Free Salary ↔ Rate Converter

Freelance Salary to Hourly Rate Converter

Convert a target salary into the hourly rate you need — or see what your rate is really worth per year.

Freelance rate ≠ salary ÷ 2080. You can't bill 40 hours a week, and you cover your own expenses, software, and downtime. This converter uses your real billable hours and overhead so the salary↔rate comparison actually holds up.

Your numbers

$

What you charge per billable hour.

Hours you actually bill — usually 20–30, not 40.

52 minus holidays and time off.

15%
0%expenses50%
Billable hours / year1,200 hrs

Result

Salary equivalent

After overhead, before tax

$76,500

Gross annual billings

Total you invoice clients

$90,000

Day rate

At 8 billable hours

$600

Breakdown

Monthly$6,375
Billable hours / year1,200 hrs
Overhead15%
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See where your time actually goes — free in LancerWise.

How to convert a freelance rate to a salary (and back)

A common mistake is comparing a freelance hourly rate to a salary by multiplying by 2,080 (40 hours × 52 weeks). Freelancers don’t work that way — a large share of the week is non-billable, and you pay your own expenses, so the honest comparison is lower than the naive one.

Why “rate × 2080” overstates your income

If you bill 25 hours a week for 48 weeks, that’s 1,200 billable hours — not 2,080. And from those billings you cover software, hardware, fees, insurance, and unpaid admin time. This tool divides by your real billable hours and subtracts overhead, so the salary it shows is the take-home equivalent before tax.

Going from a salary to a rate

Switch the direction to turn a target salary into the hourly rate you’d need. It grosses your salary up for overhead, then divides by your billable hours — usually landing well above “salary ÷ 2080”, which is exactly why charging an ex-employer your old salary as an hourly rate leaves you worse off.

Salary ↔ rate FAQ

Why not just multiply my rate by 2,080?
2,080 assumes 40 paid hours every week. Freelancers bill far fewer hours (the rest is admin, sales, and downtime) and pay their own expenses, so multiplying by 2,080 badly overstates the salary your rate equates to.
What counts as overhead?
Anything you spend to run the business: software subscriptions, hardware, payment and platform fees, insurance, accounting, and unpaid admin or marketing time. Enter it as a rough percentage of your billings — 10–25% is typical.
How many billable hours should I use?
Most full-time freelancers realistically bill 20–30 hours a week, not 40. The rest goes to finding work, admin, and breaks. Use your own tracked average if you have it.
I left a $90k job — what should I charge?
Switch to “Salary → hourly”. The tool grosses the salary up for overhead and divides by your billable hours, which usually lands well above $43/hr (90k ÷ 2080) — because as a freelancer you also fund the benefits and downtime an employer used to cover.
Does this include tax?
No. The figures are before income and self-employment tax — the salary equivalent is your take-home from billings after overhead but before tax. Use the tax estimator to plan what to set aside.

Know your numbers, then run the business

LancerWise tracks your billable hours, rates, and invoices so the salary-vs-rate math stays real all year — not just on a calculator.

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