# Prevailing Wage Job, What would you charge?



## Tahoe Painter (Mar 8, 2007)

Hi everyone, am looking at a good size prevailing wage job & was wondering what others may have knowledge on hourly going rate to charge. Journeymen painters will cost us approx. $64.00 an hour. have not done prevailing wage job in years but I do know that the paperwork, safety meetings, etc. will be a burden of hours & loss of production I need to figure in! Also, on a square foot price on new drywall, I usually figure at right around .75 sf. With painters making more than double in wages (production rate will be the same as if making $20 hr) what is a competitive price I should be at? Thanks


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## DavidNTX (May 6, 2007)

You currently pay $20 per hour before any overhead and markups? That is what you pay your painter?

And $64 is what you will pay a painter before any overhead or markup?

How much do you currently charge per manhour with all markups?


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

I generally take what my normal overhead a profit would be on an employees wage and add it to the prevailing wage rate to remain somewhat competitive, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

You need to keep in mind on these jobs as well you WILL be audited for payroll, so expect to have someone on site who does nothing but watch the guys and track there every move and record it as that is how you will be paying and in your office the bookkeeper should be compensated at the hire wage while doing and record keeping of the project as well, including books, payroll, audits, etc.

This will be an eye opener for you.


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## Mr. Mike (Dec 27, 2008)

I have found that it is almost impossible to get these jobs, yes I do get a few per year but it is very hard to get more. The reason is the unions can and will charge less than I can I'm sure you can figure out why, for one the overhead of a union shop may only be $.25 per working hour and mine is roughly $11.00.


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## Tahoe Painter (Mar 8, 2007)

DavidNTX said:


> You currently pay $20 per hour before any overhead and markups? That is what you pay your painter?
> 
> And $64 is what you will pay a painter before any overhead or markup?
> 
> How much do you currently charge per manhour with all markups?


 Pay some guys $20 hr before overhead figured in(which runs about $11 - $12 an hour. The $64 is what it will cost me an hour (w/overhead). Just talked to drywall contractor & his last prevailing wage job he charged around $90 hr.


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## DavidNTX (May 6, 2007)

Multiply the $64 by whatever percentage you wish to mark it up. 50% would be $96.00.

Divide the $96.00 by your production rate per manhour to get your labor for your unit price. If a man can brush and roll 300 SF of drywall in a manhour then the unit price for labor only will be 96/300 or .32 just for the labor.

If you had been charging .75 per SF for material and labor (3 coats) and labor was costing you with overhead and profit, $32 per manhour (I didn't quite understand your reply) then 32/300 or .1067 X 3 = .32 meaning for the material portion of your .75 unit price, .43 is for 3 coats of material. At 300 SF per gallon you are charging about $129 per gallon for your paint to cover 300 SF, 3 coats. That comes to 43.00 a gallon average for your material.

So far we have the .43 (material selling price)

And we will take $96 (labor selling price with a 50% profit markup) /300 which is .32 then multiply that by 3 coats you have .96 per SF for the labor.

.96 + .43 = 1.39 per SF.

I guessed at your production rate and figured only $32 per manhour for labor overhead and markup. If your production rates are different or you charge more for labor after all markups then substitute your numbers for the ones used above. This didn't figure in anything for lost time due to safety meetings etc. or anything for more secretarial expenses.

Safety meetings wont cost you much if anything at all. The benefits gained will far outweigh the 10 minutes per week or so that it takes for a toolbox talk.


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## DavidNTX (May 6, 2007)

Oh yeah, don't forget to add something to your bid for healthcare if you aren't currently providing it.


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