What solar installation labour costs in October 2026
Labour is the part of a solar quote nobody itemises. We price it two ways. At the Electrical Award minimum, a licensed electrician (grade 5) and an installer (grade 1) cost $477.76 for an eight-hour day between them, before superannuation, leave and insurance. At the rates electricians charge the public, the same day in Sydney is $956.24, and nationally $860.24 to $1,420.24. Against the Sydney standard 6.6 kW offer of $6,170 that is 8 to 15 per cent of the price, inside the 15 to 30 per cent labour share the industry reports for a job. The hardware, not the labour, is where most of the money goes, and where a cheap quote saves it.
Time on site and crew
A 6.6 kW job on a single-storey tin roof takes 8 to 24 hours on site from first ladder to final test: one day for most homes, two or three where the roof is two storeys, tiled, steep or needs a switchboard change. No Australian source publishes crew size, so every figure on this page assumes two people, one licensed electrician and one installer, which is the minimum for supervised electrical work. That is 16 labour hours for a one-day job; a three-day job at the same crew is $1,433.28 at award rates. The installer who signs off the system must hold Solar Accreditation Australia accreditation, which costs the business $884.13 a year per category (see compliance below), or the STCs cannot be created.
What an installer's day costs at award rates
The Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award sets the floor. From 1 July 2026 a grade 5 electrician is $29.45 an hour; add the industry, licence and tool allowances ($41.41, $40.29 and $22.31 a week, divided by a 38-hour week) and the all-purpose rate is $32.19. A grade 1 installer is $26.44 plus the industry allowance, $27.53 all purpose. Eight hours each: $257.52 plus $220.24 = $477.76. Superannuation, leave loading, workers compensation, travel time and the vehicle sit on top, so no compliant installer can sell labour at this figure; it is the lowest legal wage cost for the day.
| Role | Base hourly | Allowances | All-purpose hourly | 8-hour day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician, grade 5 (tradesperson) | $29.45 | $104.01 a week (industry, licence, tool) | $32.19 | $257.52 |
| Installer, grade 1 | $26.44 | $41.41 a week (industry) | $27.53 | $220.24 |
| Two-person crew | $477.76 |
What the same day costs at market electrician rates
What a customer is charged for an electrician is a different number from the wage. Australian charge-out rates for general electrical work run $80 to $150 an hour including GST, typically $100, with a call-out fee of $50 to $150. These are general electrician rates, not solar crew rates, and no published source gives a market rate for the non-electrician installer, so we keep the installer at the award figure. A day at the typical rate is $1,020.24; at the top of the range $1,420.24. The gap between the award day ($477.76) and the market day is the overhead and margin on labour: vehicle, insurance, tools, supervision, idle time and profit.
| Rate basis | Electrician per hour | Electrician 8 hours | Installer 8 hours (award) | Crew day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National low | $80 | $640 | $220.24 | $860.24 |
| National typical | $100 | $800 | $220.24 | $1,020.24 |
| National high | $150 | $1,200 | $220.24 | $1,420.24 |
Labour-only cost by capital city
Charge-out rates differ by city, from $72 an hour in Hobart to $92 in Sydney, a spread of $20 an hour or $160 on an eight-hour day. The table prices a crew day at each capital's rate and sets it against the city's standard 6.6 kW offer and the 15 to 30 per cent labour share. Adelaide has the lowest rate and the second-lowest offer; Hobart has the second-lowest rate and the second-dearest offer; Darwin's crew day is the same as Brisbane's on a system that costs $3,494 more.
