// AUSTRALIAN TRADIE RATES AND BENCHMARKS 2026
How much do bricklayers charge per hour in Australia?
As of August 2026, bricklaying businesses in Australia charge $45 to $120 per hour, with $65 typical, or $900 to $1,800 per 1,000 bricks laid. Those are business charge-out rates, not wages: an employed bricklayer's award minimum is $31.63 per hour, and most search results confuse the two.
Last updated: 18 August 2026. Sources: 7 industry datasets.
// THE DATA
Hourly rates in detail
Most of what search engines return for "bricklayer hourly rate" is wage data. PayScale measures average employee earnings at $35.28 per hour (updated 16 Jun 2026), and Seek and Indeed publish similar salary figures. Those numbers describe what an employed bricklayer earns on wages. Hiring a bricklaying business costs considerably more, because the quoted rate also has to fund the ute, insurance, gear, super and every unbillable hour.
What bricklaying businesses actually charge sits in a higher band: WhatsTheDamage lists $45 to $100 per hour with $65 typical (verified August 2026), ServiceSeeking's 2026 average is $72.75 per hour from a $50 minimum, with 36% of bricklaying quotes priced hourly, and ServiceTasker's older guide runs $50 to $120 (19 Jan 2024).
| Rate | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| National range | $45 to $120 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, verified Aug 2026; ServiceTasker, 19 Jan 2024 |
| Typical rate | $65 per hour | WhatsTheDamage $65 typical; ServiceSeeking average $72.75 |
| Sydney* | $52 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Darwin* | $52 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Canberra* | $50 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Melbourne* | $47 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Perth* | $47 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Brisbane* | $45 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Gold Coast* | $44 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Adelaide* | $41 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
| Hobart* | $40 per hour | WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026 |
Rows marked * are single-sourced; treat them as indicative rather than settled benchmarks.
Geographic rows show the starting rate (not average charged) (WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026).
City markers: starting rate (not average charged), WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026, single-sourced. Shaded band: the $45 to $120 national hourly range. Dot: the $65 typical charge-out rate. Employee wage figures from salary sites are deliberately excluded.
Prices are what customers are quoted, including GST where the business is registered.
Hourly is not bricklaying's native unit anyway. The trade's traditional quoting unit is the price per 1,000 bricks laid: $900 to $1,800 for labour with about $1,300 typical (WhatsTheDamage, verified August 2026), and Melbourne runs $945 to $1,900 on the same publisher's city guide. ServiceTasker's older guide agrees at $1,000 to $2,000 per 1,000, or $1.00 to $2.00 per brick. A skilled bricklayer lays roughly 400 to 600 standard bricks a day, which is how a per-1,000 price and a day on site reconcile.
Per square metre is the other structured unit. Standard brickwork labour runs $55 to $130 per square metre with $90 typical (WhatsTheDamage, verified August 2026), ServiceSeeking's 2026 average is $73.98 per square metre from the 18% of quotes priced that way, and ServiceTasker lists $60 to $100 labour-only, or $150 to $200 once bricks and materials are included. A standard single-skin wall uses about 50 bricks per square metre, so per-1,000 and per-metre quotes describe the same wall in different units.
Two cautions. Marketplace listing pages advertise bricklayers from $20 to $40 per hour or $30 to $40 per square metre; those are lowest-bid headlines that conflict with the same marketplace's own dated 2026 guide, so treat them as a budget floor rather than a going rate. And prices are moving: WhatsTheDamage has bricklaying up 3.9% to 5.0% year on year depending on the city, a single-sourced but dated freshness signal.
Quick job cost estimator
$225 to $600 around $325 at the typical rate
Slider estimate uses the sourced $45 to $120 hourly range above. Walls and bigger jobs are normally quoted per 1,000 bricks or per square metre rather than per hour; real quotes depend on access, scaffold and brick supply.
// CALL-OUT FEES
Call-out fees
No published call-out fee market exists for bricklaying, and this page will not invent one. Bricklayers quote per 1,000 bricks, per square metre or per job, and attendance is folded into the quote the same way it is for concreters.
The floor shows up in small-job pricing instead. Brick repairs run about $15 to $60 per brick and a brick letterbox rebuild $400 to $1,500 (WhatsTheDamage, verified August 2026), so a broken course or a leaning letterbox is priced as a small job, not as a fee plus wage-hours.
Worked example: single-skin garden wall, about 1,000 bricks
- Labour at the published per-1,000-bricks band (WhatsTheDamage, Aug 2026)
- $900 to $1,800
- Cross-check: 2 full days on site at $400 to $850 per 8-hour day
- $800 to $1,700
- Cross-check: about 16 hrs at the $65/hr typical rate
- $1,040
Illustrative worked example combining the sourced figures above; it is a derivation, not a published statistic.
// DAY RATES
Day rates
Bricklaying has a genuine day-rate market: 20% of ServiceSeeking's 2026 bricklaying quotes are priced daily. But day figures on this topic are routinely muddled with the daily earnings that salary sites publish for employed bricklayers, so this page publishes full-day charge figures only. A full 8-hour day runs $400 to $850 (WhatsTheDamage, verified August 2026), and ServiceSeeking's average of $649.95 per day from $450 sits comfortably inside that band.
| Rate | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| National, full 8-hour day | $400 to $850 per full 8-hour day | WhatsTheDamage, verified Aug 2026 |
These figures are what a bricklaying business charges for a full day on site, not what an employed bricklayer is paid for one. The award weekly wage of $1,202.08 is the employee-side number.
