Freelance Day Rate Calculator 2025/26
Calculate the day rate you need as a freelancer or contractor to match your employed salary — accounting for the hidden costs of self-employment: unpaid holiday, no sick pay, no employer pension contributions, gaps between contracts, and business costs.
Why your day rate must be higher than your salary equivalent
A £50,000 employed salary includes hidden benefits that contractors must fund themselves: 28 days’ paid holiday (worth ~£5,400), 5+ days’ paid sick leave, an employer pension contribution (often 3–5%), employer NI (which your employer pays on top of your salary, effectively adding ~10% to your total employment cost), and the implicit security of steady income. As a contractor, all of these come from your day rate.
A common rule of thumb is that your day rate should be roughly 1.4× to 1.5× the equivalent employed daily rate to account for all the above gaps. For a £50,000 salary (~£192/day), the equivalent contractor rate is often £270–£290/day. The calculator above derives the precise figure for your specific situation.