Reference
Auto repair labor rates by state
The average auto repair labor rate in the United States is about $81 per hour, ranging from roughly $64 an hour in West Virginia to about $98 in District of Columbia. Below is every state, with the technician wage each figure is built from and how we derived it.
Updated August 2026 · Source: BLS OES 49-3023, May 2025 release
| Typical range | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $74 | $61–$86 | $24.53 | 9,040 |
| Alaska | $95 | $79–$110 | $31.55 | 1,420 |
| Arizona | $80 | $67–$94 | $26.77 | 16,400 |
| Arkansas | $70 | $58–$81 | $23.28 | 7,310 |
| California | $94 | $79–$110 | $31.47 | 65,420 |
| Colorado | $92 | $77–$108 | $30.76 | 12,300 |
| Connecticut | $87 | $72–$101 | $28.92 | 6,960 |
| Delaware | $84 | $70–$98 | $28.12 | 1,910 |
| District of Columbia | $98 | $82–$114 | $32.65 | 310 |
| Florida | $78 | $65–$90 | $25.84 | 49,930 |
| Georgia | $82 | $68–$95 | $27.21 | 22,070 |
| Hawaii | $81 | $68–$95 | $27.01 | 2,710 |
| Idaho | $78 | $65–$91 | $25.96 | 5,030 |
| Illinois | $82 | $68–$95 | $27.25 | 29,510 |
| Indiana | $77 | $65–$90 | $25.82 | 16,480 |
| Iowa | $80 | $66–$93 | $26.59 | 7,610 |
| Kansas | $76 | $63–$89 | $25.37 | 6,240 |
| Kentucky | $69 | $58–$81 | $23.07 | 11,140 |
| Louisiana | $73 | $61–$85 | $24.35 | 8,620 |
| Maine | $80 | $66–$93 | $26.54 | 3,390 |
| Maryland | $86 | $71–$100 | $28.55 | 14,230 |
| Massachusetts | $91 | $76–$106 | $30.27 | 12,710 |
| Michigan | $81 | $68–$95 | $27.16 | 22,280 |
| Minnesota | $86 | $71–$100 | $28.51 | 11,980 |
| Mississippi | $66 | $55–$77 | $21.95 | 7,410 |
| Missouri | $78 | $65–$91 | $25.94 | 17,210 |
| Montana | $86 | $71–$100 | $28.51 | 2,900 |
| Nebraska | $80 | $67–$93 | $26.65 | 4,560 |
| Nevada | $81 | $67–$94 | $26.97 | 7,420 |
| New Hampshire | $88 | $73–$102 | $29.18 | 4,840 |
| New Jersey | $85 | $71–$99 | $28.28 | 17,640 |
| New Mexico | $75 | $62–$87 | $24.90 | 5,080 |
| New York | $85 | $71–$99 | $28.42 | 32,020 |
| North Carolina | $77 | $64–$90 | $25.72 | 26,510 |
| North Dakota | $84 | $70–$98 | $27.88 | 2,140 |
| Ohio | $79 | $66–$92 | $26.24 | 22,640 |
| Oklahoma | $75 | $63–$88 | $25.04 | 8,870 |
| Oregon | $91 | $76–$106 | $30.39 | 6,990 |
| Pennsylvania | $78 | $65–$91 | $26.13 | 29,400 |
| Rhode Island | $78 | $65–$91 | $26.11 | 2,530 |
| South Carolina | $76 | $63–$88 | $25.20 | 13,420 |
| South Dakota | $80 | $67–$94 | $26.76 | 2,010 |
| Tennessee | $79 | $66–$92 | $26.25 | 16,210 |
| Texas | $76 | $64–$89 | $25.47 | 69,750 |
| Utah | $75 | $62–$87 | $24.85 | 9,350 |
| Vermont | $84 | $70–$98 | $27.90 | 1,610 |
| Virginia | $89 | $74–$104 | $29.62 | 17,880 |
| Washington | $90 | $75–$105 | $30.03 | 12,930 |
| West Virginia | $64 | $53–$74 | $21.19 | 4,490 |
| Wisconsin | $82 | $68–$96 | $27.35 | 12,270 |
| Wyoming | $80 | $66–$93 | $26.59 | 1,560 |
How these numbers were produced. The technician wage and employment columns are real survey figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, occupation code 49-3023, May 2025 release. The door rates are derived, not surveyed: no public survey of posted shop labor rates exists, so we apply the industry rule of thumb that a shop's posted rate runs about 3× what it pays the technician, with the range bracketed at 2.5× and 3.5×. We publish the multiplier rather than hiding it so you can recompute from the BLS wage if you would use a different one.
Your posted rate is not your real rate
What you charge per hour and what you actually collect per hour are different numbers, and the gap is discounting, comebacks, and time nobody billed. MyAutoShopPro reports your effective labor rate from the work you actually invoiced, per technician and per job type, so you can see where the posted rate is leaking before you decide whether to raise it.
The national figure is useful for orientation and almost useless for setting your own rate. What matters is your state's technician wage, what you are competing against locally, and how far your market sits from its own metro. Each state below opens its own page, with the full BLS wage ladder, how it compares to the states next door, and what the derived rate is built from.
