National rank
18 of 30
17 towns model higher than this one.
Manchester models £12 under the national decorator rate.
£188 a day, 18 of 30, and 1 of 2 in North West.
Modelled from two published statistics, North West median weekly pay of £734.20 and Manchester housing at £247,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Manchester compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Manchester is the marked tick, at £188 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £12 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Manchester £188
£200 benchmark
Manchester sits £47 under Guildford at the top and £28 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Manchester's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £132 for general labourer work to £263 for electrician work.
Regional rank
1 of 2
Against the 2 towns we model in the North West.
Versus benchmark
£12 down
6.0 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Manchester
17 trades, one town. A Manchester day runs from £132 for general labourer up to £263 for electrician, which is a £131 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through North West earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 6 percent down on Manchester geography, because one multiplier built from the North West pay and Manchester house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£17 below the £280 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £263 | |
| Plumber£16 below the £270 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £254 | |
| Bricklayer£16 below the £260 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £244 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£16 below the £259 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £243 | |
| General Builder£15 below the £253 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £238 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£14 below the £240 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £226 | |
| Roofer£14 below the £239 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £225 | |
| Plasterer£14 below the £230 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £216 | |
| Tiler£14 below the £229 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £215 | |
| Drainage Engineer£14 below the £225 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £211 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£14 below the £225 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £211 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£13 below the £213 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £200 | |
| Painter and decorator£12 below the £200 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £188 | |
| Handyman£11 below the £188 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £177 | |
| Cladding Installer£11 below the £175 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £164 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£11 below the £175 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £164 | |
| General Labourer£8 below the £140 benchmark on Manchester geography. | £132 |
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 Manchester 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 Manchester 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 Manchester, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Manchester, so your own costs go in and a Manchester rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Manchester
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 Manchester rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Manchester comes to £376 to £752, on the 18th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Manchester
£376 to £752
A painter and decorator day in Manchester models at £188, 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 Manchester
£238 to £367
A plasterer day in Manchester models at £216, 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 Manchester
£538 to £688
A tiler day in Manchester models at £215, 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 Manchester 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 Manchester measurement.
Why Manchester prices as it does
Manchester 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.
£734.20
The North West median weekly pay Manchester is modelled on, 4.2 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 Manchester 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 Manchester charged for a day of work; what they show is why Manchester lands where it does.
North West WEEKLY PAY
£734.20
Manchester is modelled on the North West median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 4.2 percent below the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Manchester models at £188 a decorator day on it.North West ranks 5 of the 11 regions on the register, and Manchester is 1 of the 2 North West towns we model on it.
Manchester HOUSE PRICES
£247,000
The Manchester 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.15 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Manchester questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Manchester figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Manchester?
A decorator day in Manchester models at £188.
That is number 18 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Manchester day runs from £132 for general labourer work up to £263 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on North West earnings and Manchester house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Manchester?
Electrician, at £263 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £132.
That leaves a £131 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Manchester geography is applied to it.
Is Manchester dearer than Liverpool?
Manchester is the dearer of the two: £188 in Manchester against £175 in Liverpool, a £13 gap on a decorator day.
Manchester and Liverpool both sit in the North West.
Manchester ranks 1 of the 2 towns we model there.
Why are Manchester rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Manchester figure: North West median weekly pay of £734.20, 5 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £247,000, 16 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Manchester £12 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 6.0 percent down.
Can I use these Manchester figures as a quote?
No. £188 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £141 to £244, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Manchester jobs.
16 of the 17 Manchester 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 Manchester rows, £132 to £263. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Manchester figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVmanchester.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Manchester day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/manchester/
Embed this figure
The Manchester 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/manchester/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-manchester.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Manchester, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Manchester 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.