About this calculator

Employees see a salary; freelancers must earn a revenue. This tool converts one into the other honestly: it adds the costs an employer normally hides (expenses, benefits, employer-side taxes), grosses the total up for the taxes a self-employed person pays out of client fees, and divides by billable hours only — not by every hour in the year.

The formula

Revenue needed = (target salary + expenses + benefits) / (1 − tax rate)
Billable hours = (52 − vacation weeks) x hours per week x billable share
Real rate = Revenue needed / Billable hours · Day rate = Real rate x 8
Naive rate = Target salary / 2,080

Defaults — all editable, checked 30 Oct 2026

• Tax 22%: a labeled planning default, not a statutory rate. It sits above the U.S. federal self-employment tax of 15.3% (IRS, below) to leave room for some income tax. UK users should replace it with their own combined income tax + National Insurance estimate.
• Billable share 60%: a common planning assumption for solo freelancers; no official body publishes a standard figure, so treat it as a starting point and adjust.
• Vacation 4 weeks, 40 hours/week, $80,000 salary, $5,000 expenses, $7,000 benefits: illustrative defaults chosen so the worked example is easy to follow — change every one of them.

Sources

• IRS — Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)

  In the U.S., self-employment tax is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security + 2.9% Medicare) on net earnings, before income tax. That is why the default tax field (22%, editable) sits above a typical employee's withholding — it is a planning blend of self-employment tax plus some income tax, not a rate set by law. Set it to your own situation.

• IRS — Estimated Taxes

  Self-employed people generally pay tax in quarterly estimated payments rather than payroll withholding — another reason a salary-equivalent rate must be grossed up.

Limits

The result is a floor for sustainable pricing, not a market rate: what clients will pay also depends on skill, demand and niche. The calculator uses a single blended tax percentage and does not model tax brackets, deductions, VAT/sales tax collection, or currency conversion. It is a planning estimate, not financial advice.