How to set your shop's labor rate
Nothing on this page tells you what to charge. State averages describe where the market has landed; they do not know your rent, your technician payroll, or how many hours you actually sell in a week. Use them to sanity-check a number you calculated, not to replace the calculation.
The calculation itself is short. Over a year, total up:
- Fixed overhead: rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, software, equipment payments, marketing.
- Non-billable payroll: service writers, the front counter, whoever runs the office, and the portion of your own time that is not turning wrenches.
- Technician payroll: wages plus payroll taxes plus benefits, which typically adds 20 to 30 percent on top of the wage itself.
- Profit: a deliberate number you decide, not whatever happens to be left over.
Then divide by billable hours, and be honest about that figure. A technician present 2,000 hours a year does not sell 2,000 hours. Between waiting on parts, cleanup, comebacks, and the gaps between jobs, 70 to 80 percent is a realistic sold-hours ratio, and shops that assume 100 percent set rates that quietly fail to cover the business.
Effective labor rate is the number that matters
Your posted rate is what is on the wall. Your effective labor rate is total labor revenue divided by hours actually paid to technicians, and it is almost always lower, often by fifteen or twenty percent. The difference is discounts, warranty work, comebacks, and time that never made it onto a ticket.
This matters because raising the posted rate does not fix a leaking effective rate. If you are collecting $78 against a posted $95, the problem is not the number on the wall. Track the effective rate monthly, by technician and by job type, before deciding whether a rate increase is what you actually need.
Raising your rate without losing customers
The shops that get hurt by a rate increase are the ones that waited too long and then moved too far at once. Small annual adjustments barely register. A jump from $95 to $130 after four years of nothing is the one customers notice and talk about.
Two things make an increase land better. Give existing customers notice rather than surprising them at the counter. And time it alongside something visible: new equipment, a longer warranty, or photo inspections that show customers what they are paying for. A rate rise attached to a visible improvement reads as investment. On its own it reads as a price hike.
Labor rate FAQ
Auto repair labor rate questions
Q1What is the average auto repair labor rate?
The national average auto repair labor rate is about $81 per hour. That figure is derived from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics mean hourly wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics, which is $27.13 nationally, multiplied by 3. That multiplier is the long-standing industry rule of thumb for what a shop must post to cover the wage plus payroll taxes, benefits, the building, tooling, insurance, software, administrative time, and profit. Real posted rates range roughly from $53 in the lowest-cost states to well over $114 at dealers and specialists in expensive metros.
Q2Which state has the highest auto repair labor rates?
Among the states, District of Columbia has the highest derived labor rate at about $98 per hour, on a mean technician wage of $32.65. West Virginia is lowest at roughly $64 per hour, on a mean technician wage of $21.19. Bear in mind that variation within a state is often larger than variation between states: a shop in a major metro and one two hours away in the same state routinely post rates $30 apart.
Q3How do shops calculate their hourly labor rate?
Work backwards from what the shop has to cover, not forwards from what competitors charge. Add up your annual fixed costs, meaning rent, utilities, insurance, software, equipment and non-technician wages, then add technician wages including payroll taxes and benefits, then add the profit the business needs. Divide by the billable hours you can realistically sell, which is far fewer than the hours your technicians are present. Most shops land somewhere near three times the technician's wage, which is where the rule of thumb comes from, but the calculation is what tells you whether three is right for you.
Q4Why is my shop's labor rate lower than the state average?
Usually one of three reasons. Your effective labor rate is being eroded by discounting, comebacks and unbilled time, so what you post and what you collect are different numbers. Your overhead genuinely is lower than the state average, which is common outside metros. Or you have not raised the rate in several years while wages and costs kept moving. The third is the most common and the easiest to fix.
Q5How often should I raise my labor rate?
Review annually and adjust in small increments rather than waiting three years and making one large jump. Customers notice a rate that moves from $95 to $130 far more than one that moves five dollars a year. Tie the review to a date rather than to a moment of frustration, and check it against what you actually pay technicians now, not what you paid when you last set the rate.
Q6Where does this labor rate data come from?
The technician wages and employment counts are real figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, occupation code 49-3023 (Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics), May 2025 release. The door rates are derived from those wages using the multipliers stated on this page (2.5×, 3× and 3.5×), because no public survey of posted shop labor rates exists. We publish the multiplier so you can recompute it if you disagree with it.
Q7Should I charge different rates for different work?
Many shops do, and it usually makes sense. Diagnostic time, especially electrical and driveability work, requires equipment and skill that a brake job does not, and pricing both at the same rate means the brake job subsidizes the diagnosis. Tiered rates are common: a standard rate for maintenance and general repair, a higher one for diagnostics and specialty work. What matters is that the customer is told which rate applies before the work starts.
Related
Put the rate to work
- auto repair estimate template Quote at your new rate, with authorization language on the document.
- auto repair invoice template Bill parts and labor separately, the way most states expect.
- shop reporting and profitability Effective labor rate and gross profit from work you actually invoiced.
- auto shop management software pricing Flat monthly price, every feature included, no per-user fee.