National rank
10 of 30
9 towns model higher than this one.
£202 in Edinburgh, and Cheltenham lands on the same figure.
Scotland pay of £773.80 a week on £295,000 housing gets there.
Cheltenham gets there on South West pay of £728.70 and £333,000.
Modelled from two published statistics, Scotland median weekly pay of £773.80 and Edinburgh housing at £295,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Edinburgh compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Edinburgh is the marked tick, at £202 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £2 above the drawn £200 benchmark.
Edinburgh £202
£200 benchmark
Edinburgh sits £33 under Guildford at the top and £42 over Sunderland at the bottom.
One other town shares that mark: Cheltenham, also £202.
Edinburgh's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £141 for general labourer work to £282 for electrician work.
Regional rank
1 of 2
Against the 2 towns we model in Scotland.
Versus benchmark
£2 up
1.0 percent above the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Edinburgh
17 trades, one town. A Edinburgh day runs from £141 for general labourer up to £282 for electrician, which is a £141 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through Scotland earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 1 percent up on Edinburgh geography, because one multiplier built from Scotland pay and Edinburgh house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£2 above the £280 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £282 | |
| Plumber£2 above the £270 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £272 | |
| Bricklayer£2 above the £260 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £262 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£2 above the £259 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £261 | |
| General Builder£2 above the £253 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £255 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£2 above the £240 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £242 | |
| Roofer£2 above the £239 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £241 | |
| Plasterer£2 above the £230 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £232 | |
| Tiler£2 above the £229 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £231 | |
| Drainage Engineer£2 above the £225 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £227 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£2 above the £225 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £227 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£2 above the £213 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £215 | |
| Painter and decorator£2 above the £200 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £202 | |
| Handyman£2 above the £188 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £190 | |
| Cladding Installer£1 above the £175 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £176 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£1 above the £175 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £176 | |
| General Labourer£1 above the £140 benchmark on Edinburgh geography. | £141 |
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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Edinburgh, so your own costs go in and a Edinburgh rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Edinburgh
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 Edinburgh rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Edinburgh comes to £404 to £808, on the 10th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Edinburgh
£404 to £808
A painter and decorator day in Edinburgh models at £202, 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 Edinburgh
£255 to £394
A plasterer day in Edinburgh models at £232, 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 Edinburgh
£578 to £739
A tiler day in Edinburgh models at £231, 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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh measurement.The same 3 jobs come to the same money in Cheltenham, which reaches £202 a decorator day on £333,000 housing and South West pay of £728.70.
Why Edinburgh prices as it does
Edinburgh reaches £202 by a different route to Cheltenham.
£295,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£773.80
The Scotland median weekly pay Edinburgh is modelled on, 0.9 percent above the UK median of £766.60.
1.01x
Property against the UK average, 1 percent above 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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh charged for a day of work; what they show is why Edinburgh lands where it does.
Scotland WEEKLY PAY
£773.80
Edinburgh is modelled on the Scotland median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 0.9 percent above the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Edinburgh models at £202 a decorator day on it.Scotland ranks 3 of the 11 regions on the register, and Edinburgh is 1 of the 2 Scotland towns we model on it.
Edinburgh HOUSE PRICES
£295,000
The Edinburgh average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 1.01 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.10 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Edinburgh questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Edinburgh figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Edinburgh?
A decorator day in Edinburgh models at £202.
That is number 10 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Edinburgh day runs from £141 for general labourer work up to £282 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on Scotland earnings and Edinburgh house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Edinburgh?
Electrician, at £282 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £141.
That leaves a £141 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Edinburgh geography is applied to it.
Why do Edinburgh and Cheltenham have the same day rate?
Both model at £202 for a decorator day.
They arrive there from different places: Edinburgh on Scotland weekly pay of £773.80 against an average house price of £295,000, Cheltenham on South West pay of £728.70 against £333,000.
Housing is the wider of the two gaps, with Edinburgh at 1.01 times the UK average house price and Cheltenham at 1.14 times.
The earnings side of the model closes most of that gap back up, which is how both land on £202.
Is Edinburgh dearer than Glasgow?
Edinburgh is the dearer of the two: £202 in Edinburgh against £181 in Glasgow, a £21 gap on a decorator day.
Edinburgh and Glasgow both sit in Scotland.
Edinburgh ranks 1 of the 2 towns we model there.
Why are Edinburgh rates above the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Edinburgh figure: Scotland median weekly pay of £773.80, 3 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £295,000, 11 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Edinburgh £2 over the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 1.0 percent up.
Can I use these Edinburgh figures as a quote?
No. £202 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £152 to £263, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Edinburgh jobs.
16 of the 17 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh rows, £141 to £282. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Edinburgh figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVedinburgh.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Edinburgh day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/edinburgh/
Embed this figure
The Edinburgh 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/edinburgh/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-edinburgh.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Edinburgh, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Edinburgh 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.