What is the Standard On-Call Pay for Techs?

A Contractor University Member recently utilized the Ask-The-Expert Q&A feature within the member dashboard by submitting the following question and received the response below.

Contractor Question:

“Please advise what are the current industry standard compensation practices for techs who are on call on holidays, and on call during regular business hours when they are not assigned a specific job? The question assumes the techs are paid hourly. Holiday pay when on the job is 1.5x the regular rate.”

Contractor University Expert Response:

“I have seen and used many different methods to solve this problem. In my companies we always had some type of performance based pay for my service techs so it would be a little different than hourly based but here are a few ideas to consider.

Option 1: The Holiday Standby Bonus (Most Common). The tech receives a flat “Show Up/Standby” bonus just for holding the phone on the holiday, regardless of whether a call comes in. Market Rate: $100 to $150 flat fee per holiday, plus the 1.5x hourly rate if dispatched.

Option 2: The Gifted “Floating” Paid Time Off (PTO). If the tech covers a major holiday (e.g., Thanksgiving or Christmas), they are given their standard holiday pay, plus an additional 8 hours of standard PTO added to their bank to use later.

Option 3: Flat Standby Rate. A small, flat hourly rate for the hours they are trapped at home waiting. Market Rate: $5.00 to $10.00 per hour just to monitor the phone/dispatch software.

Here is another option that is interesting:

Many fast-growing HVAC shops have moved completely away from flat weekly standby fees because it rewards techs even if they miss or duck calls. Instead, they use a Direct Call-Out Bonus Matrix.

Metric	Practice / Rate
Weekly / Daily Standby	Minimal flat rate ($20–$30/day) just to cover basic availability.
The Dispatch Bonus	The tech gets $50 to $100 cash paid directly to them for every after-hours or holiday call they successfully run, in addition to their hourly rate.
Why it Works	It immediately flips the technician’s mindset. Instead of dreading the on-call phone ringing, techs actively buy or trade for on-call shifts from coworkers because running 3 calls on a holiday adds an extra $300 straight to their paycheck alongside their 1.5x overtime.

I hope this gives some insight to help you pick a pathfoward that works best for you and your company.”

Contractor University members can click here to log in to their member dashboard and submit a question through the Ask the Expert portal.

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