Determine the hourly or daily rate required to match your current full-time salary when switching to freelance, accounting for overhead, unpaid time off, and non-billable hours.
(Vacation + Sick days. Standard is often 4 weeks.)
(Hours actually working for clients, excluding admin/marketing. Usually 25-35.)
Required Rates to Match Salary
Target Annual Revenue:–
Total Annual Billable Hours:–
Required Hourly Rate:
$0.00
Equivalent Daily Rate (8h):
$0.00
function calculateFreelanceRate() {
// 1. Get Input Values
var currentSalaryInput = document.getElementById("currentSalary").value;
var annualExpensesInput = document.getElementById("annualExpenses").value;
var weeksOffInput = document.getElementById("weeksOff").value;
var billableHoursWeekInput = document.getElementById("billableHoursWeek").value;
// 2. Validate and Parse Inputs
var currentSalary = parseFloat(currentSalaryInput) || 0;
var annualExpenses = parseFloat(annualExpensesInput) || 0;
var weeksOff = parseFloat(weeksOffInput) || 0;
var billableHoursWeek = parseFloat(billableHoursWeekInput) || 0;
var resultDiv = document.getElementById("rateResult");
// Edge case handling for invalid denominators
if (weeksOff >= 52 || billableHoursWeek <= 0) {
alert("Please enter realistic values for 'Weeks Off' (less than 52) and 'Billable Hours' (greater than 0).");
resultDiv.style.display = "none";
return;
}
// 3. Calculation Logic
// Step A: Calculate total money needed annually (Salary + new overhead)
var targetAnnualRevenue = currentSalary + annualExpenses;
// Step B: Calculate actual working time available
var workingWeeksPerYear = 52 – weeksOff;
var totalAnnualBillableHours = workingWeeksPerYear * billableHoursWeek;
// Step C: Calculate Rates
var requiredHourlyRate = targetAnnualRevenue / totalAnnualBillableHours;
// Assuming a standard 8-hour "day" for daily rate calculation, even if billable hours are lower
var requiredDailyRate = requiredHourlyRate * 8;
// 4. Formatting Results (Currency and Numbers)
var formatter = new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', {
style: 'currency',
currency: 'USD',
minimumFractionDigits: 2
});
var numFormatter = new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US');
// 5. Display Results
document.getElementById("targetRevenueResult").innerText = formatter.format(targetAnnualRevenue);
document.getElementById("totalHoursResult").innerText = numFormatter.format(totalAnnualBillableHours) + " hours";
document.getElementById("hourlyRateFinal").innerText = formatter.format(requiredHourlyRate);
document.getElementById("dailyRateFinal").innerText = formatter.format(requiredDailyRate);
resultDiv.style.display = "block";
}
Understanding the Freelance Switch Rate
One of the biggest mistakes new freelancers make is directly translating their former full-time hourly wage into their freelance rate. If you earned $50/hour at your job, charging $50/hour as a freelancer will result in a significant drop in actual income and lifestyle.
When you are employed, your company covers countless hidden costs: the employer portion of taxes (FICA), health insurance contributions, retirement matching, paid vacation, paid sick leave, and equipment costs. As a freelancer, you become responsible for all of these, plus new business overhead.
Key Factors Influencing Your Rate
The Billable Hour Fallacy: You cannot bill 40 hours a week. You must spend unbilled time on administrative tasks, accounting, marketing, finding new clients, and professional development. A realistic billable range for most solo freelancers is 25 to 35 hours per week.
Unpaid Time Off: As an employee, you likely received 2-4 weeks of paid vacation and sick time. As a freelancer, if you don't work, you don't get paid. You must factor these desired "weeks off" into your rate so you earn enough during your working weeks to cover the downtime.
Business Overheads & Benefits: You need to calculate the annual cost of replacing your benefits (especially health insurance) and the new costs of running a business, such as software subscriptions, liability insurance, a home office setup, and accounting fees.
This calculator helps you determine the gross revenue you need to generate to cover these new expenses and then divides that by your actual available billable hours to give you a realistic baseline hourly or daily rate.