A freelance day rate must cover taxes, social contributions, business costs and unbillable time. Enter your target net income and realistic billable days to see the rate that actually gets you there.
Full-time employees work ~220 days a year, but freelancers rarely bill more than 150–180 once sales, admin, holidays and gaps are counted. Underestimating this is the classic pricing mistake.
The equivalent hourly figure helps sanity-check against employment: your rate must exceed an employee's gross hourly cost, not their net pay, because you now fund both sides of the contributions.
The billable-days figure is where most rate calculations quietly fail, and it is worth measuring rather than estimating. A year with four weeks of holiday, public holidays, a fortnight of illness and one day a week on sales and admin lands near 160 billable days — well under the 220 a salaried comparison assumes.
Payment timing is a separate cost from the rate. Net-60 terms on a large invoice mean financing two months of work yourself, and the occasional client who never pays is a real deduction from the effective rate. Both are reasons the freelance figure has to exceed the arithmetic equivalent, not merely match it.
Rates also do not rise on their own. An employee receives inflation adjustments by default; a freelancer holding the same rate for three years has taken a real pay cut of roughly a tenth. Reviewing the rate annually against costs and the market is part of the job rather than an optional extra.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my freelance day rate?
Start from target net income, add taxes, social contributions and business costs, then divide by realistic billable days. The result is usually far above the salary-derived number people first guess.
How many billable days does a freelancer have per year?
Rarely more than 150–180, once sales, admin, holidays, illness and gaps between projects are subtracted from the ~220 days an employee works. Overestimating this is the classic pricing mistake.
Why must a freelance rate exceed an employee's pay?
You now fund both sides of social contributions, unpaid vacation, equipment, insurance and idle time. The comparison point is the employer's total cost per day, not a net salary.