Where I'm coming from: my company handles phones, dispatch, estimate follow-ups, invoicing, and reviews for home service businesses, so outsourcing is what I sell, and I'm not a neutral party. That's why every wage below comes from government data with a link, and I'll tell you plainly when hiring your own person makes more sense. I'm a Jobber affiliate, so if you sign up through the Jobber link in this guide, my company may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure.
There's a point in every growing HVAC or plumbing company where the owner is running calls all day and doing the office work at the kitchen table at night. Calls go to voicemail, estimates sit without a follow-up, and invoices go out late. The usual next thought is "I need to hire someone for the office."
That's often the right call. But it's a big fixed cost, and most owners I talk to have never priced it out. I've spent more than 25 years in customer service, sales, and operations, and in this guide I'll walk through what the government's own wage data says these roles pay at plumbing and HVAC contractors, what they really cost once you add benefits, and the other ways to get the work covered.
The short answer
- Dispatcher: the median wage at plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors was $22.83 an hour ($47,480 a year) in May 2025 (BLS).
- Office manager (BLS calls this "first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers"): $34.07 an hour ($70,860 a year) at the same contractors.
- General office clerk: $22.60 an hour ($47,000 a year). This is by far the most common office job at these companies.
- With benefits, a full-time hire costs noticeably more than the wage. Using BLS's figure that wages are 68.5% of the cost of a full-time private-industry worker, a $47,480 dispatcher works out to roughly $69,300 a year. That's my estimate, not a quote.
Dispatcher, office manager, or office clerk?
Owners use these titles loosely, and at a small shop one person often does all three. It still helps to know which job you're really hiring for, because the pay is very different.
- Dispatcher. Answers service calls, books jobs, decides which tech goes where, and reshuffles the day when a job runs long or an emergency call comes in.
- Office clerk or office assistant. Phones, data entry, filing job paperwork, sending invoices, and calling about unpaid ones. This is the most common office hire at plumbing and HVAC contractors: BLS estimates about 54,740 general office clerks work in that industry, compared with about 12,070 dispatchers.
- Office manager. Runs the office side and usually supervises the other office staff. BLS estimates about 11,910 of these supervisors work at plumbing and HVAC contractors. You likely don't need this role until you have more than one person in the office.
What these jobs pay, side by side
These are median wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the most recent release. Half of workers earn more than the median and half earn less.
| Role | Plumbing, heating & AC contractors | All industries, U.S. | Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dispatcher | $22.83/hr $47,480/yr | $24.20/hr $50,340/yr | $22.11/hr $45,980/yr |
| Office manager (office supervisor) | $34.07/hr $70,860/yr | $33.41/hr $69,500/yr | $32.48/hr $67,550/yr |
| General office clerk | $22.60/hr $47,000/yr | $21.64/hr $45,010/yr | $21.51/hr $44,730/yr |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, median hourly and annual wages. BLS occupation names: "Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance" (43-5032), "First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers" (43-1011), and "Office clerks, general" (43-9061). The industry column is BLS industry 238220, plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors. The South Florida column is all industries in that metro area. Wages where you are may differ; the CareerOneStop tool in the sources lets you look up your own area.
What a hire really costs once you add benefits
The wage is only part of what an employee costs. In its June 2026 Employer Costs for Employee Compensation report, BLS says wages and salaries were 68.5% of what private employers spent on full-time workers, and benefits (paid leave, insurance, retirement, and legally required costs like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance) were the other 31.5%. For part-time workers, wages were 80.0% and benefits 20.0%.
If your hire's benefits followed those same averages, here's roughly what each role would cost you in a year:
| Role (plumbing & HVAC median wage) | Annual wage | Estimated total yearly cost | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time dispatcher | $47,480 | about $69,300 | about $5,780 |
| Full-time office clerk | $47,000 | about $68,600 | about $5,720 |
| Full-time office manager | $70,860 | about $103,400 | about $8,620 |
| Part-time office clerk, 20 hours a week | $23,504 | about $29,380 | about $2,450 |
My math, not a quote: full-time figures are the annual wage divided by 0.685; the part-time row is $22.60 an hour × 20 hours × 52 weeks, divided by 0.80. Your real cost depends on the wage you pay, the benefits you offer, your state's taxes, and your workers' comp rate. It also leaves out recruiting, training, a desk and phone, software seats, and covering sick days and vacations.
