Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For cabinet makers

Cabinet Maker Hourly Rate Calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed cabinet maker should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the per-piece prices clients actually pay out of the bench days the work really holds. Clients rarely buy “an hour of cabinet making”; they buy a piece — a fitted wardrobe, a run of kitchen cabinets, a bookcase that fits the alcove nothing shop-bought fits. The build happens off-site, at the bench, and the bench day is priced like a site day for a simple reason: the workshop rent, the machinery and the insurance run whether the piece is being cut, finished or delivered. Delivery and installation are a stated stage of their own, not an afterthought folded into the making. The timber, board and hardware are materials, billed as their own lines; the rate prices your design eye, your bench hours and your finish. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $96 an hour, $769 for a full bench day — and the work built from it: a fitted wardrobe at about three bench days, $2,307 of making — a run of kitchen cabinets at about two bench days, $1,538 — a measure and design visit at about two hours, $192 — with timber and hardware never inside any of those figures.

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The pricing reality for cabinet makers

Cabinet making is bought by the piece and earned by the bench day. A piece’s price is its bench days plus its materials plus its install, and the bench day is the only one of those three the maker can verify in advance — from the record of what similar pieces actually took. A wardrobe priced from a hopeful guess at its days is a bet; a wardrobe priced from the last three wardrobes’ bench records is a quote. Price the hour first, count honest days per piece, and the per-piece price becomes an assembly of numbers you can defend.

It is also a different trade from the one it is most often confused with. A carpenter works on site across framing, fit-out and repairs — the carpenter’s calculator prices that trade. A cabinet maker’s work is workshop joinery: fitted furniture designed to the millimetre, built at the bench, then delivered and scribed into rooms that are never quite square. Different premises, different clock: the carpenter’s overhead travels in a van, while the cabinet maker’s stands in a workshop that charges rent through every quiet week as faithfully as through the busy ones.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $56,000 target income, $13,200 a year of expenses — workshop rent share leads, with machinery and tools, vehicle and fuel, blades, abrasives and consumables, liability insurance, finishing supplies and samples, delivery and install travel, phone, quoting and admin, and training — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 55% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $96 an hour. The billable share admits the workshop truth: measuring, design revisions, material runs and quoting all happen before the first board reaches the bench.

Your numbers — cabinet maker presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs cabinet makers forget to put in the rate

  • Design and measuring. The site measure, the drawings and the client’s revisions happen before a board is cut, and they are skilled hours. Priced into the piece or charged as a design visit, they are counted somewhere — or every quote is subsidised by the last one.
  • The workshop itself. Rent and machine upkeep ride on every bench day, busy or quiet. A rate built only from time-and-motion at the bench underpays the building the bench stands in; the presets carry the workshop as the first expense for a reason.
  • Finishing time. Sanding, oiling or painting, and the drying hours between coats are elapsed job time even when your hands are off the piece. The piece occupies the bench and the calendar while it cures; both belong in its days.
  • Hardware and samples. Hinges, runners and handles are materials with their own lines, and the samples and wrong-order runs behind them are real costs of getting a finish right. Shown separately, they stop bending the making price.
  • Delivery and the scribe. A large piece has to travel, enter a real house and be fitted to walls that lean. Delivery and installation are a stated stage with their own hours — the stage where the piece meets reality deserves its own line, not a hopeful fold into the bench days.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the cabinet maker presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 55% billable — that is 1,056 billable hours a year: the bench time, finishing and installing clients can pay for, once measuring, design revisions, material runs and quoting have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $69,200 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $92,267 — then add your profit margin to reach $101,493 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $96, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the prices clients actually buy. The piece is the quoted unit, built from bench days: a fitted wardrobe holds about three bench days of making — 24 hours, $2,307 — a run of kitchen cabinets about two bench days, $1,538, and the bench day itself is $769, with installation quoted as its own stage on top and the measure and design visit at about two hours, $192. Timber, board and hardware always travel as their own lines. Priced this way, a per-piece quote is a counting exercise, not a leap: when a client asks why the wardrobe costs what it costs, the answer is its days, its materials and its install — each visible, each yours to show.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Cabinet Maker rate questions

The crafts overlap, but the economics differ enough to price separately. A carpenter’s day is spent on site across many job types, with overhead that travels in a van. A cabinet maker’s day is spent at the bench on a single piece, with workshop rent and machinery riding on every hour — and the deliverable is priced per piece. Pieces are built from bench days, as this page prices them, not from a site day rate.
Because the piece is an unknown until it is designed, while the bench day is a number you can verify. A wardrobe’s honest price is its bench days plus its materials plus its install; the day count comes from your records of similar pieces. Quoting the piece directly, without the days underneath, is how a three-day wardrobe gets sold for two days’ money.
No. Timber, board, hinges and handles are materials, billed as their own lines at cost or with a stated mark-up. Buried in the rate, one walnut wardrobe would bend the price of every painted-board job around it. The rate prices your design, your bench time and your finish; the materials arrive on the invoice as themselves.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates, radon mitigation specialist rates, home inspector rates, mold remediation specialist rates, window tint installer rates, paintless dent repair technician rates, home energy auditor rates, knife sharpener rates and mobile tyre fitter rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.