Hourly Rate Calculator
Convert a target salary into an hourly billing rate.
This calculator converts the income you want to take home into the hourly rate you actually have to charge. Enter your target annual income, your yearly business expenses, the number of weeks you plan to work, and the hours per week you can realistically bill.
The gap between hours worked and hours billed is where most small operators lose money. Admin, quoting, invoicing, marketing, and travel are real hours that no client pays for directly, so a 40-hour week often yields only 25 billable hours. Charging as though every hour is billable guarantees you fall short of your target.
The result shows the hourly rate you need, plus the day rate and the total revenue that rate produces over the year. Use it to sanity-check an existing rate, to price a new service line, or to decide whether a low-rate client is worth keeping. Everything updates live as you adjust the inputs.
Your numbers
Required hourly rate
$88.70
🇺🇸 US · USD
- Revenue needed per year
- $102,000.00
- Billable hours per year
- 1,150
- Day rate (8 hours)
- $709.57
- Weekly revenue at this rate
- $2,217.39
Estimates only. Results from this calculator are for general informational purposes and are not tax, legal, accounting or financial advice. Rates change and individual circumstances vary — confirm figures with the CRA, the IRS, your state or provincial authority, or a licensed professional before acting on them.
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How it's calculated
- Revenue needed = Target income + Annual business expenses
- Billable hours = Working weeks × Billable hours per week
- Hourly rate = Revenue needed ÷ Billable hours
Understand the numbers
Frequently asked questions
- How many weeks should I work?
- Subtract vacation, statutory holidays, and sick time from 52. Most independents use 46–48 weeks.
- Why are billable hours lower than worked hours?
- Sales, admin, invoicing and learning are unpaid. A 40-hour week usually contains 22–30 billable hours.
- Does this include tax?
- No. This is pre-tax revenue. Use our take-home paycheck estimators to see what lands in your account.
- Should employees use this?
- Yes — set expenses to zero and it converts a salary target into an equivalent hourly wage.
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