How to Estimate Labor Hours for a Screen-Printing Job
Labor cost depends on how much paid time the job consumes, not just how long the press is moving. Count people and tasks consistently.
Elapsed time and person-hours answer different questions
If two people work together for 90 minutes, the job occupies 1.5 elapsed hours and consumes three person-hours. At an illustrative $24 per person-hour, the labor cost is $72, not $36. Scheduling uses elapsed time; a per-person labor estimate uses person-hours.
Do not multiply by headcount if your entered rate already represents the full crew per hour. Either three person-hours at $24 or 1.5 crew-hours at $48 produces $72. Mixing three person-hours with the crew rate would count the crew twice.
Break the job into observable tasks
List preparation, active printing, handling, finishing, packing, and cleanup. Decide which tasks are included in a fixed setup charge and which remain in production labor. A setup charge that already includes 30 minutes of preparation should not also add those 30 minutes to the labor line.
Waiting time needs a clear convention. A person who can productively work on another order during a machine cycle does not necessarily spend the entire cycle on this job. Conversely, a required attended wait can consume labor even while no shirts are printed.
Example: the press time is only part of the cost
Consider these constructed observations for an order:
- Preparation: one person for 30 minutes = 0.50 person-hours.
- Printing: two people for 90 minutes = 3.00 person-hours.
- Packing: one person for 45 minutes = 0.75 person-hours.
- Cleanup: one person for 15 minutes = 0.25 person-hours.
The complete job consumes 4.50 person-hours. At $24, that is $108. If the preparation labor is already included in setup, enter four hours and $96 as production labor instead; retain the other $12 within setup.
Put the same convention into the calculator
Enter the selected hours and matching rate in the job pricing calculator. The hourly rate can represent the cost basis you use, but document whether it includes additional employment costs or allocated shop expenses. Read overhead allocation before combining rates.
A measured shirts-per-hour figure is only comparable when its boundary is the same. A rate timed from the first print to the last print excludes preparation and finishing unless those activities happened within that interval.
Collect a small task log
For the next comparable run, record each task, headcount, and duration. Compare the task estimates rather than only the final total. When press capacity is the constraint, review contribution per press hour separately from wages; the two measures serve different decisions.
A task-level time record
Copy these fields into the record for your next comparable job.
- Task row
- Task name, people involved, minutes per person or crew, and whether the time is already inside setup.
- Rate match
- Person-hours need a per-person cost rate. Crew-hours need a whole-crew cost rate.
- Next estimate
- Revise the task that differed, such as packing or cleanup, instead of increasing every labor estimate by one blanket percentage.
Put this into practice
Open the job pricing calculator with your own job values.
AI-assisted educational content. Examples are illustrative; arithmetic is checked against the stated methods. This is not a field-tested production specification. Read our editorial policy.
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