Day rate to annual salary
A day rate looks great until you multiply it out — and most people multiply it wrong. There aren't 260 paid days in a freelancer's year once holiday, admin and gaps between contracts are removed. Enter your rate and realistic billable days to see what it actually adds up to.
Gross annual billings
£88,000
220 billable days at £400/day
- Per month (gross)
- £7,333
- Per week (gross)
- £1,692
- Equivalent gross salary
- £88,000
Before employer pension, holiday & benefits — see the FAQ
The leap from a day rate to 'so what do I earn?' trips up almost every new contractor. Four hundred pounds a day sounds like £104,000 a year if you multiply by 260 weekdays — but that figure assumes you never take a holiday, never get sick, never spend a day chasing the next contract and never have a quiet month. Strip those out and the honest number is the one that matters when you're planning a mortgage or deciding whether to go freelance at all.
This calculator multiplies your rate by realistic billable days rather than the full calendar. The default of 220 already removes statutory and personal holiday, bank holidays and a margin for admin and downtime; nudge it up if you're consistently booked or down if your pipeline is lumpy. The headline is your gross annual billings, with the monthly and weekly equivalents underneath for budgeting.
Finally, resist comparing gross billings directly to a permanent salary. A salaried role bundles in employer pension contributions, paid holiday, sick pay and stability that your billings have to cover themselves. A useful habit is to discount your billings by 20–30% before holding them up against an advertised salary — that's the closest you'll get to a fair, like-for-like comparison.
Frequently asked questions
- Why not just multiply my day rate by 260 weekdays?
- Because nobody bills all 260. Take off statutory holiday and a couple of weeks of personal leave (around 28 days), bank holidays (8), the odd sick day, plus time spent on admin, invoicing, sales and the gaps between contracts, and a realistic year is closer to 200–230 billable days. Using 260 overstates your income by a fifth or more.
- Where does the default of 220 come from?
- It's a widely-used planning figure: roughly 232 working days after holiday and bank holidays, minus a small allowance for sickness and non-billable admin. Adjust it to match your own pipeline — a fully-booked contractor might hit 230+, while someone building a client base may bill 180 or fewer.
- Is the day rate the same as a salary?
- No — they're not like-for-like. As a contractor you fund your own pension, holiday, sick pay and equipment, and you carry the risk of empty weeks. A like-for-like permanent salary is usually meaningfully lower than your gross billings once those employer-provided benefits are valued in.
- Does this account for tax, IR35 or expenses?
- No. It shows gross billings — money invoiced before tax, National Insurance, corporation tax, accountancy fees or expenses. Your take-home depends on your IR35 status and how you operate (umbrella, sole trader or limited company), so treat this as the top-line figure.
- How do I turn billings into a comparable salary?
- As a rough rule, knock 20–30% off your gross billings to reflect the pension, paid holiday and job security a permanent role includes — then compare that to advertised salaries. If you want to match a £60,000 salaried package, you generally need to bill noticeably more than £60,000.
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