Who it is for
Anyone who bills by the hour or quotes jobs off a gut-feel hourly rate.
Business and Money · Calculator · Free
What you actually have to charge per hour True Hourly Rate Calculator
Estimate the hourly rate your business needs to cover your take-home target, tax set-aside and overhead across the hours you can actually bill.
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install. Save the result or embed it on your site.
Start from your industry
Editable starting examples for your industry. They change the starting numbers, not the math, and they are not industry statistics.
Your numbers
The amount you want to keep. The calculator adds the tax set-aside and overhead to estimate required revenue.
Exclude driving, quoting, invoicing and other time you do not charge for. Use your own records to estimate the share.
What that means
Your minimum hourly rate: $100.00
$100.00
Your minimum hourly rate
1,440 billable hours a year
$144,000
Revenue you need
before taxes and overhead
1,440
Billable hours a year
of 2,400 worked
$25.00/hr
You are under by
$36,000
Left on the table a year
Your take-home$62.50
Taxes$20.83
Overhead$16.67
Every hour you bill at $75.00 is $25.00 short of what the business needs. Over a year that is $36,000.
This is your floor. Price above it for skill, speed, warranty and demand.
What this assumed
- Only billable hours earn. Admin, driving and quoting are treated as unpaid overhead.
- Tax is applied as a flat share of profit, which is a planning approximation, not a return.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
This is an estimate
This tool returns an estimate based on the numbers you entered. Your real result depends on your own costs, rates and conditions. Check it against your own records before you make a decision with it.
What this tool actually does for you
The problem it points at
You are charging what the last guy charged. Nobody ever did the math on overhead, unbillable hours, taxes, or the weeks you do not work.
What you walk away with
An estimated hourly floor and a comparison with what you charge now.
How to use it
Takes about two minutes. Be honest with the numbers, the tool is not going to tell anybody.
- Enter the yearly amount you want to keep after the tax set-aside, then choose that set-aside percentage.
- Add your yearly overhead: insurance, truck, software, rent, phone.
- Use your working weeks, hours and billable share. Count only the hours you expect to charge a customer for.
- Read the estimated hourly floor. Allow for job-specific costs and profit when setting your actual quote.
Keep learning
Go a little deeper.
See how this tool fits a practical task, with a guide you can follow at your own pace.
Questions people ask
Is this an employee wage or the rate I charge a customer?
It estimates a business charge-out rate. Your take-home target is the amount you want to keep after the entered tax set-aside. The calculator adds overhead and spreads the required revenue across billable hours; it does not calculate an employee's wage.
How does the hourly rate calculation work?
First, divide your take-home target by one minus the tax set-aside and add overhead; then divide by working weeks × hours per week × billable share. Example: $90,000 take-home, a 25% set-aside and $24,000 overhead require $144,000 revenue; 48 weeks × 50 hours × 60% gives 1,440 billable hours and a $100 hourly floor. These are example inputs, not an industry benchmark.
Can I use the result as my complete job price?
Use it as a planning floor for billable time. Materials, job-specific travel, subcontractors and other costs still need to be included in the quote when they are outside your entered overhead. The result does not establish what customers will pay or replace a tax calculation for your business.
Put this tool on your own website
Free forever. I host it. You keep it.
This is a real lead magnet you can run on your own site tonight. Somebody lands on your page, plays with the numbers, sees what their problem costs, and now they are on your website instead of a competitor's. Costs you nothing, and I keep it working.
- Scroll up and press Put this tool on my website. The code appears right there, no form.
- Copy the one line you get.
- In your website editor, add an Embed, HTML or Custom Code block on whatever page you want it on.
- Paste it in, save, publish.
- Check it on your phone, then send people to that page.
Works on
WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, GoDaddy, Webflow, Duda, HubSpot, ClickFunnels, or plain HTML. Anywhere that takes an embed code.
What it costs you
Nothing. No monthly fee, no expiring trial, no watermark you have to pay to remove. If you get stuck putting it in, text me at (903) 500-8898 and I will help you place it.
Part of these collections
While you are here
See all 86 tools
FreeLocal ServicesEstimatorJob Price CalculatorQuote a job without guessingMaterials, labor, drive time, overhead and the profit you actually want. Get a price you can say out loud without fl...Estimate it now
FreeBusiness and MoneyCalculatorWhat Your Hour Is WorthThe number that tells you what to stop doingDivide what the business makes by the hours you put in. Then compare that to the tasks you keep doing yourself.Calculate it now
FreeBusiness and MoneyCalculatorProfit Margin CalculatorMargin, markup and profit on anythingPut in a price and a cost. Get margin, markup, profit per sale and what it takes to hit a target margin.Calculate it now
FreeBusiness and MoneyCalculatorBreak-Even CalculatorWhat you have to sell to keep the doors openYour fixed costs do not care how slow the month is. This shows the exact sales number where you stop losing money.Calculate it nowOne useful tool is the proof
Now imagine the whole website doing real work.
A five-page site built to capture leads and follow up, in accounts you own. The result is a working site, not a promise of leads.