You calculate your hourly rate by adding the profit you need to your business costs, and dividing that by the hours clients actually pay for. For a painter that number of hours is lower than you think, because winter brings less work. In the worked example in this piece, a starting painter arrives at a minimum of €70.29 per hour excluding VAT. All amounts are an example: fill in your own figures.
In short
- Calculate with billable hours per season. In the example that is 714 hours in summer and 380 hours in winter, rounded to 1,100 hours in total.
- Profit, costs and interest together, minus the margin on materials, divided by 1,100 hours gives €70.29 per hour excluding VAT in the example.
- Price comparison sites quote €35 to €50 per hour. That is a picture of the market. If you charge €50, in the example you keep €22,323 less profit a year.
About the amounts: the worked example assumes a single, starting painter in 2026 with a sole proprietorship. Costs, hours per week and purchase prices are assumptions, not market figures.
In this article
- How do you calculate your hourly rate as a painter?
- How many hours can you really bill as a painter?
- What is the minimum rate for a starting painter?
- Why is €35 to €50 from price comparison sites not a cost price?
- What does it cost you to charge €50 per hour?
- Which VAT rate do you add to your hourly rate?
- Why does a price per m² or per job work better than an hourly rate?
How do you calculate your hourly rate as a painter?
You start with the profit you need, add your business costs and interest, deduct the margin on materials and divide the result by your billable hours. Billable hours are the hours you can put on an invoice. That gives you the amount per hour that must come in at the very least, excluding VAT.
The profit you need is more than your net income. Income tax and the health insurance contribution still have to come off, and you repay your loan and pay for a pension and disability insurance. In the example a single starter wants to keep €3,000 net per month. He has a loan of €25,000 over 5 years at 9.95% interest, allows €400 a month for a pension and €300 a month for disability insurance. Under the 2026 tax rules he then needs a profit of €55,617 a year.
For a painter the pension is not a choice. Even as a self-employed painter without staff you pay contributions to BPF Schilders, the sector pension fund. At the lowest chosen pension salary of €26,250 that is €174.42 per four weeks in 2026. The invoice comes 13 times a year, also during the winter break (BPF Schilders, 2026). That is €2,267 a year and fits within the €400 a month in the example.
The sum on one line
Hourly rate = (required profit + business costs + interest minus margin on materials) divided by billable hours.
Many small business owners set their price differently. Earlier research repeatedly found that most small business owners use a simple mark-up on their costs. Interviews with small business owners also showed that other things play a part besides profit alone (Curran et al., 1997). That is understandable. But if you leave your own income and the quiet months out of the sum, you charge a price that adds up on paper and falls short in practice.
How many hours can you really bill as a painter?
In your first year, count on about 1,100 billable hours. In the example that is 714 hours from April to October and 380 hours from November to March. In summer that is 28 paid hours a week, in winter 20.
The difference comes from the season. Outdoor work stops in frost and rain, the days are shorter and indoor jobs for private clients are often small in winter. The collective agreement for the painting sector also splits the year in two: weeks 13 to 44 are the high season, weeks 45 to 12 the low season (cao SAVG, 2026). As a self-employed painter you notice this directly in your turnover.
The working weeks have already been reduced. Summer counts 30 weeks. Take off 3 weeks of holiday, 1 week of public holidays and half a week of sickness, and 25.5 working weeks remain. Winter counts 22 weeks. Take off 2 weeks of holiday, half a week of public holidays and half a week of sickness, and 19 working weeks remain. 25.5 times 28 hours is 714 hours. 19 times 20 hours is 380 hours. Together that is 1,094 hours, rounded to 1,100.
Why not 40 hours a week? Because surveys, quotes, collecting paint, masking and clearing up that you do not charge for, administration and bad weather also take time. Nobody pays for those hours directly, so they have to be in your rate.
What is the minimum rate for a starting painter?
In the worked example the minimum is €70.29 per hour excluding VAT. The starter adds up €55,617 profit, €21,200 business costs and €2,306 interest. From that comes €1,800 that he earns from the mark-up on materials: 15% on €12,000 of purchases. What remains, €77,323, has to come from labour and call-out fees. Divided by 1,100 hours that is €70.29.
The business costs of €21,200 are an example. They include the van (€9,000), tools, ladders and a small mobile scaffold (€2,000), liability insurance (€900), bookkeeper (€1,500), website and finding clients (€2,000), small materials you do not charge on such as tape, sheeting and brushes (€1,500) and storage (€1,200). You hire scaffolding and aerial platforms per job and charge them separately. Get quotes for your own situation and replace the amounts.
The number of hours has a big effect. With the same profit and costs, the minimum is €77.32 at 1,000 hours, €67.24 at 1,150 hours and €59.48 at 1,300 hours. If you have a fixed winter programme, such as indoor work for an owners' association or a contractor, and also reach 28 hours a week in winter, you arrive at about 1,250 hours. The minimum then drops to €61.86.
A minimum is not a rate, but in the example the painter chooses €70 per hour excluding VAT. That is 29 cents below the sum, €323 a year at 1,100 hours. To a private client with a home older than 2 years that is €76.30 including 9% VAT. For work at 21% VAT it is €84.70.
Why is €35 to €50 from price comparison sites not a cost price?
Because such an amount shows what clients come across online, not what you need. Trustoo quotes an hourly rate of €35 to €50 on average: €35 to €40 indoors, €40 to €50 outdoors (Trustoo, March 2026). Homedeal quotes the same amounts (Homedeal, October 2025). That is a picture of the market, not an official figure.
