How we calculate a fair repair price
Every price on this site comes from one formula: your state’s technician wage, the hours the task takes, and the parts, with markups we publish. Nothing is crowdsourced, scraped from other cost sites, or guessed. This page shows the whole calculation, the data behind it, and where it can be wrong.
fair price = hours task time × wage × M state BLS wage × 3.0–4.0 + parts × P part cost × 1.50–2.00
The four inputs
- State wage
- The mean hourly wage for HVAC mechanics and installers in your state, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025, occupation 49-9021. This is the only per-state input, and it is why a capacitor swap costs more in Massachusetts than in Arkansas. The full 51-state wage table is below.
- Hours
- Task time from our HVAC task-time catalog: the time a competent technician needs to diagnose, complete, and test the job, the same way flat-rate price books used inside the trade assign time.
- Labor multiplier (M)
- A shop cannot bill a technician’s bare wage. The multiplier covers the truck, insurance, licensing, tools, office staff, and profit. We use 3.0 to 4.0 times the wage, the range a competently run service business needs to stay solvent.
- Parts markup (P)
- Applied to the typical wholesale cost of the part. We use 1.50 to 2.00, the standard range shops charge over their supplier price.
Every final price rounds to the nearest $5.
The three bands
One number would be false precision, and a $150–$450 national range is useless. We publish three prices per repair per state, each with its multipliers stated:
| Band | Labor multiplier | Parts markup | What it models |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 3.0× | 1.50× | A lean one-truck shop with low overhead |
| Typical | 3.5× | 1.75× | A fairly priced established shop. Compare your quote to this number. |
| High | 4.0× | 2.00× | A larger company with more overhead, or premium service |
A worked example: AC capacitor in Massachusetts
The most common AC failure is a dead dual-run capacitor. Here is the typical price, computed end to end with real numbers from the current data build:
- Massachusetts mean HVAC wage (BLS): $37.38/hr
- Billed labor rate at the typical multiplier: $37.38 × 3.5 = $130.83/hr
- The job takes 0.8 hours: $130.83 × 0.8 = $104.66 labor
- The part costs about $35 wholesale: $35 × 1.75 = $61.25 parts
- $104.66 + $61.25 = $165.91, rounded to the nearest $5: $165
The full Massachusetts band for this repair is $140 to $190. A $400 quote for this job in Massachusetts is not a fair price. A $175 quote is.
What “fair” means here
Fair is what a fairly priced professional shop charges: licensed, insured, warrantied work at a price that keeps the business solvent without gouging. It is not the cheapest price obtainable.
A quote can sit above our high band for honest reasons: emergency or after-hours service, rooftop or crawl-space access, premium or OEM parts, or equipment in poor condition. A quote far below our low band deserves as much suspicion as one far above it; the discount usually comes out of insurance, licensing, or warranty.
These are reference prices, not quotes. Use them to judge a quote, to ask better questions, and to know when to get a second opinion. No number on this site knows your equipment, your attic, or your county.
The wage data, state by state
The per-state input in full, so you can check our math. Wage is the BLS OEWS May 2025 mean hourly wage for occupation 49-9021 (heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers). The billed rate is that wage at the typical 3.5× labor multiplier. Download this table as CSV.
