National rank
23 of 30
22 towns model higher than this one.
Glasgow models £19 under the national decorator rate.
£181 a day, 23 of 30, and 2 of 2 in Scotland.
Modelled from two published statistics, Scotland median weekly pay of £773.80 and Glasgow housing at £187,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Glasgow compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Glasgow is the marked tick, at £181 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £19 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Glasgow £181
£200 benchmark
Glasgow sits £54 under Guildford at the top and £21 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Glasgow's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £127 for general labourer work to £253 for electrician work.
Regional rank
2 of 2
Against the 2 towns we model in Scotland.
Versus benchmark
£19 down
9.5 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Glasgow
17 trades, one town. A Glasgow day runs from £127 for general labourer up to £253 for electrician, which is a £126 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through Scotland earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 9 to 10 percent down on Glasgow geography, because one multiplier built from Scotland pay and Glasgow house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£27 below the £280 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £253 | |
| Plumber£26 below the £270 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £244 | |
| Bricklayer£25 below the £260 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £235 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£25 below the £259 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £234 | |
| General Builder£24 below the £253 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £229 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£23 below the £240 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £217 | |
| Roofer£23 below the £239 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £216 | |
| Plasterer£22 below the £230 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £208 | |
| Tiler£22 below the £229 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £207 | |
| Drainage Engineer£22 below the £225 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £203 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£22 below the £225 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £203 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£21 below the £213 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £192 | |
| Painter and decorator£19 below the £200 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £181 | |
| Handyman£18 below the £188 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £170 | |
| Cladding Installer£17 below the £175 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £158 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£17 below the £175 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £158 | |
| General Labourer£13 below the £140 benchmark on Glasgow geography. | £127 |
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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Glasgow, so your own costs go in and a Glasgow rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Glasgow
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 Glasgow rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Glasgow comes to £362 to £724, on the 23rd dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Glasgow
£362 to £724
A painter and decorator day in Glasgow models at £181, 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 Glasgow
£229 to £354
A plasterer day in Glasgow models at £208, 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 Glasgow
£518 to £662
A tiler day in Glasgow models at £207, 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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow measurement.
Why Glasgow prices as it does
Glasgow prices where its earnings and its housing put it, which is close to the middle.
£187,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£773.80
The Scotland median weekly pay Glasgow is modelled on, 0.9 percent above the UK median of £766.60.
0.64x
Property against the UK average, 36 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 Glasgow 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 Glasgow charged for a day of work; what they show is why Glasgow lands where it does.
Scotland WEEKLY PAY
£773.80
Glasgow 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 Glasgow models at £181 a decorator day on it.Scotland ranks 3 of the 11 regions on the register, and Glasgow is 2 of the 2 Scotland towns we model on it.
Glasgow HOUSE PRICES
£187,000
The Glasgow average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 0.64 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.26 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Glasgow questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Glasgow figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Glasgow?
A decorator day in Glasgow models at £181.
That is number 23 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Glasgow day runs from £127 for general labourer work up to £253 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on Scotland earnings and Glasgow house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Glasgow?
Electrician, at £253 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £127.
That leaves a £126 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Glasgow geography is applied to it.
Is Glasgow dearer than Edinburgh?
Edinburgh is the dearer of the two: £181 in Glasgow against £202 in Edinburgh, a £21 gap on a decorator day.
Glasgow and Edinburgh both sit in Scotland.
Glasgow ranks 2 of the 2 towns we model there.
Why are Glasgow rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Glasgow figure: Scotland median weekly pay of £773.80, 3 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £187,000, 27 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Glasgow £19 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 9.5 percent down.
Can I use these Glasgow figures as a quote?
No. £181 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £136 to £235, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Glasgow jobs.
16 of the 17 Glasgow 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 Glasgow rows, £127 to £253. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Glasgow figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVglasgow.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Glasgow day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/glasgow/
Embed this figure
The Glasgow 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/glasgow/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-glasgow.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Glasgow, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Glasgow 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.