Free Salary Calculator
Convert between annual, monthly, weekly, and hourly rates instantly. Know what you're really worth per hour.
Standard full-time: 40 hrs/week, 52 weeks/year. Adjust if you have unpaid vacation or work part-time.
Enter your annual salary to see your hourly rate
A $75,000/year employee seems to earn $36/hour. But they likely bill only 1,000-1,500 actual hours (after admin, meetings, vacation, sick days). The real hourly equivalent: $50-75/hour.
As a freelancer, you need to charge enough to cover: health insurance (~$600/mo), retirement savings, business expenses, taxes (~25-30%), and unpaid time between projects.
Track Your True Hourly Rate
Eonebill helps freelancers understand real earnings and profitability.
Try Eonebill Free →Why Knowing Your True Hourly Rate Matters
Most people know their annual salary but have no idea what they actually earn per hour. Once you calculate your true hourly rate—including all unpaid hours like commute, overtime, and admin work—you often find it's significantly lower than expected.
The Freelance Premium: If you're considering freelancing, you need to charge more than your salaried hourly equivalent. A $75,000 employee with benefits worth $15,000/year effectively costs their employer $90,000. As a freelancer, you need to cover all of that yourself—plus the risk of no work during dry spells.
Billable vs. Non-Billable: The 40-hour work week is a myth for most knowledge workers. Research suggests the average office worker has only 2.5-3 productive hours per day. If you're billing hourly, make sure you're tracking actual billable time vs. admin, business development, and communication.
Rate-Setting Strategy: Set your freelance rate by working backwards: what annual income do you need? Divide by realistic billable weeks (45-48, accounting for holidays and dry spells), then by realistic billable hours per day (4-6). That's your minimum rate. Charge more if you have specialized skills or strong demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
To convert annual salary to hourly rate: divide by (weeks worked per year × hours worked per week). Standard calculation: annual salary ÷ 52 weeks ÷ 40 hours = hourly rate. For example, $75,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 40 = $36.06/hour. Note this assumes a standard 40-hour week and 2 weeks unpaid vacation.
Standard full-time calculation: 40 hours/week × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours per year. After subtracting typical US holidays (10 days) and 2 weeks vacation, you get approximately 2,000 working hours. Most salary converters use 2,080 hours as the baseline for standard full-time work.
Take-home pay is your gross salary minus deductions: federal income tax, state income tax (if applicable), Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), and any retirement contributions or benefits. As a rough estimate, your take-home is usually 70-80% of gross for a single filer in the US. Use Eonebill for precise paycheck calculations.
Hourly billing is transparent and fair for unpredictable scope. Fixed project rates shift risk to you but can be more profitable for efficient workers. As a rule of thumb: if a project might expand in scope, charge hourly; if you can reliably estimate time, a fixed rate with clear scope boundaries is often better. Knowing your true hourly rate from your salary goal is essential for setting either.
Freelance rates in the US typically range from $25/hour (entry-level) to $300+/hour (senior experts). Common ranges: junior freelancers $30-60/hr, mid-level $60-120/hr, senior/experts $120-250/hr. Your rate should cover not just billable hours but business development, admin, taxes, and benefits. A $75,000 salaried employee effectively billing 1,000 hours/year needs to charge $75+/hour as a freelancer just to match income.
Ready to track your real earnings?
Use Eonebill to understand your true hourly rate and profitability.
Try Eonebill Free →