Have you ever wondered why, despite accurate estimates of materials, subcontractors, and labor, you keep losing bids to other builders' lower prices? Or why you lose money on some of the jobs you win, even though the construction goes as planned? One reason may be the way you deal with labor burden — the hidden costs of labor. If you treat labor burden as overhead instead of as a direct cost, your prices will be either too high to win the work, or too low to make money. What Is Labor Burden? Direct costs for materials and subcontractors are easy to estimate. Some suppliers will even do the material takeoff for you, and most subs will submit
