Labor Costs

NOTE-- We retired the MacNail estimating program in 2000, and replaced it with Goldenseal estimating software. There are still die-hard MacNail users, so we keep the manuals online for them! Goldenseal is integrated software that also includes accounting, scheduling and contract writing features. Goldenseal stores labor costs in Cost Items.

Labor Costs for Construction Estimating

The MacNail construction estimating software stores all labor costs in the form of person-hours per unit. Basically, it keeps track of exactly how long (in hours) it takes to do each construction task. Since the actual time it takes to do a chunk of work changes very slowly over the years (if at all), you'll be able to use the same unit price number for a long time. In fact, you'll probably have to change MacNail's labor unit prices only if there are big changes in construction technology or labor productivity that happen to affect that particular task.

To convert the person-hour unit price to an actual dollar cost, The MacNail construction management software multiplies it by the current wage rate for the type of workers involved. Whenever you enter the most recent wage rates, all labor costs will be adjusted automatically.

To increase accuracy, The MacNail project management software stores two labor figures for each line item-- one for skilled workers, and one for unskilled workers. Each type of skilled worker (carpenter, plumber, electrician, etc.) has its own separate wage rate. Unskilled workers all use the same wage rate. All of these wage rates are stored in the Fixed Costs portion of a MacNail estimating worksheet.

You can see labor unit prices in the Specifications portion of a MacNail estimating worksheet, in the columns labeled 'Manhr/unit'.

EXAMPLE: In this example, we figure 1.71 skilled and .27 unskilled person-hours to install one square (100 square feet) of heavy 3-tab asphalt shingles. They are multiplied by the current skilled roofer and unskilled (laborer) wage rates, and by the quantity used in this project (11.7 squares), to arrive at a total labor cost of $435.