Out-of-Hours Rate
An out-of-hours rate is a stated premium on jobs outside your normal hours. Examples are an evening, a weekend, or an emergency. The premium pays for the slot you gave up.
What it means
A weekend or evening callout costs you more than a weekday job. The work itself is identical. You trade time you would otherwise spend off the clock. An out-of-hours rate prices that trade honestly. It is not a favor you happen to be doing.
Frame it as the cost of the slot, agreed before you travel. Use a fixed premium or a fixed multiple of your normal rate. Say it on the phone before you accept the job. Stated once like that, it reads as a normal cost of doing business. Added for the first time on the invoice, it reads as a penalty the caller never agreed to.
Your normal call-out is $65. A pipe bursts on a Sunday. You quote $65 plus a $50 out-of-hours premium before you drive over. The client agrees on the phone. The invoice matches what you said, so there is no argument once the job is done.
Deciding the out-of-hours premium after the job, based on how the visit went. State one figure before you agree to come out.
See also
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