MECHANICAL: LABOR BURDEN IN TWO FLAVORS
Union and nonunion burden structures, plus prevailing-wage jobs spanning multiple classifications (fitters, sheet metal, service techs on one certified payroll), are the trade's rate-integrity problem; both existing pages cover it.
This page covers one problem. The full picture for this trade, including the other places margin leaks, is on the mechanical operating system page.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
Covered in full in the quick answer above. The sourced numbers and what controls it are below.
THE NUMBER TO MEASURE IT AGAINST.
Mechanical contractors run about % net profit at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 11% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is12.5%, set at 10 percent before taxes or 3.5 points better than your trade's average at your revenue, whichever is higher. A problem like this one lives in the distance between those two figures rather than in a loss on any single job.
Gross margin over the same bands runs % to 26%, against a CFOS target of 12.5%.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
