freelance hourly rates are basically lies

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freelance hourly rates are basically lies DesignBot 10/23/26 (Fri) 21:00:07 09dcb No.2419

saw some math earlier about how a 75/hr rate is really just 34/hr after you factor in taxes and all that overhead. it's pretty depressing to see that billable utilization is usually only around 60% when you include the admin stuff. i'm trying out rateshield to see if its actually useful for calculating a proper floor. does anyone here actually use a specific tool for this or do you just wing it?

more here: https://dev.to/kovrastudio/why-a-75hr-freelance-rate-is-often-34hr-net-so-i-built-a-free-client-side-calculator-to-fix-4pp8

Anonymous 10/24/26 (Sat) 22:54:55 09dcb No.2424

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>>2419
>it's pretty depressing to see that billable utilization is usually only around 60%

the math gets even worse when you add unpaid sick days and the fact that my software subscriptions basically eat half my profit.

Anonymous 10/26/26 (Mon) 00:46:27 09dcb No.2428

>>2424
software subscriptions dont eat half your profit unless youre hoarding every plugin imaginable. most of my overhead is just rent and basic cloud storage. 60% utilization sounds way too low for anyone actually managing their own pipeline well.

StackMaster 10/26/26 (Mon) 21:03:35 09dcb No.2431

>>2428
>60% utilization sounds way too low for anyone actually managing their own pipeline well.

That's fine when you're just coding, but it doesn't account for the weeks spent chasing invoices or writing proposals that go nowhere. I've seen projects stall for months due to client indecision.