Install Subcontract Rate Calculator

Most commonly as a labour-only rate per watt of installed capacity, so an 8 kW system at $0.55 per watt pays $4,400 for the installation. Materials are typically supplied by the party routing the work, which keeps the crew's cash exposure to labour and mobilization rather than equipment. Rates are sometimes quoted flat per job or per module instead, but per watt is the common denominator because it scales with the work involved. Adders like trenching, structural work, or a main panel upgrade are normally priced separately from the base rate.

Work out the crew's break-even rate and compare. Total the loaded labour cost, wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, workers' compensation, and benefits, not base wage, then add mobilization, an allocated share of overhead, and the expected cost of callbacks. Divide by the watts on the job and you have the per-watt rate at which the crew makes nothing. A fair rate sits far enough above that number to survive a weather day or a job that runs long. This tool does that arithmetic and shows the break-even rate explicitly.

Because the wage is only part of what an installer costs. Payroll taxes, general liability and commercial auto insurance, workers' compensation, which is expensive for roof work, plus any benefits and paid time off all sit on top. Pricing a subcontract off base wage rather than loaded cost is one of the most common ways crews underprice themselves, and the gap is large enough to turn an apparently healthy margin into a loss.

As much as the headline rate does, and they are often negotiated less carefully. Retention withholds a percentage until inspection or PTO, events on the utility's and jurisdiction's clock, not the crew's, so that money can sit for months. Payment terms mean the crew funds payroll immediately and waits to be paid, which carries a real financing cost. A crew offered a strong rate on 90-day terms with 20% retention can be worse off than one on a lower rate paid promptly, and will price accordingly next season.

Generally no, and this is the argument worth making to whoever sets the rate. An underpriced crew does not absorb the difference quietly. It produces callbacks, misses schedule dates because better-paying work takes priority, cuts corners that surface as workmanship claims later, or stops trading mid-season. Each of those costs the routing party more than the rate difference saved. Thin subcontract margins buy schedule and quality risk rather than savings.

Not directly. It models a labour-only scope, and the tool says so. If equipment is in the crew's scope, the rate has to cover the full bill of materials as well as labour, which is a much larger number and creates significant working-capital exposure for the crew. That side is better modelled with the working capital calculator, which sizes how much cash a pipeline ties up in materials before funding arrives.