What hourly rate is your salary really worth?

Employment salary overstates your effective rate: paid time off, sick days, holidays and employer obligations all shrink the billable hours. This calculator finds your true freelance hourly rate.

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Effective hourly rate
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Billable hours / year
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Per 8-hour day
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At 2.5× markup (time off)
The formula Work days = 260 − vacation − sick. Billable hours = work days × 8 × billable%. Hourly = salary ÷ billable hours. Freelancers also pay self-employment tax and lose benefits, so many charge 1.3–1.5× this "cover salary" number.
Why billable share below 100%? Freelancing isn't all billable: proposals, admin, marketing, learning and unpaid meetings eat 20–50% of your week. 60% is a realistic planning default for solo consultants.
Employment vs self-employment taxes W-2 workers split payroll taxes with the employer; the self-employed pay both halves. Add ~7.65%+ to the rate if you also keep benefits (health, retirement match) — the 2.5× column approximates this.