How Much Do General Contractors Make?

In this guide, we’ll give you a full contractor earnings breakdown.

We’ll go over averages and explore what actually determines your take-home pay. We’ll touch on revenue, margins, close rates, and overheads.

To wrap up, we’ll share some tips you can use to increase your income. Let’s get started.

Average Salary for General Contractors

How much do general contractors make? The answer varies quite a lot.

National Average Salary

According to Indeed, most general contractors earn around:

$101,162 per year on average
$42,450 at the low end
$241,079 at the high end

Some reports show higher averages. Salary Expert puts the average closer to:

$132,499 per year
Around $8,427 in bonuses

Pay by Experience Level

How experienced you are impacts your general contractor income:

Entry level (1 to 3 years): $92,469 per year
Senior level (8-plus years): $149,999 per year

Salary by Location

Where you work can also affect how much you take home. Some cities pay more for the same work.

Here are a few examples:

Houston, TX: $128,545 per year
Jacksonville, FL: $125,055 per year
Chicago, IL: $124,312 per year
Cincinnati, OH: $124,107 per year

Other areas come in a little lower:

Indianapolis, IN: $80,861 per year
St. Louis, MO: $75,145 per year

How Much Do General Contractor Business Owners Make?

What about general contractor business income?

There’s no one straightforward answer, as different owners pay themselves in different ways. Let’s take a closer look.

Revenue vs. Income

Construction business revenue is the total money your business brings in. Income is what you hold on to after expenses.

Here’s a simple way to think about it:

Revenue = total job value before costs
Income = what is left after you cover labor, materials, and overhead costs

For example, you can run $1M in jobs but take home $100,000 in income. This might be less than you expected if your costs are too high or your jobs are priced too low.

You might feel like you’re taking one step forward but two steps back. You’re busy, no doubt about it. But your bank account? It’s stuck.

Average Revenue Ranges

How much revenue your business brings in depends on how many jobs you complete and how big your team is.

Business size	Number of employees	Average yearly revenue
Micro	1–4 employees	$487,000
Small	5–19 employees	$2,340,000
Medium	20–99 employees	$14,700,000

Remember, a higher revenue doesn’t automatically mean a higher income. If your contractor profit margins are razor-thin, more work might lead to more stress instead of more pay.

How Much Does the Business Owner Take Home?

A general contractor business owner earns about $228,575 per year according to ZipRecruiter.

For comparison, the average business owner across all industries earns about $113,914 per year.

That said, your take-home pay might be more or less depending on how you pay yourself.

You have two options:

You pay yourself a salary through payroll with taxes withheld.
You take an owner’s draw, which is a variable payment based on business profits.

A salary gives you consistency. In contrast, an owner’s draw offers flexibility, but your income will likely change month to month.

Some contractors use a mix of both. They take a base salary, then add extra pay when profits are high.

Finally, how much you take home will also depend on how mature your business is.

Early on, you’ll likely take very little. You’ll need to reinvest cash back into the business to grow it.
As your revenue and margins increase over time, you can raise your pay.

RELATED ARTICLE — How to Get a General Contractor License

Profit Margins in General Contracting

General contractor income is dependent on many interconnected factors. One of the most significant is the profit margin.

How much do contractors make per job? It all comes down to margins.

Here’s what you need to know.

Gross vs. Net Margins

Gross and net margins measure different parts of your money:

Gross margin is what you keep after direct job costs, like the cost of materials for that job.
Net margin is what you keep after all business costs, like insurance and marketing.

If your gross margin is healthy but your net margin is tight, it’s fair to say that your overhead costs are too high.

Average Contractor Profit Margins

You’ll want to aim for high but realistic margins:

Gross margins are around the 20% range.
Net margins are about 10% for healthy businesses.

Top contractors perform better than average. Data shows top companies reach:

21.8% gross margin
11.9% net margin before tax

How Profit Margins Impact Your Earnings

Your margin controls your take-home pay.

Here’s an example:

You complete $1,000,000 in jobs at 10% net margin.
You keep $100,000 before taxes.

Now compare that to stronger margins:

You run $1,000,000 in jobs at 15% net margin.
You keep $150,000 before taxes.

That extra 5% adds a huge $50,000 to your income.

That’s why more work isn’t always the answer, especially if you have to drop your prices to win it.

Instead, you can cut overheads to improve your profit margin. You take home more money, and you don’t have to do any more work.

What Factors Affect How Much Contractors Make?

How much contractors make is affected by the type of work they do, average job size, pricing strategy, close rate, and overhead efficiency.

Type of Work

There’s a big difference between small remodeling jobs and large home additions.

Additions carry more risk. They also take longer to complete and involve more moving parts.

For these reasons, the pay will likely be higher. You’re taking on more responsibility, more coordination, and more chances for delays or cost overruns.