| City | Electrician from, per hour | Electrician 8 hours | Installer 8 hours | Crew day | Standard 6.6 kW offer | 15 to 30% labour share | Crew day as % of offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perth | $84 | $672 | $220.24 | $892.24 | $5,294 | $794 to $1,588 | 16.9% |
| Adelaide | $74 | $592 | $220.24 | $812.24 | $5,812 | $872 to $1,744 | 14.0% |
| Canberra | $76 | $608 | $220.24 | $828.24 | $6,144 | $922 to $1,843 | 13.5% |
| Sydney | $92 | $736 | $220.24 | $956.24 | $6,170 | $926 to $1,851 | 15.5% |
| Melbourne | $84 | $672 | $220.24 | $892.24 | $6,218 | $933 to $1,865 | 14.3% |
| Brisbane | $80 | $640 | $220.24 | $860.24 | $6,756 | $1,013 to $2,027 | 12.7% |
| Hobart | $72 | $576 | $220.24 | $796.24 | $7,544 | $1,132 to $2,263 | 10.6% |
| Darwin | $80 | $640 | $220.24 | $860.24 | $10,250 | $1,538 to $3,075 | 8.4% |
The last column is the one-day crew cost as a share of the offer. Where a job runs to two or three days the share doubles or triples, which is why two-storey and tile roofs carry the add-ons listed further down rather than a higher base price.
Compliance and connection costs on a job
Beyond wages, a compliant install carries fees that most quotes bury in the price. Per job they are small: on a Zone 3 Sydney 6.6 kW system the STC processing fee ($0.47 a certificate, 45 certificates) and the Ausgrid application add up to $43.33 before GST; in Melbourne the certificate of electrical safety and the STC fee come to $58.03, before a distributor application that ranges from $0 to $700 depending on the network. The business-level costs, accreditation and the retailer code fees, are spread across every job the installer does. Meter exchange is a retailer charge, $0 to $300, and sits outside the installer's quote.
| Item | Amount | Applies to | Checked on or effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installer accreditation (SAA), first accreditation per category | $884.13 a year | business cost, every installer who signs off STC jobs; not charged per job | fetched 2026-10-27 |
| STC processing fee | $0.47 per certificate: $21.15 on 45 STCs (Zone 3) or $18.33 on 39 (Zone 4), 6.6 kW | every job that creates STCs | 3 Sep 2026 |
| Grid connection application, Ausgrid (NSW) | $24.40 up to 10 kW; $138.35 for 10 to 30 kW | Ausgrid area | page footer 2026, read 27 October 2026 |
| Grid connection application, Jemena (VIC) | $700 from 21 September 2026 ($550 before) | Jemena area; some residential rows show $0 | read 27 October 2026 |
| Grid connection application, Energex (QLD) | $143.31 to $429.52 ex GST (negotiated connections; weak, from a search result only) | Energex area | effective 1 July 2026, not confirmed on the page |
| Grid connection application, SA Power Networks and Western Power | no fee stated for residential systems up to 30 kVA (SAPN) or residential inverter applications (Western Power) | SA and WA | read 27 October 2026 |
| Certificate of Electrical Safety (VIC) | $39.70 online, $43.20 paper | every Victorian job; contractors may add handling | fee table effective 1 July 2026 |
| Compliance certificate (NSW CCEW, SA eCoC) | $0 regulator fee | NSW and SA | read 27 October 2026 |
| Meter exchange | $0 to $300 | charged by the retailer, not the installer; no state schedule published | read 27 October 2026 |
| Retailer code of conduct (NETCC) | $480 application, $800 to $10,000 a year | business cost for signatory retailers; 2024 schedule, weak | 20 Sep 2024 |
Where a fee is marked weak it came from a search result rather than the publishing body's page and is shown for completeness only. Energex, Ergon Energy and Power and Water block automated reading of their fee pages.
Why Perth and Adelaide are cheapest: what the data shows
Perth's standard 6.6 kW offer is $5,294 and Adelaide's $5,812, against $6,170 in Sydney: gaps of $876 and $358. Labour rates do not explain them. Perth's electrician charge-out rate ($84) is the same as Melbourne's and above Adelaide's, Brisbane's and Hobart's; the crew-day difference between Sydney and Perth is $64, about 7 per cent of the $876 price gap. Hobart has one of the lowest labour rates in the country and the second-dearest offer; Darwin has a mid-range labour rate and the dearest offer by far. Whatever sets the Perth and Adelaide prices, it is not the cost of a day on the roof.
