National rank
25 of 30
24 towns model higher than this one.
Derby models £24 under the national decorator rate.
£176 a day, 25 of 30, and 3 of 4 in East Midlands.
Modelled from two published statistics, East Midlands median weekly pay of £703.80 and Derby housing at £205,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Derby compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Derby is the marked tick, at £176 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £24 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Derby £176
£200 benchmark
Derby sits £59 under Guildford at the top and £16 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Derby's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £123 for general labourer work to £246 for electrician work.
Regional rank
3 of 4
Against the 4 towns we model in the East Midlands.
Versus benchmark
£24 down
12.0 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Derby
17 trades, one town. A Derby day runs from £123 for general labourer up to £246 for electrician, which is a £123 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through East Midlands earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 12 percent down on Derby geography, because one multiplier built from the East Midlands pay and Derby house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£34 below the £280 benchmark on Derby geography. | £246 | |
| Plumber£33 below the £270 benchmark on Derby geography. | £237 | |
| Bricklayer£31 below the £260 benchmark on Derby geography. | £229 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£31 below the £259 benchmark on Derby geography. | £228 | |
| General Builder£30 below the £253 benchmark on Derby geography. | £223 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£29 below the £240 benchmark on Derby geography. | £211 | |
| Roofer£29 below the £239 benchmark on Derby geography. | £210 | |
| Plasterer£28 below the £230 benchmark on Derby geography. | £202 | |
| Tiler£28 below the £229 benchmark on Derby geography. | £201 | |
| Drainage Engineer£27 below the £225 benchmark on Derby geography. | £198 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£27 below the £225 benchmark on Derby geography. | £198 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£26 below the £213 benchmark on Derby geography. | £187 | |
| Painter and decorator£24 below the £200 benchmark on Derby geography. | £176 | |
| Handyman£23 below the £188 benchmark on Derby geography. | £165 | |
| Cladding Installer£21 below the £175 benchmark on Derby geography. | £154 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£21 below the £175 benchmark on Derby geography. | £154 | |
| General Labourer£17 below the £140 benchmark on Derby geography. | £123 |
Heads upEvery benchmark is a modelled estimate published beside the spread the price guides themselves publish, and is never the median of a directory.Each row above says what Derby does to that trade.The day rate ranges the price guides publish are national, so they sit on each trade's own page rather than being reprinted on all 30 town pages.Follow any Derby row to read them.
Scale every bar drawn on £110 to £440Bar the modelled range, the rate x 0.75 and x 1.30No spread 1 of the 17 rows, marked MODELLED ONLY, where no UK price guide publishes a comparable day rate
Your next step
You have what 17 trades charge in Derby, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Derby, so your own costs go in and a Derby rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Derby
A rate prices a day and a job takes several of them. This site publishes a length for 3 of the 17 trades above, so those 3 Derby rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Derby comes to £352 to £704, on the 25th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Derby
£352 to £704
A painter and decorator day in Derby models at £176, and decorating a living room takes 2 to 4 days.Source: Robin Gofton, Decorator's Forum UK, job reports.How long does decorating take?
plastering in Derby
£222 to £343
A plasterer day in Derby models at £202, and skimming 35 square metres of wall and a 16 square metre ceiling takes 1.1 to 1.7 days.Source: Methvin plastering production rates, updated 1 August 2026, fast to slow.How long does plastering take?
tiling in Derby
£503 to £643
A tiler day in Derby models at £201, and fixing and grouting 20 square metres of bathroom wall takes 2.5 to 3.2 days.Source: Methvin tiling production rates, updated 1 August 2026, fast to slow.How long does tiling take?
Read the sumEach figure above is a Derby day rate multiplied by a job length, and Day rate or price per job? is where that sum is worked in full.It is our arithmetic rather than a price anybody quoted, and none of the 3 lengths is a Derby measurement.
Why Derby prices as it does
Derby prices where its earnings and its housing put it, which is close to the middle.
£205,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£703.80
The East Midlands median weekly pay Derby is modelled on, 8.2 percent below the UK median of £766.60.
0.70x
Property against the UK average, 30 percent below it.
ONS local housing prices, April 2026 provisional, UK House Price Index.
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) April 2025 regional medians.
Registers sourced 5 July 2026.
How Derby stands on the two cross checks
Both are published statistics. Neither sets a rate on this page, and neither is a survey of what anyone in Derby charged for a day of work; what they show is why Derby lands where it does.
East Midlands WEEKLY PAY
£703.80
Derby is modelled on the East Midlands median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 8.2 percent below the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Derby models at £176 a decorator day on it.East Midlands ranks 10 of the 11 regions on the register, and Derby is 3 of the 4 East Midlands towns we model on it.
Derby HOUSE PRICES
£205,000
The Derby average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 0.70 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.24 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Derby questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Derby figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Derby?
A decorator day in Derby models at £176.
That is number 25 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Derby day runs from £123 for general labourer work up to £246 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on East Midlands earnings and Derby house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Derby?
Electrician, at £246 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £123.
That leaves a £123 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Derby geography is applied to it.
Is Derby dearer than Nottingham?
Derby is the dearer of the two: £176 in Derby against £173 in Nottingham, a £3 gap on a decorator day.
Derby and Nottingham both sit in the East Midlands.
Derby ranks 3 of the 4 towns we model there.
Why are Derby rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Derby figure: East Midlands median weekly pay of £703.80, 10 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £205,000, 25 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Derby £24 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 12.0 percent down.
Can I use these Derby figures as a quote?
No. £176 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £132 to £229, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Derby jobs.
16 of the 17 Derby rows carry a spread that UK price guides publish nationally, on the trade's own page, and 1 are modelled with none.
Take the data
17 Derby rows, £123 to £246. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Derby figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVderby.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Derby day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/derby/
Embed this figure
The Derby card carries the decorator rate and the date it was sourced, and the link goes to this page.
<a href="https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/derby/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-derby.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Derby, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Derby figures are free to use in an article, a fact check or a local story, and a credit with a link back is all we ask, under CC BY 4.0.