Smaller jobs, in contrast, are easier and quicker to finish. You can do more of them, which can increase your pay too.

Job Size and Pricing Strategy

Job size affects profit in two ways:

It changes how much money comes in.
It changes how much can go wrong.

A larger job can produce more gross profit dollars. Sounds good in theory, but there’s more chance of something going wrong.

Smaller jobs are easier to turn over. But they come with a proportionally larger amount of admin work.

Overhead can chip away at your profit when the ticket size is low.

Your pricing strategy is important as well. You’ll likely use one of these approaches:

Markup pricing: You total your costs, then add a markup.
Fixed pricing: You quote one price for the whole job.
Cost-plus pricing: You bill costs, then add a set fee or percentage.
Unit pricing: You charge by square foot, room, or task.

Lead Volume and Close Rate

Leads don’t always work out, and more doesn’t always mean more money.

In fact, you can spend a lot of valuable time following up with leads that are unlikely to convert. They cost you money.

That said, if you find a way to increase your close rate, it becomes a lever that will increase your revenue exponentially.

Let’s say you get 40 leads this month. You close 10, so your close rate is 25%. If your average job is $15,000, that gives you $150,000 in sold work before costs.

Raise that close rate to 35%, and you sell 14 jobs instead of 10. That’s $210,000 in sold work at the same average job size.

A 10% increase in close rate gives you a 40% increase in revenue.

Efficiency and Overhead

Your overhead costs include all the expenses you need to cover to run your business. They might include:

Staff wages
Rent and utilities
Insurance and licenses
Software and subscriptions
Fuel and vehicle payments
Bookkeeping and accounting

Efficiency is how well you’ve optimized these costs.

Low efficiency means you’re spending money without a good return.
High efficiency means every dollar and hour has a purpose.

How Contractors Increase Their Income

You can increase your general contractor salary. Here’s how.

Raising Prices Strategically

It always feels a bit risky to increase your prices. You worry that you’ll lose out on jobs because your competitor will be cheaper.

But your goal isn’t to be the most affordable option. It’s to be the best option, the contractor who delivers the highest quality and provides an unmatched customer experience.

Sometimes, to give your customers the best value on the market, you’ll need to raise your price.

The good news? You can do this without upsetting your clients.

Try this:

Provide detailed estimates and invoices that outline exactly what’s included in your price.
Break down the project scope so clients can grasp the full value of your service.
Set timelines and stick to them.
Communicate often and with clarity so clients feel heard and in control.

You can also raise prices in small steps rather than all at once. Test increases on new leads first, and track your close rate. If it stays about the same, your margins have improved.

Improving Close Rates

You already paid to get the lead. Now you need to convert it.

How? Use speed.

If you contact a lead within 5 minutes, you are 5 times more likely to connect. If you wait 30 minutes, your odds drop by 21 times.

That’s the first step. The next is staying front-of-mind in the space between estimate and decision. To do this, implement a system:

Send the estimate the same day when possible.
Set a follow-up for 24 to 48 hours later.
Take notes on each lead or use a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, so you can personalize your approach.

Increasing Average Job Size

Bigger jobs can lift your income without extra clients. But you’ll need to increase job value without increasing costs at the same rate.

Do this during the sales process. For example, you can:

Suggest upgrades that align with the client’s goals.
Bundle related work into one project.
Offer better materials with long-term value.
Plan future work now while the site is active.

Reducing Inefficiencies

Think about where time slips away from you:

Leads sit too long before you respond.
Appointments are scheduled manually.
Notes live scattered over texts, emails, and bits of paper.

This results in delays and missed opportunities to close deals. A solution like improveit 360 can be a game-changer.

You can track leads, jobs, and performance all in one place. At a glance, you know exactly where each deal stands and what you need to do next.

improveit 360 improves your process with:

CRM and lead tracking
Appointment scheduling
Reporting
Project management
And more

Give it a try for free today.

Common Mistakes That Limit Contractor Earnings

Here are the most common mistakes that could be limiting your earnings:

You cover labor and materials, but little is left. Underpricing jobs often happens when you rush estimates or guess costs.
Leads come in, but they’re not tracked properly. Some sit in your inbox. Others get lost in texts or calls.
You send an estimate, then move on to the next job without follow-up. The client waits, then loses interest or hires someone else.
You don’t have visibility into your pipeline. You can’t see how many quotes are out or what stage they’re in.

How to Maximize Your Earnings as a General Contractor

Your income is not just about skill. It’s about running a well-oiled, profit-driving machine. And that demands the right processes.

Tools like improveit 360 give you a comprehensive view of your leads, jobs, and performance. You can see what’s working and fix what’s not.

To start earning more:

Track your pipeline every week.
Respond to every lead as fast as possible.
Review your job costs after each project. Check what you estimated versus what you spent.
Set reminders to follow up before you send an estimate. Don’t rely on your memory.