Hourly Rate Calculator
Turn a target income, annual expenses, and working assumptions into a minimum hourly rate.
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Runs entirely in your browser. Your income, expenses, and assumptions never leave this device.
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Inputs
rate = (income + expenses) ÷ effective billable hours, where effective hours lose the buffer share. Money rounds half-up to the cent; hours to two decimals. Every assumption is editable. Planning arithmetic only — not financial or employment advice.
Result
No inputs yet.
Enter a target annual income and annual expenses above.
Hourly Rate Calculator works from a target income, your annual expenses and the hours you can actually sell, and returns the minimum rate those numbers require. The non-billable buffer is the field that does most of the work: admin, quoting, invoicing and the gaps between contracts are real hours that no client pays for, and a buffer of up to ninety percent prices them in rather than pretending the week is entirely sellable. The page states its assumptions instead of hiding them - every billable hour is paid at the same rate and is actually sold - and it applies no tax rules, no holiday pay and no regional data, because it has none. That makes the result a floor for planning, not financial or employment advice. It is the tool for finding the rate that covers a salary plus business costs, for seeing how much a thirty percent buffer raises the figure, and for comparing a four-day week against a five-day one at the same income target. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored. The non-billable buffer is capped at ninety percent so a rate always exists, and no tax, holiday pay or regional data is applied. Because the buffer is capped at ninety percent, a rate always resolves instead of diverging toward infinity as billable time approaches zero.
How to use Hourly Rate Calculator
- Enter your target annual income and annual business expenses.
- Set billable hours per week, work weeks per year, and a non-billable buffer.
- Read the minimum hourly rate and the hours it assumes, or copy the summary.
What you get
- A minimum hourly rate from a target income, annual expenses and your working assumptions.
- The effect of a non-billable buffer of up to 90%, so unbillable admin time is priced rather than ignored.
- The stated assumption that every billable hour is sold at one rate - no tax, holiday or regional data is applied.
When to use Hourly Rate Calculator
- Find the floor rate that covers a target salary plus business costs.
- See how much a 30% non-billable buffer raises the rate you must charge.
- Compare a four-day week against a five-day one at the same income target, to see the rate difference.
Frequently asked questions about Hourly Rate Calculator
How is the minimum hourly rate calculated?
Target income plus annual expenses is divided by effective billable hours, where effective hours are weekly billable hours times work weeks, reduced by the buffer percentage.
What is the non-billable buffer for?
It represents admin, quotes, and breaks that never become billable work. Raising it increases the rate because the same income must come from fewer paid hours.
Does this rate include tax or holiday pay?
No. It uses only the numbers you enter. If you need a tax reserve, add it to annual expenses or use the freelance rate calculator, which accepts a tax reserve directly.
Is a higher rate always better here?
No. The result is the minimum your assumptions require. Whether a client pays it depends on demand and competition, which this arithmetic cannot see.
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