One more thing the numbers don't show: one person covers one shift. A full-time office hire works roughly 40 hours a week, and plenty of no-heat, no-cool, and leaking-pipe calls come in at night and on weekends. You'll still need a plan for those.
Your options compared
Hiring isn't the only way to get the office work off your plate. Here's how the common options stack up.
| Option | What it costs | What it covers | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | No new payroll | Everything, when you have time | Missed calls while you're on a job, and late nights catching up |
| Answering service or virtual receptionist | Published plans run from a free AI tier up to $2,100 a month (see our price guide) | Picking up calls and taking messages or booking | Usually doesn't dispatch, follow up on estimates, or invoice |
| Part-time office person | About $2,450 a month at 20 hours a week (estimate above) | Phones, scheduling, and paperwork during their hours | Gaps when they're off, and you still manage and train them |
| Full-time dispatcher or office clerk | About $5,700–$5,800 a month (estimate above) | Most office work during business hours | Biggest fixed cost; one shift; turnover means rehiring |
| Outsourced office team (what my company does) | Quoted to your workload after a consultation | Phones, dispatch, estimate follow-ups, invoicing, and reviews | Make sure they'll work inside your software and follow your rules |
Whoever does the office work, field service software makes it a lot easier to hand off, because the schedule, customer notes, and invoices live in one place that anyone you trust can log into. Tools like Jobber, Housecall Pro, and ServiceTitan all do this. I compare their prices and plans in Jobber vs Housecall Pro vs ServiceTitan for small shops.
Signs you're ready for office help
In my experience, these are the signs that the office work is costing you more than help would:
- Calls go to voicemail while you or your techs are on jobs, and some callers never leave a message. (Here's how to estimate what missed calls cost you.)
- Estimates go out and nobody calls back to follow up.
- Invoices go out days after the job, and you don't have a regular routine for chasing unpaid ones.
- You spend evenings or weekends on scheduling, invoicing, and paperwork instead of with your family or on the business.
- Your bookkeeper or CPA keeps asking for receipts and job paperwork you haven't organized.
If only the first one fits, an answering service may be enough. If three or more fit, you're probably past what an answering service can fix.
Before you hire, get these ready
Whether you hire an employee or bring in an outside team, the handoff goes much better with a little prep:
- Write down how you book a job. Service area, what you charge for a service call, which calls are emergencies, and who's on call after hours.
- Get the schedule out of your head and into your field service software, so someone else can see it and change it.
- List the recurring tasks: estimate follow-ups, invoice reminders, review requests, and when each should happen.
- Decide employee or contractor the right way. The IRS and Department of Labor have rules on this; I cover the basics in Payroll for a small cleaning business, and they apply to the trades too.
- Price it out with real numbers, using the wage for your area and the benefits you'll actually offer, not just the hourly rate.
My free SOP checklist can help with the first three steps.
More guides
- How much does a virtual receptionist cost for a home service company?
- How much do missed calls cost an HVAC or plumbing business?
- Jobber vs Housecall Pro vs ServiceTitan for small shops
- Bookkeeping for HVAC and plumbing companies
Not sure whether to hire or hand it off?
When you work with Infinite Time Solutions, you work with me. I handle phones, dispatch, estimate follow-ups, invoicing, and review requests for home service companies. Book a free consultation and I'll come see your operation, and if hiring your own person is the better fit, I'll tell you.
Sources
All figures were checked on October 30, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, "Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance" (43-5032), national and industry data: bls.gov/oes/current/oes435032.htm
- BLS OEWS, May 2025, "First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers" (43-1011): bls.gov/oes/current/oes431011.htm
- BLS OEWS, May 2025, "Office clerks, general" (43-9061): bls.gov/oes/current/oes439061.htm
- BLS OEWS, May 2025, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area: bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33100.htm
- BLS OEWS industry data for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors (NAICS 238220), retrieved through the BLS Public Data API: bls.gov/developers
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026" (released September 9, 2026): bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
- CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor), salary lookup by location: careeronestop.org
Want this done for you? Infinite Time Solutions helps small service businesses with the office side: answering calls, scheduling, invoicing, and following up on estimates and unpaid bills. See how it works