salary to freelance rate calculator
Thinking of going freelance, or wondering if your rate really matches your old paycheck? Enter a salary and this works out the hourly, daily and monthly rate you'd need to charge once benefits, taxes and unpaid time are on your tab.
The gross annual salary you earn now, or the one you're aiming to replace.
Holidays, PTO and sick days, in weeks. As a freelancer you fund these yourself, so they come out of your billable weeks.
Realistic hours you can actually bill after admin, marketing and pitching.
Add this on top of your salary to cover what an employer used to help pay for, like health insurance, retirement, extra taxes, and slow-month savings.
Your yearly cost of doing business. Includes software, subscriptions, tools, co-working space, hardware, and training costs.
to match a $60,000 salary, charge…
- Required annual freelance income (gross)
- $80,000
- Suggested hourly rate
- $70
- Suggested day rate
- $350
- Suggested weekly rate
- $1,750
- You're on track if you invoice, monthly
- $6,667
That's your $60,000 salary plus 30% for the benefits, taxes, and buffer you now cover yourself, plus $2,000 in expenses, spread across 1,150 billable hours a year.
Want to convert your target $70/hr rate into per-word or per-page quotes? Pre-fill your target rate into the Per-Word Rate Calculator →
💼 Find vetted freelance roles: Browse remote contract and full-time writing gigs on the CaveJobs board →
Made with 💛 by TheMinCave.
why your salary isn't your freelance rate
The most common freelance pricing mistake is quoting your old hourly pay. A $60,000 salary looks like about $29/hour, but as an employee you also received paid holidays, health insurance, retirement contributions and the employer's half of payroll taxes, plus you were paid for a full 40-hour week.
Freelancing strips all of that away. You fund the benefits, pay extra self-employment tax, get no paid leave, and can only bill a fraction of your hours. Match the salary on paper and you'll quietly take a pay cut.
This salary-to-freelance calculator adds those costs back so your rate reflects what it takes to survive as a freelancer.
Ready to price real work? Once you know your baseline, use the writing time & price calculator or project quote calculator or complete guide to freelance writing rates →
This Salary to Freelance Rate Calculator provides estimates only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. By using this tool, you agree that you are solely responsible for your business and pricing decisions, and the creators are not liable for any outcomes resulting from its use.
FAQs on calculating your salary to freelance rate
How do I convert a salary into a freelance rate?
Don’t just divide your salary by 2,080 hours, because that badly underprices you. A freelance rate has to also cover the benefits and payroll taxes your employer used to pay, the paid time off you no longer get, your business expenses, and the fact that you can’t bill 40 hours a week. This calculator grosses your salary up for all of that and spreads it across your real billable hours.
Why is my freelance rate so much higher than my old salary?
Because a salary is only part of what your employer spent on you. On top of it they covered health insurance, retirement contributions, the employer half of payroll taxes, equipment, software and paid holidays, often 25 to 40% more than the salary itself. As a freelancer you fund all of that, so a rate that looks higher than your salary frequently nets you the same or less.
How many billable hours should I assume?
Fewer than you'd think. Full-time freelancers rarely bill 40 hours a week; pitching, admin, invoicing and marketing eat a big chunk. Most land around 20 to 30 billable hours, which is the range this calculator defaults to. The fewer hours you can bill, the higher each one has to be.
What should the “benefits, tax & buffer uplift” be?
It’s the percentage on top of your salary that covers everything you now self-fund: health insurance, retirement, the extra self-employment tax freelancers pay, and a savings buffer for slow months. 25 to 40% is a sensible range. Go higher if you need strong health coverage or want a bigger cushion.
Should I start from my old salary or my income goal?
This one starts from a salary you want to match. The freelance writing rate calculator starts from your income goals and expenses and helps you turn that baseline into actual client pricing. Use this to sanity-check “can freelancing match my job?”, then move into your project pricing workflow.
