€60 an hour on the invoice is €28 in your pocket.
A freelance hour has to carry the hours nobody pays for, both halves of the health insurance, a pension no employer tops up, tax and the tools. Type the rate on your invoice and see what actually stays, then type the take-home you want and read the rate backwards.
Defaults are a self-employed person in Germany, 2026: health insurance 14.0% plus the 2.9% average supplement and 4.2% long-term care, a pension at the 18.6% an employee's statutory pension costs (both halves), and about 16% effective income tax on €33,000 taxable. Change them to your country; the arithmetic is the same everywhere.
€28 per hour billed. €15 per hour worked.
€60 × 1,012 hours is €60,720 a year. After costs, health and care, the pension and tax, €28,325 stays: €2,360 a month, 47% of what you invoiced.
The other 828 hours a year, admin, selling, learning, waiting, are paid by the 1,012 you can bill.
To keep €3,000 a month on 22 billable hours a week you would have to invoice €75 an hour. That is the rate built backwards.
The defaults are a self-employed person in Germany on 2026 statutory rates: health insurance at 14.0% plus the 2.9% average supplement, long-term care at 4.2%, a pension at the 18.6% an employee’ statutory pension costs when you count the employer’ half, and about 16% effective income tax on the remaining €33,000. Every one of them is a slider, because your country and your situation differ; the arithmetic does not. Contribution ceilings and minimum assessments are left out on purpose, so the page stays honest about what it is: a way to see the shape of the number, not a tax return.
Common questions
Why count hours I work but cannot bill?
Because they are real and they are paid from the billable ones. Selling, admin, invoicing, learning, waiting for the next contract: for most freelancers a 40-hour week yields 20 to 25 billable hours. Dividing your net by the hours you actually work is the number to compare with an employee’ hourly pay.
Do I really have to put 18.6% aside for a pension?
You do not have to; in most countries and trades it is voluntary for the self-employed. The slider is there so you see what matching an employee’ statutory pension would cost, since an employee gets it without noticing. Set it to what you actually save.
Where do I find my own percentages?
Your health insurer’ contribution notice, your last tax assessment (tax paid divided by taxable income gives the effective rate), and your pension contract if you have one. Ten minutes with three documents replaces every default on this page.
My country does not work like this.
The structure is the same everywhere: costs, contributions, tax, then what stays. Set the health slider to what your system charges the self-employed, the pension slider to what you save, and the tax slider to your effective rate. The rate-built-backwards figure at the bottom then applies to you.