Services indexed
8
Hourly range, avg
$67–$114/hr
Chicago median
$91/hr
Most affordable: Roofer · Premium: Accountant
Chicago indexes 8 services across 3 categories, with hourly rates spanning $36/hr (Roofer) to $260/hr (Accountant). The city median of $91/hr runs 6% above the national average across all indexed cities. Home Repair & Maintenance is the largest service block here (4 of 8 services).
Source: BLS OEWS May 2024 wage data adjusted for Chicago cost of living. Read the methodology.
Chicago electrician rates: $72-$120/hr (avg $96). Neighborhood breakdown, DOB permit costs, ComEd interconnect rules, pre-war 2-flat pricing.
Read articleChicago handyman rates $50-$95/hr (avg $72). Neighborhood breakdown, when you need a licensed trade, polar-vortex winterization premium.
Read articleChicago HVAC rates $43-$72/hr (avg $58). Neighborhood breakdown, DOB permits, ComEd + Peoples Gas rebates, polar-vortex emergency pricing.
Read articleChicago plumber rates: $67-$111/hr (avg $89). Neighborhood breakdown, DOB permit costs, lead service line program, pre-war 2-flat pricing.
Read articleChicago GC rates $65-$108/hr blended (avg $86), or 15-25% markup. Lincoln Park vs Bungalow Belt pricing, DOB licensing, winter-freeze cost impact.
Read articleChicago painter rates $52-$86/hr (avg $69). Neighborhood breakdown, lead-paint RRP rules for pre-1978 stock, plaster prep + polar-vortex cycling.
Read articleChicago roofer rates $36-$60/hr (avg $48). Neighborhood breakdown, DOB permits, ice-dam realities, bungalow flat-and-sloped pricing.
Read articleAcross the 8 home and professional services we index in Chicago, the median consumer rate is $91/hr. Hourly rates span $67/hr at the affordable end to $114/hr at the premium end, depending on service type and contractor.
Accountant carries the highest typical rate in Chicago at $150–$260/hr. Premium professional and licensed services consistently command the highest rates across our index.
Roofer sits at the lower end of the Chicago index at $36–$60/hr. Routine maintenance and cleaning categories typically cluster at the bottom of any city's price spread.
Chicago is 6% above the national average of $86/hr across our 49-city corpus. Local wage data and cost of living drive most of this difference — see the geographic precision note for the underlying data.
Home Repair & Maintenance has the most indexed services in Chicago (4 guides), reflecting both local demand and the breadth of BLS wage data available for that segment.
Consumer-facing rates. We apply industry-standard 1.5–2.5× multipliers to BLS hourly wages to account for business overhead, insurance, licensing, employer costs, and profit margin. The full calculation is documented in the methodology.
Pricing reflects the BLS OEWS May 2024 release. The next refresh lands when May 2025 data is published in April 2026. Cadence is documented in the update schedule.
Data: BLS OEWS May 2024 · Methodology · Last refreshed January 2026