What should a handyman charge in South Portland, ME?
Planning estimate for a one-person handyman business in South Portland, ME: $77 to $103 an hour. It's a starting point built from public wage and price data with our calculator's formula. It is not the market rate, and it is not what any one handyman charges.
The math
Your rate is what the year costs you, divided by the hours you actually bill. Here it is with South Portland's numbers:
| Step | Low end | High end |
|---|---|---|
| Your pay (employee wage for this work in Portland-South Portland, ME) | $52,580 median | $61,930 top quarter starts here |
| Overhead ($33,148 national, adjusted to local prices at 101.9) | $33,764 | $33,764 |
| Profit 15% + PTO 10% + warranty 3% + business taxes 12% | +40% | +40% |
| Yearly total to cover | $120,882 | $133,972 |
| Billed hours a year (hours on the job × 52) | 30 × 52 = 1,560 | 25 × 52 = 1,300 |
| Hourly rate | $77 | $103 |
The low end pays you the median wage and bills 30 hours a week. The high end pays you where the top quarter of wages starts and bills 25, because every hour on the job takes about another hour running the business.
Who you'd be working for in South Portland
- Median household income: $86,838, 16% above Maine ($74,733). Census ACS 2020-2024
- Median home value: $441,200, 49% above Maine ($296,600). Census ACS 2020-2024
- Half the homes here were built before 1968, older than Maine (1977). Census ACS 2020-2024
- Homes lived in by their owner: 58.1%, 22% below Maine (74.3%). Census ACS 2020-2024
- Population: 26,930. Census ACS 2020-2024
Make it your number
Your insurance, truck, hours and pay target are what count. Run the free hourly rate calculator with your real costs, then build your prices in the Rate Book. How to price handyman jobs walks through the method.
Where these numbers come from
- Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 49-9071 Maintenance and Repair Workers, General, Portland-South Portland, ME. The top-quarter figure is in the BLS data file.
- Local prices: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024, Portland-South Portland, ME, all items index 101.9 (US = 100).
- Overhead, hours and percentages: median answers from members using our hourly rate calculator, the same formula that tool uses. National, not local.