Contract vs Full-Time
What’s that salary really worth as a contract rate?
Employees never see what they cost. This converter prices the whole package — payroll taxes, benefits, time off, bench weeks — and works in both directions.
Free · No signup · Nothing leaves your browser · Every number explained below
What’s inside the rate
The contractor premium isn’t profit — it’s the rest of the package, made visible.
Where the billing target goes
the full package, itemized
Worth knowing
This matches a package. Funding a life is a different question.
Start from the take-home you want — taxes, benefits, and real billable hours included.
How this works
Four steps, no black box. The numbers below are your numbers and update as you change the inputs.
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Step 1
Price the real package
A — salary costs the employer more: +7.65% payroll taxes, a — match, unemployment and workers’ comp, health and other benefits — — all-in.
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Step 2
Add the cost of being the back office
Accounting, liability insurance, software add —, bringing the billing target to —.
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Step 3
Count the honest weeks
52 weeks minus — off and — on the bench leaves — billed weeks — — hours.
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Step 4
Divide, round up
The package over the hours: — exact, rounded up to —/hour — — the salary’s raw hourly.
Assumptions worth knowing: both directions compare pre-tax gross — income tax is broadly similar either way, and the contractor’s extra half of Social Security & Medicare is priced in through the employer-payroll-tax line. Above the Social Security wage base (≈$180k) the FICA line slightly overstates; treat results there as conservative. Planning tool — not tax advice.
Questions people actually ask
How much more should a contractor charge than an employee makes?
At minimum 30–50% above the salary’s raw hourly equivalent, and on this page’s defaults that works out at about 1.5×. The premium isn’t profit — it replaces what the employer was paying beyond salary: their half of payroll taxes, health insurance, retirement match, paid time off, and it covers the weeks you sit between contracts. This calculator computes your exact multiple instead of guessing.
Why can’t I just divide the salary by 2,080 hours?
Because salary ÷ 2,080 prices only the salary. An employer also pays 7.65% payroll tax on top, a health premium share, a retirement match, unemployment insurance and workers’ comp — and a contractor bills fewer than 52 weeks once time off and bench weeks are subtracted. Skip those and the “equivalent” rate quietly takes a 30–50% pay cut.
What is the rule of thumb for converting salary to a contract rate?
The common shortcut is about 1.5× the salary’s hourly equivalent — for a $100,000 salary, roughly $72–75/hour. It’s a decent sanity check, but the real number moves with your benefits, time off, and bench weeks, which is why this page computes it from the actual package instead.
Do 1099 contractors pay more taxes than W-2 employees?
Contractors pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare (15.3% self-employment tax versus the 7.65% employees see withheld), though half of it is deductible and business expenses reduce taxable income. Income tax itself works out broadly similar either way. This calculator prices the extra half in through the employer-payroll-tax line, so both sides of the comparison are pre-tax gross.
What counts as bench time between contracts?
Every unbilled week: the search between engagements, ramp-downs and early endings, unpaid onboarding, and holidays clients impose. Independent contractors commonly lose 4–8 weeks a year to the bench, and it’s the input people most often set to zero — which is exactly how they end up underpaid.
More money tools
Same approach — real numbers, shown working, nothing gated.