Freelance Builder Pay Trends: April 2022

Pay rates on building sites dropped last month as “well-paid subbies took a well-earned break” during the Easter holidays, according to Hudson Contract.

Our family-owned group manages the construction industry’s biggest payroll and provides regular insights into real-time demand for skilled labour.

Latest analysis shows average weekly earnings for self-employed tradespeople fell by 6.9 per cent to £893 in April. Earnings fell by 2.2 per cent compared to the same month in 2021.

Earnings had reached £959 in March, matching the record high seen in December – the equivalent to a healthy annual salary of around £50,000.

Ian Anfield, our managing director, said: “As expected, earnings for April were impacted as freelancers took their families away for a long-awaited holiday with the lifting of Covid travel restrictions across many European short-haul destinations and plenty of good deals on offer.

“The well-publicised queues at Manchester airport and tailbacks outside Dover will have been full of self-employed tradespeople heading off for some early season sunshine. Well-paid subbies took a well-earned break after doing so much to keep the wider economy going over the last two years.”

The East Midlands saw the biggest monthly movement in earnings (-13.7 per cent) followed by the North East (-11.2 per cent) and Wales (-9.1 per cent). Shop fitters were the only trade to increase their earnings, which rose by 0.8 per cent to £1,105 per week.

To view our interactive pay trends map click here

Hudson Contract is the UK’s largest provider of tax status and employment contract services to the construction industry with annual revenues approaching £1.8 billion and a client base of 2,500 construction SMEs.

We deliver the most accurate indication of subcontractor pay trends across the construction industry, publishing the average pay for a spectrum of 17 different trades split across 10 regions in England and Wales. We also supply statistics to the Bank of England to keep policymakers updated with what’s happening on building sites.