training to base pay.

Treat every wage and burden figure here as a latest-available 2025 or 2026 baseline, and recheck it for 2027 before you set a rate.

The arithmetic is yours to fill in. If base wage is W, burden rate is B, and paid hours per year are H, then annual labor cost is W x (1 + B) x H.

Substitute your own W, B and H. A rate that looks modest on a job posting can be the most expensive line on the truck once burden is in.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage estimates for home appliance repairers break pay out by occupation, industry and metro area, which is the honest way to benchmark without guessing at a national number.

The number that decides your wage: calls per paid hour

A technician paid for eight hours who completes five calls has a very different cost per call than one who completes three. Drive time is the difference, and drive time is a dispatch decision, not a wage decision.

If daily labor cost is C and calls completed is N, cost per call is C / N. Raise N by tightening routes and you cut cost per call without touching anyone's pay.

A technician at $25 an hour with 30 percent burden costs $32.50 an hour, or $260 across eight paid hours. Four completed calls put labor at $65 per call. Three completed calls push that to about $87.

Vehicle cost belongs in the same math. The IRS business mileage rate was 70 cents a mile for 2025, so a 20 mile round trip adds about $14 to a call. Check the IRS standard mileage rate for the current tax year before you build it into a price.

Route density is the cheapest raise available. Group work by ZIP code or suburb, book the far jobs on the same day, and stop sending a van across the metro for a single element swap. The SOP checklist for daily operations holds the dispatch rules that create that density.

Overtime, callbacks and turnover

Overtime is the most expensive hour you sell, because it carries the wage premium and often a tired technician. At $25 an hour, time and a half is $37.50, or about $49 once 30 percent burden is added.

Track overtime hours per technician per month next to calls completed. When overtime climbs while call volume is flat, the schedule is wrong, not the person.

Callbacks are unpaid work you already paid for. A return visit burns a second slot, a second drive and a second diagnostic, and the customer remembers it.

A callback typically runs one and a half to three paid hours, or roughly $50 to $100 in labor before parts. A callback rate of 3 to 8 percent of completed jobs is ordinary in service work. Count your own monthly rate by technician and by appliance type.

Turnover is the slowest cost to see and the largest. A technician who leaves takes route knowledge, customer rapport and the parts you trained them on. Replacing one typically costs $3,000 to $10,000 in recruiting, onboarding and lost productivity.

The recruiting side of that problem sits in hiring reliable staff; the pay side is that a rate below your local market guarantees you will keep paying to replace people.

Where the pay decision becomes a pricing decision

Labor is the biggest line in a service call, so any change to wage or burden moves your break-even rate. Whatever rate you set becomes a price.

Raise pay and hold price, and the margin comes out of the owner's share. Raise price without explaining it, and you lose the price-sensitive calls.

Most markets in 2026 see labor billed at $95 to $150 an hour, or a flat rate per job. Diagnostic fees commonly run $75 to $125, and trip charges $50 to $90.

The method for pricing repair services for a fair margin turns an hourly cost, drive time included, into a rate that still wins the job. Work the sequence in that order: cost per call first, target margin second, quoted price last.

What to verify before you change a rate

The U.S. Department of Labor: New and Small Businesses page sets out the duties a new employer carries under federal and state law.

Those duties include minimum wage, overtime, timekeeping and child labor rules. They also cover leave, notice and recordkeeping.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Small Business Resource Center covers nondiscrimination, reasonable accommodations and employment records for small employers. It also covers workplace notices and fair employment decisions.

Classification, overtime eligibility and remittance rules are not universal. Confirm them with an accountant or an employment lawyer in your state, and check your workers' compensation class code with your broker.

Common questions

Why is cost per call a better number than hourly wage?

Hourly wage ignores burden, drive time and callbacks, which together often exceed the wage itself. Cost per call puts all three on one line and lets you compare technicians, routes and service lines fairly. It also shows when a schedule change has quietly raised your labor cost.

How do I benchmark pay without a national average?

Use the BLS occupational estimates for your own metro area, then adjust for your mix of gas, refrigeration and electrical work.

Add what your market pays for the certifications you require, since a licensed gas fitter commands more than a general technician. Your own turnover rate is the final check on whether the number is right.

Does raising pay mean raising prices?

Not automatically. Route density, callback reduction and fewer overtime hours all cut cost per call, which can fund a raise without a price change. When those are exhausted, the hiring and training guide shows how role scope and training affect what you can charge for.