Most caterers lose money on handmade products because they forget to price their own labor properly. That beautiful quiche you spent 3 hours making? If you only charge for ingredients, you're earning about €4 per hour. Here's how to calculate what your time is actually worth and build it into your prices.
Why labor costs matter more than you think
Catering products like quiches, salads or appetizers demand serious hands-on time. A steak? Five minutes on the grill. But that quiche lorraine from years of working in professional kitchens takes 3 solid hours of prep, assembly, and baking.
⚠️ Watch out:
Many caterers only factor in ingredients and forget their own time. This means you're earning €3-5 per hour instead of a decent wage.
Figure out your real hourly rate
Before you price anything, you need to know what your time costs. This isn't your take-home pay - it's what you need to earn as a business owner to survive.
- Minimum: €15-20 per hour (matches experienced kitchen staff)
- Realistic: €25-35 per hour (skilled chef/owner rate)
- Covers: Holiday pay, health insurance, pension contributions
💡 Example hourly rate breakdown:
You want €3,000 net monthly as self-employed:
- Gross equivalent: €4,200
- Billable hours: 160 per month
- Required revenue: €4,200 / 160 = €26.25 per hour
So charge at least €26 hourly in your products.
Track every single task
Accurate costing means timing everything. And I mean everything - from washing your hands to final packaging.
- Prep: Ingredient setup, cleaning, chopping
- Cooking: Mixing, kneading, shaping, baking
- Finishing: Garnishing, packaging, labeling
- Cleanup: Equipment washing and workspace reset
💡 Example timing for quiche lorraine (8 pieces):
- Making and rolling dough: 25 minutes
- Preparing filling: 15 minutes
- Filling molds and oven loading: 10 minutes
- Active baking monitoring: 15 minutes
- Cooling and packaging: 20 minutes
- Cleanup: 15 minutes
Total labor: 100 minutes = 1.67 hours
Do the math per piece
Once you've timed a batch, calculating per-piece labor costs is straightforward:
Labor cost per piece = (Total hours × Hourly rate) / Pieces made
💡 Real numbers example:
Quiche batch of 8:
- Labor time: 1.67 hours
- Hourly rate: €26
- Total labor cost: 1.67 × €26 = €43.42
- Per quiche: €43.42 / 8 = €5.43
Each quiche needs €5.43 labor charge minimum.
Build your complete cost structure
Labor's just one piece. Your total cost includes several components:
- Ingredients: Raw materials plus packaging
- Labor: Your calculated hourly costs
- Overhead: Utilities, equipment wear (15-20% of ingredients + labor)
- Profit margin: 20-30% minimum for business health
💡 Full quiche cost breakdown:
- Ingredients per piece: €3.20
- Labor per piece: €5.43
- Overhead (18%): €1.55
- Subtotal: €10.18
- Profit margin (25%): €2.55
Minimum selling price: €12.73 excl. VAT = €13.88 incl. VAT
Work smarter, not just harder
High labor costs don't doom your pricing. You can slash time per unit without sacrificing quality:
- Scale up batches: 16 quiches don't take double the time
- Standardize everything: Fixed recipes and procedures
- Prep properly: Mise-en-place eliminates searching and fumbling
- Invest in tools: Food processors beat hand-chopping every time
⚠️ Watch out:
Never sacrifice quality for speed. Customers pay premium prices for handcrafted taste and care.
Digital tracking beats guesswork
Manual timing with stopwatches works but gets messy fast. Digital recipe systems automatically calculate labor costs once you input your time measurements and hourly rate.
You measure once how long each recipe takes, set your desired wage, and the system handles all the math. This prevents errors and saves you from recalculating every time you adjust prices.
How do you calculate labor costs in catering products? (step by step)
Determine your desired hourly wage
Calculate what you want to earn per hour as a business owner. Add holiday pay, health costs and pension contributions. At least €25-30 per hour is realistic for experienced caterers.
Measure all labor time per batch
Record exactly how much time you spend on prep, cooking, finishing and cleanup. Don't forget the time for packaging and labeling. Measure this for a standard batch size.
Calculate labor costs per piece
Multiply total labor time by your hourly wage and divide by number of pieces in the batch. For example: 2 hours × €28 = €56 for 12 pieces = €4.67 labor costs per piece.
Add up all cost items
Add labor costs to ingredients, overhead (15-20%) and desired profit margin (25-30%). This gives you your minimum selling price excl. VAT. Multiply by 1.09 for the price incl. VAT.
✨ Pro tip
Time your first 3 labor-intensive products down to the minute, then you'll develop accurate instincts for estimating new recipes within 15% accuracy.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
Was this article helpful?
Frequently asked questions
Do I charge for passive time like baking in the oven?
Only if you're actively monitoring or working on the same product. Pure waiting time doesn't count, but loading and unloading the oven absolutely does.
How do I split labor costs when making multiple products simultaneously?
Divide total time based on attention each product demands. If a quiche needs 60% of your focus during shared prep time, it gets 60% of those labor costs.
What if labor costs make my prices too high for the market?
Increase efficiency through larger batches, better planning, or streamlined recipes. Never drop your hourly rate below €20 - that's poverty wages for a business owner.
Should I use different rates for prep versus cooking tasks?
Keep it simple with one rate across all tasks. Whether you're chopping vegetables or monitoring the oven, you're the same skilled professional and your time has consistent value.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
Selling food? Then you need KitchenNmbrs
Whether you run a restaurant, food truck, catering company, or meal kit business — you need to know what each dish costs. KitchenNmbrs gives you that insight. Start your free trial.
Start free trial →