Calculate Your Real Hourly Earnings
The dashboard shows money. Your calendar and expense log show the job. Put them together before you compare one opportunity with another.
- OPERATING NET · gross − fees − direct costs
- TOTAL TIME · paid + waiting + travel + admin
- REAL HOURLY · operating net ÷ total time
Count every dollar in and out
Start with gross customer or platform revenue. Subtract platform and processing fees, refunds, discounts you fund, supplies, measured vehicle operating cost, insurance allocated to the work, shipping, advertising, and other direct costs. Keep tax math separate: when eligible, a taxpayer generally chooses the IRS standard-mileage method or the actual-expense method for the same vehicle use, not both. The result here is pre-tax operating net—not final household take-home.
Count the invisible minutes
Add paid task time, driving to the job, waiting for an order, shopping, bidding, messaging, revisions, setup, cleanup, invoicing, and required screening. A twenty-minute paid test preceded by twenty minutes of unpaid screeners consumed forty minutes.
Use a sample, not a lucky shift
Start with at least two weeks and preserve each observation; do not assume that short sample represents every season. Keep unusually good and bad periods visible instead of averaging them away. Season, geography, acceptance, and demand can change the answer; display the date and location beside the result.
Compare like with like
Employee wage benchmarks can help frame a decision, but BLS OEWS excludes self-employed workers. Label the number as an occupational wage benchmark rather than evidence that a gig or freelancer typically earns it.
Sources
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (accessed 2026-07-10)
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: concepts — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (accessed 2026-07-10)
- Manage taxes for your gig work — Internal Revenue Service (accessed 2026-07-10)
Related categories
Gig & Delivery · Freelance & Services · Microtasks & Surveys · Local & Offline
Jurisdiction: US. Last reviewed 2026-07-10; review by 2027-05-31. Research cutoff 2026-07-10.