What we can show from the index is the ordering of city prices and the size of each gap. What we cannot show, because no public dataset holds it, is the number of active installers per capital or their hardware buying prices, and so this page does not assert installer density or volume discounts as the cause. The city pages for Perth and Adelaide carry the local prices by size; the cost per watt page has every capital on one scale.
Labour inside the "too cheap" floor
Our component floor for a 6.6 kW tin-roof job adds the lowest trade prices for panels, inverter and racking to the award crew day and the per-job compliance fees: $4,524 before GST, of which labour is $477.76, or 10.6 per cent. If the crew takes 40 labour hours rather than 16, labour rises to $1,194 and the floor with it. The point for a buyer: a quote well below the floor has not found cheaper labour, because there is none to find below the award; it has swapped the hardware. The cheap solar page lists what gets swapped, and the quote check compares any quote with the index for your city.
Site add-ons that are mostly labour
- Tile roof: $200 to $600 extra labour over tin; tile hooks replace brackets and each tile is lifted and ground.
- Two storeys: $1,000 to $3,500 for roof edge protection or scaffold, a work health and safety requirement where the fall is 2 metres or more; a quote that omits it is a quote for an unsafe job.
- Switchboard: $500 to $2,500 where the board needs replacing or making solar ready, never included in the base price.
- Travel: no published surcharge exists; ask for it as a line item outside the metro area.
Base prices by city and size, and the full list of hidden costs, are on the solar panel cost guide.
Installation cost questions
How much does solar installation labour cost?
$477.76 to $1,420.24 for a two-person crew for an eight-hour day: $477.76 at Electrical Award minimum rates from 1 July 2026, $1,020.24 at the typical market electrician charge-out rate of $100 an hour, $1,420.24 at $150. On a $6,170 Sydney 6.6 kW quote that is 8 to 15 per cent of the price.
How long does a solar installation take?
8 to 24 hours on site for a 6.6 kW system: one day on a single-storey tin roof, two to three days for two storeys, tile, steep pitch or a switchboard upgrade. Grid connection and meter exchange follow afterwards and are the retailer's and distributor's timing, not the installer's.
What does a solar installer earn per hour?
$29.45 an hour is the award minimum for a grade 5 electrician from 1 July 2026, $32.19 with allowances; a grade 1 installer is $26.44, $27.53 with the industry allowance. What the customer is charged for an electrician is $80 to $150 an hour.
What share of a solar quote is labour?
15 to 30 per cent of job revenue is the industry range. Our arithmetic puts a one-day crew in Sydney at 15 per cent of the $6,170 standard offer at market rates and 8 per cent at award rates; a three-day job triples it.
What compliance fees are included in a solar install?
$43.33 per job before GST in Sydney (STC processing at $0.47 a certificate on 45 certificates, plus the $24.40 Ausgrid application) and $58.03 in Melbourne (STC fee on 39 certificates plus the $39.70 certificate of electrical safety), before any distributor fee of up to $700. Accreditation at $884.13 a year is a business cost.
Why is solar installation cheaper in Perth and Adelaide?
$5,294 in Perth and $5,812 in Adelaide against $6,170 in Sydney for a standard 6.6 kW system in October 2026. Labour rates explain about $64 of the $876 Sydney to Perth gap; the rest sits in hardware pricing and margin, which no public dataset breaks out by city, so we do not name a cause.
Does my solar installer need to be accredited?
$884.13 a year per category is the Solar Accreditation Australia fee, and the person who signs off the system must hold that accreditation or the STCs that take $1,755 off a Zone 3 6.6 kW quote cannot be created. Ask for the accreditation number of the installer on the roof, not only the sales company.