| State | BLS mean wage | Billed rate |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $24.67 | $86.35 |
| Alaska | $38.53 | $134.86 |
| Arizona | $29.28 | $102.48 |
| Arkansas | $24.59 | $86.07 |
| California | $36.24 | $126.84 |
| Colorado | $34.29 | $120.02 |
| Connecticut | $35.38 | $123.83 |
| Delaware | $31.80 | $111.30 |
| District of Columbia | $40.83 | $142.91 |
| Florida | $27.55 | $96.43 |
| Georgia | $27.44 | $96.04 |
| Hawaii | $32.24 | $112.84 |
| Idaho | $28.85 | $100.98 |
| Illinois | $37.29 | $130.52 |
| Indiana | $31.30 | $109.55 |
| Iowa | $30.35 | $106.23 |
| Kansas | $29.55 | $103.43 |
| Kentucky | $28.30 | $99.05 |
| Louisiana | $27.35 | $95.73 |
| Maine | $31.39 | $109.87 |
| Maryland | $35.49 | $124.22 |
| Massachusetts | $37.38 | $130.83 |
| Michigan | $31.01 | $108.54 |
| Minnesota | $35.57 | $124.50 |
| Mississippi | $25.49 | $89.21 |
| Missouri | $30.01 | $105.04 |
| Montana | $29.94 | $104.79 |
| Nebraska | $29.35 | $102.73 |
| Nevada | $30.46 | $106.61 |
| New Hampshire | $34.37 | $120.29 |
| New Jersey | $37.30 | $130.55 |
| New Mexico | $26.60 | $93.10 |
| New York | $35.94 | $125.79 |
| North Carolina | $27.60 | $96.60 |
| North Dakota | $33.66 | $117.81 |
| Ohio | $31.73 | $111.06 |
| Oklahoma | $27.71 | $96.99 |
| Oregon | $32.90 | $115.15 |
| Pennsylvania | $31.19 | $109.17 |
| Rhode Island | $33.55 | $117.42 |
| South Carolina | $27.14 | $94.99 |
| South Dakota | $29.37 | $102.80 |
| Tennessee | $27.79 | $97.27 |
| Texas | $28.43 | $99.51 |
| Utah | $28.85 | $100.98 |
| Vermont | $32.24 | $112.84 |
| Virginia | $29.42 | $102.97 |
| Washington | $37.91 | $132.69 |
| West Virginia | $24.85 | $86.98 |
| Wisconsin | $32.41 | $113.43 |
| Wyoming | $26.81 | $93.84 |
National simple mean: $31.17/hr. National prices on this site use it the same way.
Update cadence
BLS releases the OEWS survey once a year, in spring. When new wage data lands, we rebuild every price on the site from it in one pass. Task hours and parts costs update when the underlying catalog does. Date stamps are written by the data build, never by hand.
Current build: 2026-07-20, on May 2025 wage data, 52 repairs across 50 states and DC.
Where this model is wrong
- Wages are state means. A tech in San Francisco earns more than one in Fresno, and our California number splits the difference.
- Parts costs are typical wholesale figures. Brand, availability, and supply swings move them.
- The multipliers are stated assumptions about shop overhead, not measurements of your local market.
- Task hours assume accessible, serviceable equipment. Corroded fasteners and attic air handlers add real time.
We publish these limits so you can check the number against your situation instead of taking it on trust.
Citing this data
The data is free to cite and reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0 license). Cite as “Repair Price Index” and link to this page. Download the national price table as CSV or the state wage table as CSV.
Common questions
Why is my quote higher than your typical price?
Real reasons exist: emergency or after-hours service, hard access like a rooftop or tight attic, premium or OEM parts, equipment in poor condition, or a high-cost metro area within your state. If none of those apply and the quote sits above our high band, get a second quote.
Should I expect to pay the low price?
No. The low band models a lean, low-overhead shop that is still licensed and insured. A price far below it usually means no insurance, no license, or no warranty, and that risk lands on you.
Where do the numbers come from?
Three inputs: your state’s mean hourly wage for HVAC mechanics and installers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025, occupation 49-9021), task times from our HVAC task-time catalog, and typical wholesale parts costs. The multipliers that turn those into a price are published on this page.
Do you sell leads or my contact information?
No. There is no form between you and the answer, and we have nothing of yours to sell. We may earn a commission if you choose to use a linked service, and that never changes the numbers.
How often does the data update?
Wage data updates once a year when BLS releases the new OEWS survey, and we rebuild every price from it. The date stamp in the footer comes from that data build and only changes when the data does.