Labor Cost Calculator for Construction
Labor cost equals crew size times hours times hourly wage, plus burden. Three carpenters at the May 2025 BLS median of $29.12 an hour, working 8 hours a day for 5 days, cost $3,494.40 in wages and $4,368.00 with a 25% burden. Burden and markup are your own inputs.
This tool is part of our construction cost calculators. Need the schedule too? Try the construction timeline calculator.
- Updated November 2026
- Sources Cited
- No Login Required
- Free to Use
Your labor cost
Labor cost with burden
$4,368.00
120 crew hours at $36.40 an hour with burden. That is $4.37 per sq ft.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base wages | $3,494.40 |
| Burden | $873.60 |
| Labor cost | $4,368.00 |
| Markup | $0.00 |
| Billable labor | $4,368.00 |
Same hours, different crew size
| Crew size | Days | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | $4,368.00 |
| 2 | 7.5 | $4,368.00 |
| 3 | 5 | $4,368.00 |
| 4 | 3.8 | $4,368.00 |
| 5 | 3 | $4,368.00 |
| 6 | 2.5 | $4,368.00 |
| 8 | 1.9 | $4,368.00 |
| 10 | 1.5 | $4,368.00 |
The table holds total crew hours fixed. Real crews lose time to coordination and waiting, so the cost is not always flat. The tool does not model that.
Crew and hours
Crew hours drive the cost. Days follow from crew size.
Your burden and markup
No made-up defaults. You enter your own rates.
BLS wage presets
Start from the May 2025 median wage, then edit it.
A planning estimate, not a bid. Comparing quotes? Try the contractor comparison calculator.
How to Read the Result
The large number is labor cost with burden. It is base wages plus the burden percentage you entered. Markup is added after that to give billable labor, the figure you would put in a bid. Cost per unit appears when you enter a quantity.
- Crew hours are crew size times hours a day times days.
- The loaded hourly rate is the wage times one plus the burden rate.
- The crew size table keeps crew hours fixed and shows how many days each crew needs.
- Materials, equipment and permits are not in the number.
For the full build budget, use the construction cost calculator.
How the Labor Cost Calculator Works
The calculator multiplies crew hours by the hourly wage, adds burden as a percentage of those wages, then adds markup as a percentage of labor cost. Each step is one multiplication, so you can check the result by hand. Nothing is hidden in a default rate.
Crew hours and wages
Crew hours are workers times hours a day times days. Base wages are crew hours times the hourly wage. The wage presets use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median for May 2025. You can overwrite them with your own rate.
Burden
Burden is what you pay on top of wages, such as payroll taxes, workers' compensation insurance and benefits. It differs by employer and state. This page found no single sourced rate, so the tool starts at 0%. Ask your payroll provider or accountant for yours.
Markup
Markup covers overhead and profit when you bill labor to a client. It is a percentage of labor cost with burden. Leave it at 0% to see your cost. Add a percentage to see a billable figure. Compare bids with the contractor comparison calculator.
Cost per unit
Enter a quantity and a unit, such as 1,000 sq ft, and the tool divides billable labor by it. Size the quantity first with an area tool such as the drywall calculator or the framing calculator.
Labor Cost Example with Real Numbers
Three carpenters work 8 hours a day for 5 days at $29.12 an hour, the BLS median for May 2025. That is 120 crew hours and $3,494.40 in wages. With a 25% burden the labor cost is $4,368.00. The burden and the markup below are example inputs, not benchmarks.
| Line | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Crew hours | 3 workers x 8 hours x 5 days | 120 hours |
| Base wages | 120 hours x $29.12 | $3,494.40 |
| Burden | $3,494.40 x 25% | $873.60 |
| Labor cost | $3,494.40 + $873.60 | $4,368.00 |
| Loaded hourly rate | $29.12 x 1.25 | $36.40 |
| Markup at 10% | $4,368.00 x 10% | $436.80 |
| Billable labor | $4,368.00 + $436.80 | $4,804.80 |
Spread over 1,000 sq ft, labor with burden is $4.37 per sq ft, and billable labor at 10% markup is $4.80 per sq ft. Swap in the laborer median of $22.44 and the same crew costs $3,366.00 with the same 25% burden.
Crew Size and Days
A bigger crew finishes the same crew hours in fewer days. The example job is 120 crew hours. One worker needs 15 days of 8 hours, three workers need 5, and ten workers need 1.5. The wage cost stays $4,368.00 in this simple model.
| Crew size | Days of 8 hours | Workdays to book | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | 15 | $4,368.00 |
| 2 | 7.5 | 8 | $4,368.00 |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | $4,368.00 |
| 4 | 3.8 | 4 | $4,368.00 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | $4,368.00 |
| 6 | 2.5 | 3 | $4,368.00 |
| 8 | 1.9 | 2 | $4,368.00 |
| 10 | 1.5 | 2 | $4,368.00 |
This is arithmetic, not a productivity study. A crowded site loses time to waiting and handoffs, and some tasks cannot be split. To see how days turn into a finish date, use the construction timeline calculator.
Reference Wages From BLS
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median pay of $29.12 an hour for carpenters and $22.44 an hour for construction laborers and helpers, for May 2025. These are what workers are paid. They do not include burden, and they are not billing rates.
| Occupation | Median per hour | Median per year |
|---|---|---|
| Carpenters | $29.12 | $60,580 |
| Construction laborers and helpers | $22.44 | $46,680 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, pages for carpenters and for construction laborers and helpers, read November 2026. Wages for other trades, such as electricians and plumbers, are not listed because this page did not read them. Enter your own rate for those.
Common Labor Estimating Mistakes
The usual errors are pricing at the wage alone, forgetting burden, and treating cost and price as the same thing. Each one makes a bid look better than it is, so check them before you send a number.
- Using the wage as the cost. Burden sits on top of every hour paid.
- Using a median wage as your own rate. Your crew may be paid more or less.
- Skipping markup when you bill, so overhead and profit come out of your pocket.
- Counting only productive hours. Travel, setup and cleanup are paid time.
- Assuming a bigger crew always saves money. It saves days, and may add coordination time.
- Leaving out the schedule. Labor days feed the construction timeline calculator.
Contractor's Note
Ask each bidder for labor hours, the hourly rate and the markup as separate lines. Put them next to this estimate. If a bid shows far fewer hours than your crew hours, ask what is left out. If it shows far more, ask what the extra hours cover.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources and Review
Published November 2026. Last updated November 2026. Next review May 2027. This tool gives a planning estimate, not a bid. Confirm wages, burden and insurance with a licensed contractor, your payroll provider or an accountant before you quote a job.
Reviews: cost calculators · 24 calculators reviewed
Sarah Kim is a Certified Professional Estimator (CPE) with 15 years of construction cost estimation experience. She holds CPE certification from ASPE (member #20-4891). At Turner Construction, she managed material cost analysis on commercial projects ranging from $2M to $45M. At CalcSummit, she writes and verifies all cost estimation and interior finish calculators, updating regional cost benchmarks quarterly using RS Means-informed data.
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