$140 Per Hour For Basic Labor In Orange County, CA - Really?

JH
John Honovich
Nov 25, 2015
IPVM

End user member says:

"I'm in Orange County (Calif), and a reputable integrator here will generally charge about $140/hr for basic labor give or take a few dollars."

That sounds crazy high for basic labor. Anyone with direct local experience?

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Vincent Tong
Nov 25, 2015

Well the cost of living here is much higher. 350-400k buys you a house in a crime ridden neighborhood. Unless you want trunkslammers with no C7 licenses, 120-140 is the going rate. If you know what you want exactly than you can hire an electrician for a little cheaper.

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JH
John Honovich
Nov 25, 2015
IPVM

"350-400k buys you a house in a crime ridden neighborhood"

You can't even get any house in Honolulu for that price but the going rate is not $140 an hour. I believe it's just strange.

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Mark Jones
Nov 25, 2015

Labor rate in DC area is just under 130/hr.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Nov 25, 2015

Chicago Service rate at least $100.00 to $120.00 / hr for national integrator or a Union shop.

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Bob Kusche
Nov 25, 2015

At ISC East I visited two booths: Outsource and Rightech. They offer W2 as-needed resources at terrific rates for all types of cablers and electricians. Anyone out there ever use them?

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Mark Jones
Nov 25, 2015

I have used staffing services (not these) before. Got about 80 people for a weekend conversion of 40 properties. About 10 percent were even close to being qualified. The other 90 percent just blew up our phones. If you want telecom work they are good. If you want data, they are not bad. If you want security, it will be a long project.

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DL
David Lieberman
Nov 25, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Right! And I'm surprised to hear that the rates are lower in Honolulu and NY.

UE
Undisclosed End User #2
Nov 25, 2015

Our integrator in Sacramento area never itemizes their hourly rate on the quotes, but over time we've backed into the math at about $120/hr. Straight time... not overtime or afterhours.

But that's for an actual technician, some "smarts".

When you say "basic labor" are you talking about cabling, mounting cameras, fishing access control wiring down sheetrock?

If so, then I agree, $120 is outrageous and I'm in the wrong region. That type of labor should be about $70/hr in CA.

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DL
David Lieberman
Nov 25, 2015
IPVMU Certified

The "basic labor" I referenced means that that is the lowest rate they charge. That rate does get you a hardware technician with pretty good capabilities. Some integrators, including the one we presently use, charge more for other services. Our integrator charges a little more than that for software work.

DL
David Lieberman
Nov 25, 2015
IPVMU Certified

UD-2: BTW, we also have a new office in West Sacramento. After initial installation, we haven't yet had to call for service, but your post will be helpful in gauging the rates we're offered.

JH
John Honovich
Nov 25, 2015
IPVM

If you are an integrator that services OC and have feedback here or think you can do better, feel free to post, I am curious to hear that.

JH
John Honovich
Nov 25, 2015
IPVM

Also, related, there are dozens of integrators with offices in Orange County as our Integrator Finder shows.

U
Undisclosed #3
Nov 25, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Living in Orange County I can say I have never been quoted more than $100 hr for any electrical work or finish carpentry. $90/hr for cable pull recently.

Amateur Tip: Apparently you can get a substantial discount off the hourly rate just by getting all your parts thru the contractor! ;)

AT
Andrew Thomas
Nov 25, 2015

What does basic labor mean? cable installation and aiming a camera?
Is that rate door to door, or just for the time on site. Who's paying the fuel, and the two trips if not being strung together with a nearby call.

If a client is having an extremely complex issue, and have exhausted all of their resources over a 3 week period, at a great internal cost, albeit with internal staff members, but they still can't fix it.

Is it worth 1/2 of that internal expense to have someone come and resolve the issue in 30 minutes? Or does the value of that persons skill and experiences suddenly become 1/2 the normal and customary hourly rate?

DL
David Lieberman
Nov 25, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Andrew, thanks for your post.

"What does basic labor mean? cable installation and aiming a camera?"

It's really anything related to the hardware (vs software) -- full installation, service, and BASIC set-up/programming. Any more complex software work, including troubleshooting, is charged at a higher software rate.

