How do I get to Pro tier?

Hold and maintain your own active licence and insurance, complete the required number of DPOC jobs, keep your rating above the Pro threshold, keep callbacks at or below the Pro limit, and respond to matched jobs inside the Pro response window. The exact thresholds are published in your contractor account and are the same for every crew. There is no application and no discretion.

How much more does Elite pay?

It depends on the size of the job, which is why this post shows three tables instead of quoting one number. The gap between Pro and Elite on a small job is modest; on a large one it is several times larger, because the fee is a share of job value. Compare the same two rows across the three tables above to see the shape of it.

Does my tier change per trade?

Your tier is a property of your crew, not of a trade. What does change by trade is which constraint sets your fee. On cost-heavy trades the contractor margin DPOC guarantees is usually what binds; on labour-heavy trades the published fee curve binds. Same tier, different arithmetic, different rate.

Why is my fee different on a small job?

Two reasons. Each tier carries a minimum fee, so on a small enough job that minimum is a larger share of the total than the curve rate would be. And below a certain job size the fee hits a floor DPOC will not go under for any crew at any tier, which flattens the ladder completely. If you are seeing that, the job is priced too thin and the estimate will say so.

Does having my own licence change my tier?

It is a requirement for Verified and above, so you cannot climb past Starter without one. But it is not itself a tier: holding your own active licence removes the licence-coverage premium from your fee immediately, at whatever tier you are, without waiting for a job count or a rating to move.

The thresholds are maintenance requirements, not one-time gates — the qualification text for every tier above Starter is written as maintain, not reach. A lapsed licence, a rating that slips below the threshold or a callback rate that climbs above the limit puts a tier at risk.

Starter to Elite: what each tier is worth in dollars

Every tier is a raise. Here is the size of each one, on real jobs, from the engine that pays them.

August 6, 2026 · 7 min read

There are four tiers: Starter, Verified, Pro and Elite. Every step down the list lowers the platform fee on your work, which means every step is a raise. The question is how big a raise, and whether it is worth what you have to do to get it.

Rather than describe the curve, here is an exterior repaint on a small single-storey house, run through the same fee engine that pays a crew:

Tier	Platform fee	You are paid	Net after costs
Starter	40.8%	$2,123	$255
Verified	39.1%	$2,185	$306
Pro	37.3%	$2,252	$361
Elite	35.3%	$2,322	$418

Exterior repaint, 800 sqft of paintable surface — a small bungalow. A $3,589 job, from the same fee engine that pays the crew. Net is after materials and labour, before the licence-coverage premium if one applies.

Read it left to right. Platform fee is DPOC's share of the homeowner price. What you are paid moves to your account. Net after costs is that payout minus materials and minus labour, where labour is your own crew's wages at market rate, already paid. Net is what the business keeps on top of everyone's day rate, not instead of it.

The gap widens with the job

On a small job the distance between tiers is real but modest. It scales with job value, which matters more than the headline rate: the same promotion is worth several times more on a two-storey house than on a bungalow. Here is a mid-size repaint:

Tier	Platform fee	You are paid	Net after costs
Starter	27.5%	$5,845	$702
Verified	25.4%	$6,017	$843
Pro	23.1%	$6,199	$992
Elite	20.7%	$6,393	$1,151

Exterior repaint, 2,500 sqft of paintable surface — a typical single-storey family home. A $8,066 job, from the same fee engine that pays the crew. Net is after materials and labour, before the licence-coverage premium if one applies.

And a large one:

Tier	Platform fee	You are paid	Net after costs
Starter	22.1%	$13,743	$1,650
Verified	19.8%	$14,147	$1,982
Pro	17.4%	$14,575	$2,332
Elite	14.8%	$15,031	$2,706

Exterior repaint, 6,000 sqft of paintable surface — a large or two-storey house. A $17,650 job, from the same fee engine that pays the crew. Net is after materials and labour, before the licence-coverage premium if one applies.

