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How to find your break-even labour rate (garage door companies)

DoorBot Team

Every price you quote rests on one number: what an hour of your business really costs. Most small door companies have never worked it out. They copy a competitor, or keep the price they set years ago. This guide shows you how to find your real number.

The formula

Break-even rate = (loaded labour cost + overhead) ÷ billable hours

Then add your profit: target rate = break-even ÷ (1 − profit %). For 15% profit, divide by 0.85.

Step 1: Loaded labour cost

A tech's wage is not what they cost you. Add the employer's share of payroll costs, plus benefits.

Canada (2026):

  • CPP: 5.95% of pay between $3,500 and $74,600 (up to $4,230.45 per employee).
  • CPP2: 4% of pay between $74,600 and $85,000.
  • EI: 1.4 × the 1.63% employee rate, on pay up to $68,900.
  • Workers' compensation: set by your province and industry. In Alberta, overhead door installation is $2.87 per $100 of pay in 2026.

United States (2026):

  • Social Security: 6.2% on pay up to $184,500.
  • Medicare: 1.45%.
  • FUTA: 0.6% on the first $7,000.
  • State unemployment and workers' comp: set by your state. Check your own rate notices.

Example: an Alberta tech at $36 an hour for 2,080 hours earns $74,880. Employer CPP, CPP2, EI and WCB add about $7,960. With $3,000 of benefits, the tech costs about $85,840 a year, 14.6% more than the wage.

Step 2: Overhead

List everything else you pay in a year. Don't skip your own pay; if you don't pay yourself, the business is not making money.

  • Owner pay and office staff
  • Trucks: payments, fuel, insurance, repairs
  • Rent and utilities
  • Marketing and leads
  • Liability insurance
  • Software, phones and accounting
  • Tools and shop supplies
  • Callbacks and warranty work

Step 3: Billable hours (the number that matters most)

Billable hours are the hours you actually sell as job time. Drive time, estimates, parts runs and paperwork are not billable. Most shops sell only 35% to 65% of paid hours.

Example: a 4-tech Alberta shop with $415,000 of overhead and 1,928 available hours per tech:

  • At 35% billable: break-even is $281 an hour.
  • At 50% billable: break-even is $197 an hour.
  • At 65% billable: break-even is $151 an hour.

Same shop, same costs, and the answer moves by $130 an hour. That is why tighter routing and fewer return trips can be worth more than any price change.

Step 4: Add profit

At 50% billable, the shop above needs $197 just to break even. For 15% profit: $197 ÷ 0.85 = $231, so charge $230 or more per billable hour.

What to do with the number

  • Compare it to your current prices. Any job priced below break-even is losing money every time.
  • Use it to price every task in your book: hours × rate, plus parts at cost with a markup. See how to build a garage door price book.
  • Recheck it every year, and any time you add a truck, a tech or a big marketing spend.

Skip the spreadsheet

The free DoorBot shop rate check does this in about two minutes, with 2026 payroll costs for every province and state built in. It also shows the minimum you should charge for your everyday jobs. Nothing you type is stored on our servers.

Payroll figures: Canada Revenue Agency 2026 CPP and EI rates; WCB Alberta 2026 industry rates; US Social Security Administration 2026 wage base. Shop examples are assumptions for illustration.