How Much to Charge for Moving Help per Hour: Price Each Mover From Your Own Costs

How much to charge for moving help per hour: the per-mover formula

Price one mover for one hour, then multiply by movers and hours. The rate is your loaded wage plus overhead per hour, divided by (1 − margin).

1. Loaded rate = hourly wage × (1 + burden %).
2. Overhead per mover-hour = yearly overhead ÷ mover-hours you can sell in a year.
3. Break-even per mover-hour = loaded rate + overhead per mover-hour.
4. Price per mover-hour = break-even ÷ (1 − margin).
5. Job price = price per mover-hour × movers × hours, plus a truck line if you bring one.

I build pricing maths; I do not run a moving crew. Every figure below is arithmetic on a stated assumption. Replace each one with your own number.

Wage and burden (assumed): each mover is paid $20 an hour. If the movers are employees, the employer pays 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare on those wages, per IRS Topic 751, which is 7.65% together. Workers' compensation, unemployment taxes and paid time off sit on top, and comp for lifting work can be a large line, so get a real quote. This page assumes 25% in total. Loaded rate: $20 × 1.25 = $25. If you work alone as a self-employed helper, there is no employer share; the IRS self-employment tax page puts your own rate at 15.3%. The labour burden calculator guide builds the percentage line by line. None of this is tax advice.

Sellable hours (assumed): 6 billed hours a day × 200 days = 1,200 hours per mover, or 2,400 mover-hours for two. The calculator counts 8 hours per billable day, so enter 2 people and 150 days (2 × 150 × 8 = 2,400). Overhead is $12,000 ÷ 2,400 = $5 per mover-hour. Margin (assumed): 40%.

Break-even is $25 + $5 = $30 per mover-hour. Price is $30 ÷ 0.60 = $50 per mover-hour. A two-mover crew bills $100 an hour and a three-mover crew $150.

Moving help price calculator (opens on 2 movers for 3 hours)

Enter hours, movers, wage, burden, overhead and margin to see break-even and the price to quote. It opens on the labour-only example below, so it shows $300.00.

Put truck and fuel cost in the materials box when you bring a truck; leave it at zero for labour only. The same maths runs on the free job pricing calculator, with no signup.

Moving labour price tables: 2 movers and 3 movers for 2, 3 and 4 hours

On these assumptions, two movers price at $200 for 2 hours and $400 for 4; three movers price at $300 and $600. Each row is one computed job, and the last column is price ÷ crew-hours.

The three-mover table holds overhead at $5 per mover-hour. If a third mover works every day, divide yearly overhead by three movers' hours and the rate changes.

Worked example: 2 movers, 3 hours, labour only

Check it: 6 crew-hours × $25.00 = $150.00 of labour. Overhead is 6 × $5.00 = $30.00. Break-even is $180.00. Price is $180.00 ÷ 0.60 = $300.00, which leaves $120.00 of profit. $300 ÷ 6 crew-hours = $50 per mover-hour.

Why a minimum of 2 hours: the unpaid drive-time arithmetic

A minimum exists because you pay the crew for the drive and the customer's clock only runs on site. With an assumed 1 hour of round-trip drive, a 1-hour job billed by the clock collects $100 against $120 of cost, a $20 loss.

The example prices the 2 hours you actually pay for: $120.00 of cost and a price of $200.00. That is the same as a 2-hour minimum, so the minimum restores the full margin on the 1-hour job (40%).

The table shows what a minimum does not fix. A 2-hour job billed at $200 still keeps only 10%, and a 4-hour job 25%, because the drive hour is never billed. Two rules close the gap:

• Minimum hours = shortest job you will take + drive hours. Here 1 + 1 = 2 hours, or $200.
• Travel fee = drive hours × crew rate, shown as its own line on longer jobs. Here 1 × $100 = $100, which returns every row to 40%.

Starting the clock when the crew leaves the yard is the same rule in different words. Pick one and print it on the quote.

Labour-only vs bringing a truck: keep truck and fuel as a separate line

When you bring the truck, add its cost for that job as a separate line, at the same margin. An assumed $90 of truck and fuel cost adds $150 to the price, so the 3-hour job goes from $300.00 to $450.00.

The $90 is an assumed $60 share of the truck (rental, or payment, insurance and maintenance spread per job) plus $30 of fuel. Work out your own. One published per-mile yardstick: the IRS standard mileage rates page lists 76 cents a mile for business use from July 1 to December 31, 2026. That is a tax figure, not your truck's real cost.

