Billing 300 euros in 90 minutes: the myth of the trades

A plumber bills 300 euros for 90 minutes: invoicing is not earning

The plumber arrives at the house, works for an hour and a half and leaves with 300 euros. It happens in Madrid, where the professional in question has a fruta as the best value for money in the area and some charge even more. The anecdote served to open up a bigger issue: the supposed opulence of doctors, lawyers, plumbers, carpenters and locksmiths compared with the salaried worker who thinks he's a big deal on 3,000 euros.

The starting premise spoke of doctors and lawyers billing 30,000 euros a month without breaking a sweat, of plumbers and locksmiths around 20,000, of lots of cash and few invoices. The old story that studying is for suckers and the money is in the trades. The problem is that almost no one who bills that actually takes it home.

How much a self-employed person really earns: the costs that eat into the margin

The first correction came via the accounts. Turnover is not profit, and between the two lies a list that rarely appears: self-employed contribution, Seguridad Social (Spanish social security), Hacienda (Spain's tax authority), suppliers, non-billable time and training. In law the drip is constant: digital access to the Aranzadi case-law database is around 117 euros a month, and procedural tools such as Brocá-Majadas cost more than 600 euros and become obsolete almost immediately.

Add pogre taxation. According to a calculation that circulated in the thread, above 60,000 euros of annual profit the IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) withholding can approach half of what is received. Any calculation that compares a net salary as an employee with a gross figure as self-employed is flawed from the outset: the self-employed person who bills a lot and contributes little later faces a poor pension or a mutualidad (professional mutual insurance scheme) that falls short.

A doctor's salary: from a resident's 1,000-euro wage to 4,000 euros net with on-call shifts

The healthcare case allows for the biggest nuances. A first-year resident earns around 1,245 euros a month, a figure that serves as an easy headline and a misleading argument at the same time. With on-call shifts included, a doctor in training can exceed 3,000 euros net, and a fully qualified specialist who takes night and holiday shifts ranges from 4,000 to 4,500 euros net.

Outside the public system the picture changes again: there are accounts of private consultations paid in cash that rarely fall below 100 euros, with cases citing 140 euros for a one-hour in-person appointment. That detail is not minor, because it fuels the —unproven— suspicion that part of that money never goes through the till. There is a minority of department heads and elite practices with fees of another order, but taking that as the norm is the classic mistake.

Lawyers: elite firms and a profession in agony below

Something similar happens with law. There are incivil, tax and drug-trafficking firms handling six-figure fees, and thousands of lawyers who don't make it to the end of the month. The warning most repeated was of an imminent cull: the impression one participant conveyed is that in a few years half the profession will be left. A calculation that circulated: three out of every four graduates with a master's will end up with precarious incomes, and the turno de oficio (legal aid duty rota) can leave a incivil lawyer on 600 euros a month.

It is not a picture exclusive to law. The liberal profession that was sold as a social elevator works like a funnel: many enter, few reach the top, and along the way professional association fees, insurance and tools pile up.

Painters and renovations: what you charge and what's left after the payroll

In manual trades the opposite of the myth is true: you charge well by the hour, but the volume is limited. There are accounts of painters who charge 1,400 euros for three and a half walls, and of a professional who admits to bad months of 4,000 euros; a quick repair is done in fifteen minutes and 100 euros plus VAT. The problem is not the unit price, it is the workload and the competition.

Anyone billing 400,000 euros a year in specialized construction does so with between three and five people on staff and almost all business clients. Hence the reasonable doubt about the lone self-employed person who bills 240,000 euros a year: between travel, buying materials and quotes that don't come off, time evaporates.

The 'B' (off-the-books) and the yacht myth: what is said in whispers

On money without invoices, the most repeated —and unverifiable— estimate is that certain liberal professions charge up to 80% off the books. It coexists with the accusation that the self-employed are the sector that evades the most tax, without anyone providing a statistic to support it. The analysis moves between real sharp practice and a self-interested cliché.

As a counterpoint, the definitive symbol of success appeared: the yacht. The question of where the plumbers' ones are was answered with numbers. A second-hand boat can cost 206,000 euros, and keeping it runs around 2,000 euros a month between mooring and upkeep, a tenth of a gross salary of 20,000 a month. There are wealthy people who have sold theirs and rent one for the week they use it.

With those figures, the plumber's yacht is still nowhere to be seen in any marina.