I'm mostly using small companies where it's the owner and maybe his son or 1-2 employees doing the work. Likewise my BIL has his own company that's just him and his best friend. So yeah those guys are all taking 100% of the rate. Granted they have to pay taxes and insurance, and all that like I do, but they're doing well overall.

Neighbor was getting his deck painted a few months ago.

Talked to the guy doing the painting, he was getting $80/hr.

(Related: IMHO my neighbor sucks at finding affordable prices for painters!)

It's insane how uninformed all the "tell your kids to get into the trades!" techies are.