Free Hourly Freelance Rate calculator with clear step-by-step results.
Works backwards from the income you want to live on. Tax is grossed up first, business costs are added, an allowance for unpaid invoices is layered on, and the result is divided by genuinely billable hours - which is typically half to two-thirds of the hours you actually work.
Revenue required
Revenue = (take-home / (1 - tax rate) + business costs) / (1 - bad debt allowance)
Hourly rate
Rate = revenue required / (working weeks x billable hours per week)
Sales, admin, invoicing, learning and unpaid revisions all consume time. Twenty-five billable hours in a forty-hour week is a realistic mature freelance practice.
No - subtract them. Forty-six working weeks already allows around six weeks off; going below that assumes you never take a break or fall ill.