Gives gross turnover before tax, National Insurance, materials and business costs — not take-home pay.
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This calculator converts between an hourly rate, a day rate, a weekly figure and an annual turnover. Tell it whether you know your day rate or your hourly rate, enter your hours per day, days per week and weeks worked per year, and it fills in the rest.
It is for tradespeople working out what to charge, or checking whether a quoted day rate stacks up. A price agency day rate can sound good until you break it down to an hourly figure, or scale it up to what it really means over a year once you allow for holidays and quiet weeks.
The conversion is straightforward: day rate divided by hours gives the hourly rate; hourly times hours gives the day rate; the day rate times days per week and weeks per year gives annual turnover.
Hourly = day rate ÷ hours per day; Weekly = day rate × days per week; Yearly = weekly × weeks worked per year
A day rate divided by the hours in your working day gives your effective hourly rate. Multiplying the day rate by the days you work in a week gives a weekly figure, and multiplying that by the number of weeks you actually work in a year — allowing for holidays, illness and quiet spells — gives your gross annual turnover.
Select whether you are starting from a day rate or an hourly rate. The calculator works out the other one, plus the weekly and yearly figures.
Type the figure you know in pounds — either your day rate or your hourly rate, depending on the toggle above.
Enter your hours per day, days per week and the number of weeks you actually work in a year. The default of 46 weeks allows roughly for holidays, bank holidays and a little downtime.
The calculator shows your hourly rate, day rate, weekly earnings and gross annual turnover so you can see the same rate from every angle.
The annual figure is gross turnover, not take-home pay. Tax, National Insurance, materials, van, tools, insurance and pension all come out of it, and so does every hour you spend quoting and invoicing rather than earning. As a rough guide, your take-home will be a good deal less than the headline number — treat the turnover figure as the top of the funnel, not your salary.
The weeks-per-year figure is where day rates flatter. There are 52 weeks in a year, but nobody bills all of them: holidays, bank holidays, illness, training and quiet periods knock a chunk off. Using 46 weeks or fewer gives a far more honest annual figure than assuming 52.
Use the tool both ways. When someone offers a day rate, convert it to an hourly figure to compare it against your own; when you set your own price, start from the annual turnover you need and work back to the day rate that delivers it.
Gives gross turnover before tax, National Insurance, materials and business costs — not take-home pay.
Divide the day rate by the number of hours in your working day. A £250 day rate over an 8-hour day is £31.25 an hour. Be careful comparing day rates with different assumed hours — a £280 day looks better than a £250 day until you find it is based on a 10-hour day, which is only £28 an hour.
It varies widely by trade, region, experience and whether the work is domestic or commercial, so there is no single figure. Rather than copy someone else's number, work out the annual turnover you need to cover your costs and pay yourself, then use this calculator to find the day rate that delivers it across the weeks you actually work.
Fewer than 52. Once you subtract holidays, bank holidays, the odd illness and inevitable quiet spells, most self-employed tradespeople bill somewhere around 44 to 48 weeks. Using 46 is a sensible starting point; lower it if your work is seasonal or you take longer breaks.
No. It is gross turnover — the money coming into the business before anything is paid out. Your tax, National Insurance, materials, vehicle, tools, insurance and pension all come out of it before you reach take-home pay, as does the time you spend on unpaid admin. Your actual wage is a fraction of the headline figure.