"Is that rate door to door, or just for the time on site."

The specifics vary from vendor to vendor. For this discussion, I'll relate my experience with my current integrator and the previous one:

In both cases it's only time on site. My old integrator charged the regular labor rate for travel to the site -- portal to portal. Often in the hundreds of dollars, depending on where the previous call was. My new integrator charges much less for travel -- a flat $45 truck charge regardless of travel distance/time.

"Who's paying the fuel, and the two trips if not being strung together with a nearby call."

No fuel charges. Old vendor charged labor for travel for both trips. New vendor only a truck charge for the first trip.

"Is it worth 1/2 of that internal expense to have someone come and resolve the issue in 30 minutes? Or does the value of that persons skill and experiences suddenly become 1/2 the normal and customary hourly rate?"

That's a good question. In our case, we no longer perform work internally, so we pretty much call for service in each case in which we need it.

U
Undisclosed #3
Nov 26, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Amazon wants $145 per camera in OC.

That's before Black Friday deals are even figured in.

This is down quite a bit from 6 months earlier.

8 camera job, 8 hour day, easy money, no?

U
Undisclosed #3
Dec 26, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Dropping again from $145 a camera on Black Friday to $89 on White Friday!

Plus a $30 Gift Card. Folks, just give it to your hard-working, trunk-slamming installer, ok?

JE
Jim Elder
Nov 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified

California is a Prevailing Wage State with a project threshold amount of $1000 (applies to Gov work only). The wage rates could give you a basis for determining what the integrator pays his staff, but not for what they bill you since the figures do not include profit and overhead... but its a place to start (here is a link ). You will find no "integrator-related" rates listed, but there is probably an "official" way to make that determination. I would also be interested in what the integrators have to say regarding what percentages should be added to these rates to end up with the price-to-customer cost.

You may also want to think about getting a "Schedule of Rates" rather than one rate. There is a marked difference between the cost of a network tec v a cable puller.

JE
Jim Elder
Nov 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified

John H. Have you ever thought about doing a study of labor rates? I have looked at RS Means published rate books and many state's prevailing wage sites and I can't seem to find one that deals specifically with integrator positions. You could be that go-to site for this kind of info. Integrators could use it for comparing the cost they (or their competition) pays; technical staff could use it to determine employment opportunities; and, A & E types can use it to ensure the budget for security is more accurate.

JH
John Honovich
Nov 27, 2015
IPVM
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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Nov 30, 2015

$60~$75 per hour if you are looking for a tech that pull cable, but can't do much else in Southern CA area (LA & OC)

If you are looking for someone who understands networking, hardware & software & pull cable, then you will be looking at $125~$175 depends on the job size. This person usually acts as an general contractor or has their own staffs to do the job.

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David Bacall
Dec 08, 2020

What are companies charging for on site service work, post sale.

Things like, software updates, repositioning, Mobile app, training, pulling video clips etc...

Is there a different fee schedule for each type? Flat fee for system tech work? Are you charging Travel time? etc..

Please also indicate where you are located, if you dont mind,

JE
Jim Elder
Dec 08, 2020
IPVMU Certified

Anyone know the rates in NYC?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Dec 08, 2020

In Orange County I would think it would be 110-130. 140 may be a little high but not substantially out of market. You can pretty much take the estimated wage of the employee and multiply it by 3 to get what the business owner would/needs to charge.

E.g. if the employee costs $25 he needs to be billed at 75 to cover costs / overheads / insurance / vehicle / profit. Same if he's a $30 / hr tech he needs to be billed at 90. This is the same ratio / formula used in every industry whether its healthcare / accounting/ engineering etc.

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U
Undisclosed #6
Dec 09, 2020

That's not out of line for that market. Maybe on the higher end, but still not out of line by any stretch.

While LA/OC specifically is not THAT expensive relative to SF/Seattle/NYC, part of the reason for the higher rates is that integrators charge a higher hourly rate to account for the completely insane travel times that you can experience there and which aren't always directly billable to the client. If you have to pay your technician for 2 hours of drive time for a standard service call but you can't bill any of that back to the client, you have to find a way to recoup some of that, especially because of California's labor/overtime laws.

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