How the Rates book is built

This page describes the public reference book behind Rates. It separates what the files contain from what we have not independently verified. A later code change is not a data review.

What the book contains

Each row is a labor or equipment line for one Canadian province or US state: item, class, billing unit, currency, and a low, central, and high reference value. Labor rows are charge-out ranges. Equipment rows are bare, operated, or rental when the stored description says so. Canadian rows are CAD. US rows are USD.

What it does not measure

The book is not a wage survey, union package, prevailing-wage determination, live supplier quote, or a fresh web search. Ask reads this same local book. It does not look up current yard prices.

Reference estimates and modeled values

Every stored row is labeled source "reference" and effective 2026-08. We do not have an observed survey, sample size, or reviewer identity for those original numbers, so they are published as reference estimates, not measured market medians. US states added by the expansion script are modeled from the Texas baseline. Every hydrovac row was then scaled by 330/290. Those are modeled benchmarks.

Texas baseline scaling

For states that were not already in the book, the expansion script copies each Texas row and multiplies it by a state factor. Labor uses the BuildCost 2026 residential cost index divided by 105, the Texas index on that page. Equipment uses a compressed factor: 1 + (labor factor - 1) × 0.48, or × 0.72 for Alaska and Hawaii. That compression is an implementation assumption, not a BuildCost rule.

The BuildCost 2026 Construction Cost Index page lists Texas at 105. It is a residential housing-cost index. Linking it does not mean BuildCost measured these T&M charge-out rows. buildcost.io/cost-index.

Energy-market premiums and rounding

Hydrovac, pipefitter, welder, instrumentation, millwright, and boilermaker lines in selected energy states receive an extra multiplier from the script (Louisiana 1.18, North Dakota 1.16, Oklahoma 1.12, Wyoming and New Mexico 1.10, Alaska 1.06). Those premiums are implementation assumptions. Every published low, central, and high value is rounded to the nearest $5, with the spread forced so low stays below central and high stays above it.

Hydrovac adjustment

The script lifts every existing hydrovac row by 330/290, then builds new-state hydrovac rows from the already-lifted Texas line. A script comment names Hydrovac Hotline 2026 as a method lock. That publication was not independently verified here, so it is not cited as proof of any published number.

Inclusions, units, and currency

Operator, fuel, attachments, and mobilization are included only when the row description says so. Bare iron usually needs a separate operator line. Operated trucks and hydrovac include the stated crew. Daily lines are rental-style. Do not treat every row as the same package. Units are /hr or /day as stored. CAD and USD are never interchangeable.

Effective dates and review dates

The stored effective month is 2026-08. No separate review date is on file. Updating this website or this methodology page does not refresh the underlying numbers.

Limitations

Use agreed project rates for billing. This book is a public check, not a contract. BLS OEWS, CLAC/CLRA, and Cat rental figures appear only in script comments and were not verified for this page.

SubTrack public rate book. Legacy rows stored with source "reference" and an effective month of 2026-08. The book does not record an observed survey, sample size, or reviewer for each number. These figures are reference estimates. They are not independently validated market observations.
BuildCost 2026 Construction Cost Index. Residential state cost index used by the expansion script to scale Texas rows. Texas is indexed at 105. The page is a housing-cost index, not a T&M charge-out survey. Using this index does not mean BuildCost measured each labor or equipment charge-out in the book.
Expansion-script assumptions. Equipment compression versus labor, energy-market premiums, hydrovac lift of 330/290, and rounding to the nearest $5 are encoded in scripts/expandRatebook.mjs. They are implementation choices. BLS OEWS, CLAC/CLRA, Cat rental, and Hydrovac Hotline are named in script comments. Those publications were not verified here and are not cited as proof of any row.