National rank
11 of 30
10 towns model higher than this one.
York is the highest of the 3 Yorkshire towns we cover.
£195 a day, and 10 towns in the country model higher.
Modelled from two published statistics, Yorkshire median weekly pay of £708.20 and York housing at £309,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How York compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. York is the marked tick, at £195 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £5 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
York £195
£200 benchmark
York sits £40 under Guildford at the top and £35 over Sunderland at the bottom.
York's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £137 for general labourer work to £273 for electrician work.
Regional rank
1 of 3
Against the 3 towns we model in Yorkshire.
Versus benchmark
£5 down
2.5 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in York
17 trades, one town. A York day runs from £137 for general labourer up to £273 for electrician, which is a £136 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through Yorkshire earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 2 to 3 percent down on York geography, because one multiplier built from Yorkshire pay and York house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£7 below the £280 benchmark on York geography. | £273 | |
| Plumber£7 below the £270 benchmark on York geography. | £263 | |
| Bricklayer£6 below the £260 benchmark on York geography. | £254 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£6 below the £259 benchmark on York geography. | £253 | |
| General Builder£6 below the £253 benchmark on York geography. | £247 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£6 below the £240 benchmark on York geography. | £234 | |
| Roofer£6 below the £239 benchmark on York geography. | £233 | |
| Plasterer£6 below the £230 benchmark on York geography. | £224 | |
| Tiler£6 below the £229 benchmark on York geography. | £223 | |
| Drainage Engineer£5 below the £225 benchmark on York geography. | £220 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£5 below the £225 benchmark on York geography. | £220 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£5 below the £213 benchmark on York geography. | £208 | |
| Painter and decorator£5 below the £200 benchmark on York geography. | £195 | |
| Handyman£5 below the £188 benchmark on York geography. | £183 | |
| Cladding Installer£4 below the £175 benchmark on York geography. | £171 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£4 below the £175 benchmark on York geography. | £171 | |
| General Labourer£3 below the £140 benchmark on York geography. | £137 |
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 York 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 York 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 York, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to York, so your own costs go in and a York rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in York
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 York rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in York comes to £390 to £780, on the 11th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in York
£390 to £780
A painter and decorator day in York models at £195, 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 York
£246 to £381
A plasterer day in York models at £224, 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 York
£558 to £714
A tiler day in York models at £223, 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 York 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 York measurement.
Why York prices as it does
York carries Yorkshire prices without Yorkshire being the reason.
£309,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£708.20
The Yorkshire median weekly pay York is modelled on, 7.6 percent below the UK median of £766.60.
1.06x
Property against the UK average, 6 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 York 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 York charged for a day of work; what they show is why York lands where it does.
Yorkshire WEEKLY PAY
£708.20
York 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 York models at £195 a decorator day on it.Yorkshire ranks 8 of the 11 regions on the register, and York is 1 of the 3 Yorkshire towns we model on it.
York HOUSE PRICES
£309,000
The York average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 1.06 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.9 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
York questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a York figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in York?
A decorator day in York models at £195.
That is number 11 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a York day runs from £137 for general labourer work up to £273 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on Yorkshire earnings and York house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in York?
Electrician, at £273 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £137.
That leaves a £136 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any York geography is applied to it.
Is York dearer than Leeds?
York is the dearer of the two: £195 in York against £185 in Leeds, a £10 gap on a decorator day.
York and Leeds both sit in Yorkshire.
York ranks 1 of the 3 towns we model there.
Why are York rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the York figure: Yorkshire median weekly pay of £708.20, 8 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £309,000, 10 of the 30 towns.
Together they put York £5 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 2.5 percent down.
Can I use these York figures as a quote?
No. £195 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £146 to £254, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of York jobs.
16 of the 17 York 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 York rows, £137 to £273. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled York figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVyork.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, York day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/york/
Embed this figure
The York 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/york/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-york.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in York, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The York 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.