Contractor Finance Glossary
What is Blended Bill Rate?
Also called: average bill rate, blended labor rate
Blended bill rate is the single average hourly rate you charge customers across all technicians and skill levels, calculated as total labor revenue divided by total billed labor hours.
Most shops bill different rates for apprentices, journeymen, and masters, but manage against one blended average. That average is useful for quick capacity and revenue math, and it is the figure benchmark comparisons usually report, since it smooths over the mix of who did the work.
The risk is hiding the mix. A blended rate can hold steady while margin erodes because senior techs are doing work that should have gone to cheaper labor, or because discounting crept into one crew. Watch the blended rate for direction, then break it out by skill level to see what is actually happening underneath.
How it is calculated
Blended bill rate = total labor revenue divided by total billed labor hours across all technicians. The Level benchmark dataset puts the median average bill rate near $79 per hour. Compare it against the burdened labor rate to see the true spread you are earning on labor.
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