Overhead rates by trade and revenue band
What your trade runs at your size, what the CFOS target is, and why the number on your bid sheet doesn't match either one.
Overhead for commercial subcontractors runs from 13% to 18% of revenue in the $1M–$5M band across 48 published trades. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
Inside the range the published surveys report.
| Trade | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50MModeled | $50M–$100MModeled | $100M–$500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target $1M–$5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civil and earthwork11 trades | ||||||||
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 10% | 9% | 15% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 10% | 9% | 15% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| Concrete and masonry5 trades | ||||||||
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| Landscape and irrigation2 trades | ||||||||
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| Electrical and technology6 trades | ||||||||
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| Mechanical and life safety7 trades | ||||||||
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 18% | 17% | 16% | 15% | 13% | 12% | 10% | 17% | |
| Envelope and structure8 trades | ||||||||
| 18% | 17% | 16% | 15% | 13% | 12% | 10% | 17% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 17% | 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 11% | 10% | 16% | |
| Interiors and finishes6 trades | ||||||||
| 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% | |
| 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% | |
| 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% | |
| 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% | |
| Specialty3 trades | ||||||||
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% | |
| 18% | 17% | 16% | 15% | 14% | 12% | 11% | 17% | |
Target. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue. Reproduces the published target column on all 48 of 48 published trades. It is published up to $10M to $25M. The 4 bands above that are a modeled extension and have no target.
Gross margin and overhead come from CFMA, Jones Maresca and SPM's own trade data, because those are the figures those sources report by trade and size. Net profit is calculated from them as gross margin minus overhead, so the three rows tie. That makes it an operating profit figure: what is left before interest, other income and expense, and the tax planning choices owners make, such as bonuses, depreciation methods and retirement contributions.
Surveys report net income before taxes after those items, so a reported net can run below the figure here. At the typical contractor the difference is small: CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. It grows with size. Against the separate measured net profit dataset, the calculated net runs 0.8 points higher at $1M to $5M, 2.2 points at $5M to $10M and 3.5 points at $10M to $25M, because the gross margin and overhead rows change faster with size than reported net profit does.
Above the $10M to $25M band the gross margin and overhead rows are a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, and the calculated net there runs well above survey medians, so read those bands as a model and not as a survey result.
What your trade runs
All 48 published trades across all 7 revenue bands. Pick your trade and revenue above and the table follows.
SPM The Construction CFO. SPM Trade Benchmark Reference: Overhead. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/benchmarks/overhead. CC BY 4.0.
Figures on this page were last revised 2026-08-21. Published under CC BY 4.0, which permits reuse of any figure here, including commercially, as long as the credit above travels with it. The same figures in machine-readable form: /benchmarks.json.
Trade level gross margin and overhead compiled by SPM The Construction CFO, validated against published CFMA and JMCO benchmarks. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System, published with the full reference at runoncfos.com.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024.
- 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2025.
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025.
- SPM Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, 2026.
Sourcing and method: the methodology page.
Which bands are measured. The 4 bands above $10M–$25M extend the survey curve further out and have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. How every figure was built is explained on the methodology page.
What owners ask about this
What overhead should a commercial subcontractor run?
It depends on the trade and the revenue band. In the $1M–$5M band, published figures run from 13% to 18% across the 48 trades that publish a figure. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
How does overhead change as revenue grows?
Civil moves from 14% at $1M–$5M to 8% at $500M+. The indirect cost base grows in steps while revenue grows continuously, so the ratio moves as the business fills in behind each hire.
Where do these numbers come from?
The trade figures are SPM's own compilation, validated against CFMA's 2024 Benchmarker, CFMA's 2025 Benchmarker and the Jones Maresca and Company 2025 specialty contractor benchmarks. CFMA's Benchmarker is a licensed product and nothing here is copied from it. Net profit is calculated as gross margin minus overhead, so the three figures tie out in every band. Every trade in the reference publishes a row of its own. Each new edition is validated against the latest CFMA and JMCO releases before publication. The full reference publishes 1,008 data points across 48 trades, 7 revenue bands, and 3 metrics.
Which trades run the leanest overhead?
At $1M–$5M, Framing and Acoustic ceiling and Drywall and Interiors and Painting are at 13%. Trade structure drives most of the spread, and revenue band drives the rest.
How do I turn a percentage into a number I can act on?
Put your last twelve months of revenue into the box above the table. Every percentage on the page then shows the dollars beside it, including the distance between your industry average and the CFOS target.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.