About This Calculator
This works backward from your target take-home pay to the hourly rate you actually need to charge. It starts from your target net monthly income, adds back your annual business expenses and effective tax rate to find the gross revenue you need to bring in, then divides that by your realistic billable hours per year — accounting for time off and the portion of your working time that goes to admin and business development rather than paid client work. The result is usually noticeably higher than a simple "salary divided by hours" guess, which is normal and by design: it's covering things an employer would otherwise pay for. Everything is calculated locally in your browser.
Why Freelance Rates Look High
No employer tax matchAn employer typically pays half of payroll/social security tax on your behalf. As a self-employed person, you pay both halves yourself — this alone is a meaningful chunk of your rate.
No paid time offVacation, sick days, and holidays aren't paid unless you build them into your rate — every week off is a week of billable hours you didn't get to charge for.
Not all hours are billableInvoicing, proposals, marketing, learning, and admin work take real time but can't be billed directly to a client — a 70% billable rate (30% overhead) is a common starting estimate, though it varies a lot by how you run your business.
Business expenses come out of revenueSoftware, equipment, insurance, and other costs of doing business reduce what's left to pay yourself — an employer would normally cover tools and workspace for you.
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