the plumbing union i belong to gives itself raises every 6 months...roughly $1.60 per 6 months...$3.20 a year..roughly 80% of the plumbers in my area are union (it used to be 90%)
to come up with my hourly rate i add up all my expenses once a year and come up with a 'at cost' labor rate..this rate includes office time,insurance,gasoline,vehicle payments,etc.. then i take that $ and multiply by 1.20- basically giving myself a 20% profit....well 6 months ago i decided not to touch my hourly rate when we had our bi-annual raise....now its getting close to the yearly raise. it would raise my price $4 per hour...im getting complaints and comments where it currently is....so im not sure if i should raise it right now...(some of the customers would complain if it was $20 less)
here's the problem.....lets say in 2 years the economy improves and i havent raised my prices in 3 years....if i want to go back to my 20% profit i will have to add $12 per hour...its enough to make all my customers notice and possibly start shopping for a cheaper plumber...i could slowly raise it back up every 6 months over a couple of years too....creep it up..
im probably going to add something for sure...i dont think anyone would think much if i added $2 and $2 to my trip charge...
times are horrible around here and some plumbers are actually lowering their hourly rate...yet some are raising it correctly and now worrying about it.
this is one of those gut feeling decisions. my gut says not to go $4 per hour because it will be noticed...my gut says $2
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