National rank
20 of 30
19 towns model higher than this one.
Leeds models £15 under the national decorator rate.
£185 a day, 20 of 30, and 2 of 3 in Yorkshire.
Modelled from two published statistics, Yorkshire median weekly pay of £708.20 and Leeds housing at £247,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Leeds compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Leeds is the marked tick, at £185 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £15 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Leeds £185
£200 benchmark
Leeds sits £50 under Guildford at the top and £25 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Leeds's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £129 for general labourer work to £259 for electrician work.
Regional rank
2 of 3
Against the 3 towns we model in Yorkshire.
Versus benchmark
£15 down
7.5 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Leeds
17 trades, one town. A Leeds day runs from £129 for general labourer up to £259 for electrician, which is a £130 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through Yorkshire earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 7 to 8 percent down on Leeds geography, because one multiplier built from Yorkshire pay and Leeds house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£21 below the £280 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £259 | |
| Plumber£21 below the £270 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £249 | |
| Bricklayer£20 below the £260 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £240 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£20 below the £259 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £239 | |
| General Builder£19 below the £253 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £234 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£18 below the £240 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £222 | |
| Roofer£18 below the £239 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £221 | |
| Plasterer£18 below the £230 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £212 | |
| Tiler£17 below the £229 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £212 | |
| Drainage Engineer£17 below the £225 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £208 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£17 below the £225 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £208 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£16 below the £213 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £197 | |
| Painter and decorator£15 below the £200 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £185 | |
| Handyman£14 below the £188 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £174 | |
| Cladding Installer£13 below the £175 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £162 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£13 below the £175 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £162 | |
| General Labourer£11 below the £140 benchmark on Leeds geography. | £129 |
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 Leeds 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 Leeds 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 Leeds, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Leeds, so your own costs go in and a Leeds rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Leeds
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 Leeds rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Leeds comes to £370 to £740, on the 20th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Leeds
£370 to £740
A painter and decorator day in Leeds models at £185, 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 Leeds
£233 to £360
A plasterer day in Leeds models at £212, 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 Leeds
£530 to £678
A tiler day in Leeds models at £212, 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 Leeds 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 Leeds measurement.
Why Leeds prices as it does
Leeds prices where its earnings and its housing put it, which is close to the middle.
£247,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£708.20
The Yorkshire median weekly pay Leeds is modelled on, 7.6 percent below the UK median of £766.60.
0.85x
Property against the UK average, 15 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 Leeds 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 Leeds charged for a day of work; what they show is why Leeds lands where it does.
Yorkshire WEEKLY PAY
£708.20
Leeds is modelled on the Yorkshire median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 7.6 percent below the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Leeds models at £185 a decorator day on it.Yorkshire ranks 8 of the 11 regions on the register, and Leeds is 2 of the 3 Yorkshire towns we model on it.
Leeds HOUSE PRICES
£247,000
The Leeds average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 0.85 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.16 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Leeds questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Leeds figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Leeds?
A decorator day in Leeds models at £185.
That is number 20 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Leeds day runs from £129 for general labourer work up to £259 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on Yorkshire earnings and Leeds house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Leeds?
Electrician, at £259 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £129.
That leaves a £130 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Leeds geography is applied to it.
Is Leeds dearer than Sheffield?
Leeds is the dearer of the two: £185 in Leeds against £180 in Sheffield, a £5 gap on a decorator day.
Leeds and Sheffield both sit in Yorkshire.
Leeds ranks 2 of the 3 towns we model there.
Why are Leeds rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Leeds figure: Yorkshire median weekly pay of £708.20, 8 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £247,000, 17 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Leeds £15 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 7.5 percent down.
Can I use these Leeds figures as a quote?
No. £185 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £139 to £241, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Leeds jobs.
16 of the 17 Leeds 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 Leeds rows, £129 to £259. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Leeds figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVleeds.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Leeds day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/leeds/
Embed this figure
The Leeds 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/leeds/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-leeds.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Leeds, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Leeds 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.