Each service row links to a service-level guide showing rates by city. Categories below reflect editorial taxonomy — trade, professional, healthcare, automotive, and so on. Rates shown are consumer-facing prices, not raw wages: we apply industry-standard 1.5–2.5× multipliers to BLS hourly figures to account for overhead, insurance, and operating cost. The full calculation is documented in the methodology.
Coverage is densest across the construction, home repair, and professional categories, which together account for the majority of indexed guides. For the same corpus organised by location instead of service type, see browse by city.
Source: BLS OEWS May 2024 release. Site last refreshed January 2026.
36 services 35 cities 296 price guides range $23–$1000/hr
Attorney leads with a median consumer rate of $435/hr across the 10 cities we index. Premium professional services (architect, attorney, interior designer) consistently command the highest medians; specialised trades (HVAC, electrician) follow.
Power Washing has the lowest median rate at $32/hr across 4 indexed cities. Cleaning and routine maintenance categories cluster at the lower end; specialty trades and licensed professionals sit higher.
Consumer rates track local wage data and cost of living. The same service in San Francisco can cost 2–3× what it costs in Atlanta or Houston. Prices are derived from BLS OEWS metropolitan-area wage data and reflect actual labour-market differences, not arbitrary multipliers.
Median rate is the middle hourly figure across every city we index for that service. Half of our indexed cities sit above this number; half below. We use median rather than mean because it’s less skewed by extreme outliers — the full calculation is documented in the methodology.
Consumer 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 wage-to-price methodology.
Pricing is derived from BLS OEWS wage releases, published annually each spring. The most recent refresh uses May 2024 data; the next pass will land when May 2025 data is released in April 2026. Update cadence is documented in the update schedule.
Painter appears in 24 cities, the most of any service we index. Trade services (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, handyman) typically have the broadest coverage because BLS publishes consistent wage data for them across nearly every metropolitan area.
Attorney shows the widest price band: $88/hr to $1000/hr depending on the city. Wide spreads signal services where local market conditions (wage levels, demand, regulation) matter most.
Data: BLS OEWS May 2024 · Methodology · Last refreshed January 2026