The last column is why the truck stays on its own line. Folded into the hourly rate, it would be $87.50 per mover-hour on a 2-hour job and $68.75 on a 4-hour job. A flat cost does not scale with hours, so one blended hourly rate overcharges long jobs or undercharges short ones. For three movers with the truck, the same line gives $450, $600 and $750 for 2, 3 and 4 hours.

Loads that end at a dump or transfer station have disposal fees too; the junk removal pricing guide covers that case.

Is $25, $40 or $60 per mover per hour enough?

Compare any hourly rate with your break-even per mover-hour. On this page's inputs break-even is $30, so $25 loses $5 on every mover-hour and $50 keeps 40%.

Margin kept = (rate − break-even) ÷ rate. Your break-even will differ, so run your own inputs before judging a rate you saw quoted online. I have not printed market rates here, because a figure from another city says nothing about your costs.

Working alone. With the same wage, burden and overhead per hour, one mover for 3 hours breaks even at $90 and prices at $150. A solo helper's overhead is a different list from a crew's, so rebuild the overhead table first.

Helping a friend move is a favour, not a business quote; this formula is for work you insure, advertise and report as income.

The two mistakes: quoting the wage, and adding 40% instead of dividing

The first mistake is quoting what you pay. A $20 wage is not a $20 cost: burden and overhead make it $30 before profit.

The second is markup. Adding 40% to the labour-only break-even bills $252.00 and keeps 28.57% of the price, not 40%. That is $48.00 short per job and $19,968.00 a year at an assumed 8 jobs a week. Divide instead: break-even ÷ 0.60. The markup vs margin calculator guide has the conversion chart.

Do you need a licence to sell moving help?

It depends on what you do and where, and this page does not answer it for you. Federal consumer-protection rules for movers sit in 49 CFR Part 375, issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA, fmcsa.dot.gov). Section 375.101 applies them to household goods motor carriers transporting for individual shippers in interstate commerce.

That section covers interstate moves; a move that stays inside one state is outside its scope. The SBA licences and permits page says the licences you need from the state, county or city depend on your business activities and location. Check with your state's transportation or consumer agency, and with a licensed insurance agent, before you advertise. Put any licence, registration and insurance cost in the overhead table.

Excel formulas for a moving help rate sheet

Layout: B2 = hourly wage, B3 = burden %, B4 = yearly overhead, B5 = sellable mover-hours a year, B6 = target margin %, B7 = movers, B8 = on-site hours, B9 = drive hours, B10 = truck and fuel cost for the job, B11 = minimum hours.

Copy the job-price row with B7 set to 2 and 3 and B8 set to 2, 3 and 4 to rebuild the tables above.

Calculator, spreadsheet or booking app: what to put on your moving price sheet

Use whichever tool makes you enter wage, burden and overhead before it shows a rate. One quote needs only the free calculator; a saved rate sheet needs a spreadsheet.

A marketplace fee is a cost: add it to overhead or to the job before you divide by (1 − margin). The guide to pricing a service walks the same steps for any trade.

What the rate sheet needs

• Wage, burden %, yearly overhead and sellable mover-hours.
• Price per mover-hour, and the crew rate for 2 and 3 movers.
• Minimum hours and the travel-fee rule, written out.
• Truck and fuel as its own line, with the cost behind it.
• Target margin, applied by division.

Reprice when wages, insurance or fuel change.

Step-by-step: How Much to Charge for Moving Help per Hour: Price Each Mover From Your Own Costs

1. Load the wage. Multiply the hourly wage by (1 + burden %) to cover payroll taxes, workers' compensation and paid time off.
2. Spread overhead per mover-hour. Divide yearly insurance, equipment, phone, vehicle and marketing cost by the mover-hours you can actually sell.
3. Find break-even per mover-hour. Add the loaded rate and overhead per mover-hour. Never quote an hourly rate below this.
4. Apply margin by dividing. Divide break-even by (1 − margin). For a 40% margin, divide by 0.60.
5. Multiply by movers and hours. Job price = price per mover-hour × movers × billed hours, with billed hours never below your minimum.
6. Add drive time and the truck as lines. Bill drive hours at the crew rate as a travel fee, and add truck and fuel cost divided by (1 − margin) when you bring a truck.

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