Every figure on this site comes from a publisher, and every figure carries the date it refers to and the date we retrieved it. This page explains the rules we apply.
The one rule
If an authority publishes a number, we publish that number with the publisher, the source URL, the reference period and the retrieval date. If no authority publishes a number, we do not estimate one. The page says so and shows the sources instead. There is no interpolation, no "industry average", and no rounding a figure into existence.
What counts as a source
- Government statistical agencies: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Statistics Canada.
- Government departments and regulators: the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
- Government-sponsored enterprises publishing primary market data: Freddie Mac.
- An operator keyword export (Google Ads–style volume, third-party difficulty score and advertiser cost per click), used only as evidence of search demand — never as a price.
How a value is displayed
Each row shows the figure as the source printed it, the unit, the reference period, and the publisher's name linked to the page the value came from. Where a publisher states the value as a monthly average we say so. Where a value we hold has no published counterpart for a particular market, we replicate the national figure and label it as a national figure rather than presenting it as local.
What we do not claim
A published average is not a quote. National and regional averages are built from samples that may not describe your job, your property or your circumstances, and local labour rates, permits and travel change the number materially. Treat every figure here as a starting point to test quotes against.
How to check us
Every table row links to its source. If a figure here does not match the source, report it through the contact page and we will correct the data the page is rendered from — there is no separate copy to drift out of sync.
Corrections and revisions
Statistical agencies revise published values. When a source revises a figure, the page will show the revised value the next time the data is refreshed, with the source's own reference period. We do not silently keep an older value that flatters a page.