Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For cobblers and shoe repairers

Cobbler hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance cobbler should charge, starting from the income you need — then builds the per-job prices clients actually pay out of real bench hours. Nobody books “an hour of shoe repair”; they hand over the boots that have to last another winter and ask what it costs. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $50 an hour, $400 for a full day — and the conversions that price is built from: a reheel is about half an hour at the bench, $25 of labour, and a full resole runs about an hour and a half, $75 — with specialist leather and soles billed as their own lines on top.

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The pricing reality for freelance cobblers

Shoe repair is bought per job and earned at the bench, and the two only agree if the ticket price was built from the hours in the first place. Cobblers are famous for the price list on the wall — written years ago, in some shops in another currency of habit — while rent, leather and machine parts have moved underneath it every year since. A ticket price that never changes is a pay cut that never announces itself. Price the bench hour first, and every ticket on the wall can be checked against it: so many minutes at the bench, at a rate that adds up.

This is a small-shop trade with a walk-in rhythm. The bench is dense — a repair in the hands most of the day — which is why the presets use a 70% billable share, higher than most trades on this site. But the year is not even: autumn brings every boot in the neighbourhood back at once, and high summer is sandals and silence. The rent and the materials shelf are paid in the silent months too, out of what the autumn bench earned.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $38,000 target income, $10,900 a year of expenses — shop rent leads, with machines and tools, the materials stock, utilities, insurance, marketing and admin — a 20% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 70% billable time. Specialist leather and soles beyond the standard stock are billed to the job as their own lines, as the maths section explains. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $50 an hour.

Your numbers — cobbler 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 cobblers forget to put in the rate

  • The wall of prices. Ticket prices written years ago and defended ever since, while rent, leather, soles and machine parts rose quietly underneath them. The rate is how you find out which of the familiar tickets now lose money politely, a few coins at a time.
  • The materials stock. Soles, heels, lifts, zips and leather in three thicknesses, bought in bundles before the job that needs them walks through the door. Stock on the shelf is capital asleep — necessary, because a repair shop that has to order a heel has already lost the job.
  • Machine upkeep. The finishing machine, the press, the stitcher: belts, needles, blades and the engineer’s visit when one of them stops. Workshop machines wear slowly and bill suddenly, and the bill arrives whether the order book planned for it or not.
  • The while-you-wait job. The ten-minute jobs — a glued sole, a punched hole, a stretched shoe — that interrupt an hour-long resole a dozen times a day. Each is cheap; the interruption is real bench time, and no ticket anywhere prices it.
  • The uncollected pair. Finished repairs that nobody comes back for: the shelf of orphaned shoes every cobbler knows, the storage, the reminder calls, the bench time already spent. The margin is what absorbs them without bitterness.
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 cobbler presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 70% billable — that is 1,344 billable hours a year: the hours at the bench that clients can pay for, once the counter, the till and the quiet spells have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $48,900 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 20% estimate, divide by 0.80 to get $61,125 — then add your profit margin to reach $67,238 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $50, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the per-job prices clients actually pay. A reheel is about half an hour at the bench — strip, build, finish — half an hour at $50 is $25 of labour. A full resole with new heels runs about an hour and a half, $75. Replacing a boot zip is about an hour, $50. Standard soles and heels come off the shelf the rate maintains; specialist leather, Vibram soles and anything the client chooses beyond the stock sit on top of those figures as their own lines, so the choice and its price stay the client’s.

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

Cobbler rate questions

Because the ticket price is built out of bench minutes whether you count them or not. The hourly rate is how you check the price list on the wall — inherited from the previous owner, or from what repairs “usually cost” in your town — against your own rent, your own machine bills and your own autumn rush. Cobblers who skip the check often find the shop is busy all year and the year still does not add up, and the wall, not the workload, is the reason.
Because a repair bench is denser than most trades: the work arrives in hands, not in meetings, and a busy shop has a repair under way most of the day. Seventy percent is a realistic start for a walk-in bench. The other thirty is real too — quoting at the counter, the till, the quiet Tuesday in July. A mail-in specialist with no counter runs a different shape; set the number that matches your shop, not your busiest Saturday.
Standard stock, yes in practice — the ticket has always carried a heel or a sole off the shelf, and the hourly rate is what makes sure that ticket still adds up once the shelf, the rent and the machines are counted. Specialist materials are different: the client’s choice of leather or sole can cost more than your labour on the same shoe, so bill those as their own lines, at cost plus a margin for ordering and standing behind them.

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, 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, cabinet maker 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 and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.