// THE COST FLOOR
Why rates are what they are: the cost floor
An employed bricklayer's award minimum wage, including all-purpose allowances, is $31.63 per hour (Fair Work, Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020), 2026). The rate a bricklayer business charges customers is $45 to $120 per hour. The difference pays for the ute, insurance, tools, super, unbillable hours and the business's risk.
The gap pays for the ute, insurance, tools, super, unbillable hours and the business's risk.
Here is the gap the salary sites hide: the $31.63 award minimum becomes $35.43 an hour once 12% super is added, and PayScale's measured average wage of $35.28 lands almost exactly on that employee-cost line. A bricklaying business charging $45 an hour is clearing less than $10 over the bare cost of the person holding the trowel, before the ute, mixer, scaffold, insurance or a single unbillable hour is funded, which is why charge-out rates run to $120 and why walls are quoted per 1,000 bricks rather than per wage-hour.
The $35.43 employee-cost figure is a derivation, the award hourly rate multiplied by 1.12 for the Superannuation Guarantee, not a published statistic. Award classification: Level 3 (CW/ECW 3) Bricklayer, weekly hire, residential, incl. industry and tool allowance (the pay guide lists bricklayer at its own CW3 rate).
// FREE TOOL
Work out your own rate
The distance between what a brickie earns and what a bricklaying business must charge is the whole point of this page. Put your own wage target, ute costs and billable hours into the calculator and it returns the hourly and day rate your per-1,000 pricing has to clear.
Charge-out rate and day rate calculator Opens with the bricklayer preset loadedCharging right but still not booked out? Web Blend builds websites and lead systems for bricklayers.
See the Lead System →// COMMON QUESTIONS
Bricklayer rate questions
Straight answers to the questions people actually search, from the same dataset as the tables above.
Get in touchHow much do bricklayers charge per hour in Australia?
As of August 2026, bricklaying businesses charge $45 to $120 per hour, with $65 typical and a 2026 marketplace average of $72.75. Published city starting rates run from $40 in Hobart to $52 in Sydney and Darwin. Salary-site figures near $35 per hour are employee wages, not charge rates.
How much does bricklaying cost per 1,000 bricks?
Labour runs $900 to $1,800 per 1,000 bricks laid, with about $1,300 typical (WhatsTheDamage, August 2026), and ServiceTasker's older guide agrees at $1,000 to $2,000, or $1.00 to $2.00 per brick. Per 1,000 is the trade's traditional quoting unit; bricks are supplied separately.
How much does bricklaying cost per square metre?
Standard brickwork labour runs $55 to $130 per square metre, typically about $90, and ServiceSeeking's 2026 average is $73.98 from the 18% of quotes priced per square metre. With bricks and materials included, expect roughly $150 to $200 per square metre.
Do bricklayers charge a day rate?
Yes: 20% of 2026 bricklaying quotes are priced daily. A full 8-hour day runs $400 to $850, and ServiceSeeking's 2026 average is $649.95 per day from $450. Read day figures carefully on this topic, because salary sites publish employee daily earnings that look similar but are not charge rates.
What does an employed bricklayer earn compared with what a business charges?
An employed bricklayer's award minimum is $31.63 per hour, $1,202.08 per week, and PayScale measures average earnings at $35.28 per hour. A bricklaying business charges $45 to $120 per hour because the rate must also fund the ute, insurance, gear, super and unbillable hours.
Do bricklayers charge a call-out fee?
No published call-out fee market exists for bricklaying. Work is quoted per 1,000 bricks, per square metre or per job, and small repairs are priced as small jobs: brick repair runs about $15 to $60 per brick rather than a fee plus an hourly rate.
Do bricklayers charge GST on top?
Quoted prices are generally GST-inclusive where the bricklaying business is registered for GST, and this page shows prices as customers are quoted them. On bigger jobs, get the quote in writing with labour, brick supply and GST treatment stated as separate lines.
// METHODOLOGY & SOURCES
Sources and methodology
Ranges on this page combine 7 published Australian datasets and cost guides, cross-checked on 18 August 2026; award wage floors come from official Fair Work pay guides effective 1 July 2026. This page is part of the Australian Tradie Rates and Benchmarks dataset. This dataset is reviewed and republished every July following the Fair Work annual wage review.
- WhatsTheDamage, bricklaying cost guide (hourly, per 1,000 bricks, per m2, city starting rates, full-day band)
Page date: Last verified August 2026. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- WhatsTheDamage, bricklaying cost Melbourne (per-1,000 corroboration, bricks-per-day and bricks-per-m2 context)
Page date: Last verified August 2026. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- ServiceSeeking, bricklayer cost in Australia 2026 (hourly and daily averages, quote-method shares)
Page date: Published 26 Mar 2026. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- ServiceTasker, bricklayer cost guide (older; corroborates hourly, per-1,000 and per-m2 structure)
Page date: Published 19 Jan 2024. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- ServiceSeeking, bricklayers marketplace page (undated lowest-bid headline; excluded from headline figures)
Page date: Undated. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- PayScale, bricklayer hourly pay Australia (EMPLOYEE EARNINGS benchmark, not a charge-out source)
Page date: Updated 16 Jun 2026. Accessed 18 August 2026.
- Fair Work pay guide, MA000020 (effective 1 Jul 2026)
Page date: Pay guide effective 1 Jul 2026, published 2 Jul 2026. Accessed 18 August 2026.
Every figure on this page with its range, unit and source. Free to reuse with attribution and a link.
// KEEP EXPLORING