Compare the same row across the three tables. That is the actual argument for climbing: not the percentage, which is abstract, but the fact that the gap compounds every time you take a bigger job. A crew running large work at Elite is a materially different business from the same crew running large work at Starter.

What actually moves you up

The requirements are published in the fee configuration rather than decided case by case, and they are the same for everyone. Each tier raises the bar on four things: how many DPOC jobs you have completed, your rating, your callback rate, and how fast you respond to a matched job. Verified, Pro and Elite additionally require you to hold and maintain your own active licence and insurance.

Completed jobs. The count that gates each step is the largest single barrier, and it is deliberate — the tiers are a record, not an application.
Rating. The threshold rises at every step and the top of the ladder leaves almost no room.
Callback rate. The share of jobs that need you back. This is the one most crews underestimate, and the one that most cleanly separates good work from fast work.
Response time. Hours to respond to a matched job, tightening sharply at the top.

Elite is intentionally rare. The configuration says so in as many words, and the thresholds are set so most crews will not reach it. That is worth knowing before you treat it as a plan rather than an outcome.

Where the ladder stops being a ladder

One honest caveat, because you will hit it eventually and it looks like a bug.

The tier curve is not the only thing setting your fee. Every tier also carries a contractor margin that DPOC guarantees, and the engine will cut its own fee to reach it. On cost-heavy trades, where materials and wages eat most of the job, that guarantee is usually what sets the fee and the curve never binds at all. The ladder still works, because each tier guarantees a higher margin than the one below it — but the rate you see will not match the published curve.

Below a certain job size it stops working entirely. On a job too thin to carry anyone's margin, the engine wants to cut the fee below what DPOC will accept from any crew at any tier. A floor stops it, and all four tiers land on exactly the same rate. Promotion is worth nothing on that job. The estimate flags it as underpriced, which is the real problem — the tier system is not the thing that failed there.

Your licence is a separate axis

Tier and licence coverage are two different things and they move independently. DPOC holds CSLB licence #999194, and every job runs under this licence — ours, not a subcontractor's. A crew that does not hold its own active licence works under DPOC's, and carries a higher platform fee for that coverage, because our licence and bond are what stand behind the finished work.

That premium comes off the day your own licence goes active, at whatever tier you happen to be. It is the fastest raise available to most crews reading this, and it is entirely within your control — which is more than can be said for a rating threshold that takes a year of jobs to move. There is a separate guide on this site covering what that takes.

Common questions

How do I get to Pro tier?: Hold and maintain your own active licence and insurance, complete the required number of DPOC jobs, keep your rating above the Pro threshold, keep callbacks at or below the Pro limit, and respond to matched jobs inside the Pro response window. The exact thresholds are published in your contractor account and are the same for every crew. There is no application and no discretion.
How much more does Elite pay?: It depends on the size of the job, which is why this post shows three tables instead of quoting one number. The gap between Pro and Elite on a small job is modest; on a large one it is several times larger, because the fee is a share of job value. Compare the same two rows across the three tables above to see the shape of it.
Does my tier change per trade?: Your tier is a property of your crew, not of a trade. What does change by trade is which constraint sets your fee. On cost-heavy trades the contractor margin DPOC guarantees is usually what binds; on labour-heavy trades the published fee curve binds. Same tier, different arithmetic, different rate.
Why is my fee different on a small job?: Two reasons. Each tier carries a minimum fee, so on a small enough job that minimum is a larger share of the total than the curve rate would be. And below a certain job size the fee hits a floor DPOC will not go under for any crew at any tier, which flattens the ladder completely. If you are seeing that, the job is priced too thin and the estimate will say so.
Does having my own licence change my tier?: It is a requirement for Verified and above, so you cannot climb past Starter without one. But it is not itself a tier: holding your own active licence removes the licence-coverage premium from your fee immediately, at whatever tier you are, without waiting for a job count or a rating to move.
Can my tier go down?: The thresholds are maintenance requirements, not one-time gates — the qualification text for every tier above Starter is written as maintain, not reach. A lapsed licence, a rating that slips below the threshold or a callback rate that climbs above the limit puts a tier at risk.