Hourly Rate Calculator

Find the hourly rate you must charge to hit your take-home goal after business costs, taxes and unpaid time. Only a fraction of your working week is billable, so the rate is higher than most people expect. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is stored or sent. See also the Job Price Calculator.

Yearly take-home income goal ($)

Set aside for taxes (% of profit)

Yearly business costs ($): insurance, vehicle, tools, software

Working weeks per year

Hours worked per week

Billable share of those hours (%)

How it works

Pre-tax profit needed = take-home goal ÷ (1 − tax %). Revenue needed = pre-tax profit + yearly business costs. Billable hours = working weeks × hours per week × billable share. Hourly rate = revenue needed ÷ billable hours.

Example: $80,000 take-home at 25% tax needs $106,667 of profit; add $18,000 of costs for $124,667 of revenue. With 48 weeks × 45 hours × 65% = 1,404 billable hours, the rate is about $88.80 per hour.

Driving, quoting, buying materials and invoicing are unpaid, which is why the billable share is usually well under 100%. Use your own tax rate and costs from your books.

This tool gives estimates for planning only. It is not accounting, tax or legal advice, and it does not know your local taxes or licensing rules.