What is included in those amounts is not clear either. On the same page, Trustoo writes both that the rate includes VAT and that it excludes VAT. Homedeal says the amounts include paint and materials. Even if €50 is entirely for labour and excludes VAT, it is more than €20 below the minimum from the worked example.
If you work as a subcontractor for a painting firm or contractor, there is another factor. From 31 December 2026, someone who works for a low hourly rate can claim that they are in fact an employee. This is called the legal presumption of employment. The threshold is €38 (as at 1 January 2026), and the amount as at 31 December 2026 is still to follow (KVK, 2026). The rule does not apply to private clients (Stb. 2026, 158). A rate at the bottom of the market picture is therefore close to that threshold.
What does it cost you to charge €50 per hour?
In the worked example it costs you €22,323 of profit a year, about €1,860 a month before tax. At 1,100 hours, €50 per hour brings in €55,000 from labour. You need €77,323. You then do not reach the net target of €3,000 a month.
If you still want to reach your net target at €50, you need 1,547 billable hours. That is almost 35 paid hours in every working week, also in winter. For a starter in the example that is not realistic.
| Worked example | €70 per hour | €50 per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Including 9% VAT | €76.30 | €54.50 |
| Profit at 1,100 hours | €55,294 | €33,294 |
| Hours needed for the net target | 1,105 | 1,547 |
| Profit per hour worked, at 1,800 hours worked | €30.72 | €18.50 |
The last row shows what you keep per hour worked if you count all hours, including quotes, purchasing and administration. In the example that is 1,800 hours a year. At €50 that is €18.50 profit per hour, before tax and contributions. Under the collective agreement, an all-round painter in employment earns €24.05 gross per hour in 2026 in pay group 5, middle step (cao SAVG, 2026). The agreement is generally binding from 18 August 2026 to 17 August 2028.
Which VAT rate do you add to your hourly rate?
For painting work on a home older than 2 years you charge 9% VAT, and 21% for most other jobs (Belastingdienst). The 9% rate also applies to the paint, primer and filler you use for the painting. The tax authority's decree states that the materials used in painting and plastering fall under the reduced VAT rate (Stcrt. 2025, 39463).
Repairing wood with epoxy or wood rot filler as preparation for painting is also subject to 9%. New wooden inserts and a new sill are subject to 21% (Stcrt. 2025, 39463). Work on business premises or a home younger than 2 years is also 21%.
To private clients you state every price including VAT and additional costs, such as call-out fees (ACM). So your price list for private clients shows €76.30 per hour for work at 9% VAT, not €70.
Why does a price per m² or per job work better than an hourly rate?
A client compares total prices, not hourly rates. With a price per m² for walls and ceilings, per item for frames and doors, and per hour only for small jobs and extra work, the client knows in advance what he will pay. Your hourly rate remains the basis: you use it to calculate the fixed price.
Research shows that many customers prefer a fixed amount to paying per use, even when it costs them more. One of the causes is what the researchers call the taxi meter effect: a running meter does not feel pleasant. Customers who chose this way did not cancel more often (Lambrecht & Skiera, 2006). That research was about subscriptions with a choice between a fixed amount and paying per use, not about painting. The mechanism is familiar, though: a fixed price feels safer than a clock that keeps running.
| Job (example) | Excluding VAT | Including VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Emulsion living room, 80 m² walls and ceiling, 2 coats, 8 hours | €779 | €849.11 (9%), €10.61 per m² |
| Front elevation window frames, 15 m² gloss work, 12 hours | €978 | €1,066.02 (9%) |
| Wood rot: two wooden inserts in a sill, 3 hours | €256 | €309.76 (21%) |
This is how you calculate the living room: 8 hours times €70 is €560. Add €160 of paint with a 15% mark-up, which is €184, and €35 for the call-out. Together €779 excluding VAT. The 8 hours assume about 10 m² per hour, which is an assumption. Calculate with your own pace. Homedeal quotes €10 to €16 per m² for emulsion work, including labour and two coats (Homedeal, October 2025). The example falls within that range.
If you work faster, a price per m² earns you more per hour. If you charge per hour, you give that gain away. Always put wood rot as a separate item in the quote. The VAT rate is different and you often only see the extent once the old paint is off.
Sources
- Curran, J., Jarvis, R., Kitching, J. & Lightfoot, G. (1997). The pricing decision in small firms: complexities and the deprioritising of economic determinants. International Small Business Journal, 15(2), 17-32. doi.org
- Lambrecht, A. & Skiera, B. (2006). Paying too much and being happy about it: existence, causes, and consequences of tariff-choice biases. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 212-223. doi.org
- Besluit omzetbelasting toelichting tabel I (VAT decree on table I), 22 December 2025, Staatscourant 2025, 39463. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Belastingdienst, Woningen ouder dan 2 jaar (homes older than 2 years), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Extension of the collective agreement for the painting, finishing, property maintenance and glazing sector (SAVG), Staatscourant 2026, 27574. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- BPF Schilders, Pensioenkeuzeloon (chosen pension salary), accessed 24 October 2026. bpfschilders.nl
- Act of 18 June 2026, Staatsblad 2026, 158 (legal presumption of employment, article 7:610aa of the Dutch Civil Code). officielebekendmakingen.nl
- KVK, Ben je wel zelfstandig met een uurtarief lager dan 38 euro? (Are you self-employed with an hourly rate below 38 euros?), updated 7 October 2026. kvk.nl
- ACM, Prijzen vermelden (stating prices), accessed 24 October 2026. acm.nl
- Trustoo, Kosten schilder (painter costs), updated 10 March 2026. trustoo.nl
- Homedeal, Kosten schilder (painter costs), 10 October 2025. homedeal.nl