Frequently Asked Questions

Your real hourly wage is your annual take-home pay, minus all work-related expenses (commute, clothing, meals, childcare), divided by all work-related hours (including commute, getting ready, decompression, and unpaid overtime). It always comes out below your advertised rate, because every adjustment pushes the same way: taxes and work costs come off the top, and the extra hours go on the bottom.

Hidden money costs include: daily commute expenses (gas, transit, parking), work clothing, work meals, childcare during work hours, professional dues, tools, and continuing education. Hidden time costs include: commute time, getting-ready time beyond your normal routine, decompression time after work, and unpaid overtime.

Decompression time is the time you spend unwinding purely because work drained you — scrolling social media, watching TV you wouldn't otherwise watch, or having drinks you wouldn't otherwise need. This is work-caused time and should be counted against your job's hours.

Multiply the hours the task would take you by your real hourly wage. Adjust for enjoyment — if you hate it, your adjusted cost is higher (×1.5 multiplier); if you love it, lower (×0.3 multiplier). Compare the adjusted cost to the hire price. If hiring costs less, pay someone else. The Is It Worth My Time? tab does this automatically.

Employees pay 7.65% FICA: 6.2% Social Security on wages up to a yearly cap, plus 1.45% Medicare, with another 0.9% Medicare on wages over $200,000. Self-employed people pay both the employer and employee shares, 15.3% in total, but can deduct half of it on their federal return, which lowers the effective rate slightly. This calculator uses the employee share.

Yes. When you factor in commute costs, commute time, work clothing, decompression time, and state tax differences, a remote job paying $15,000 less can have a higher real hourly wage. Use the Compare Two Jobs tab to see exactly how two offers stack up.

The calculator uses this year's IRS federal brackets with the standard deduction, the employee share of FICA, and each state's own brackets, standard deduction and personal exemption, including the phase-outs that apply at ordinary salaries. Local income taxes (such as New York City's or Maryland's county tax), credits other than the personal exemption credit, deducting federal tax from state income, and itemized deductions are left out. These are estimates; consult a CPA for precise figures.

No. All calculations happen entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to any server, and no account is required. The calculator has no server side and no database, and it collects no analytics on your inputs.

The core methodology is inspired by Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, which introduced the concept of measuring expenses and purchases in terms of "life energy" — hours of work — rather than dollars. This calculator formalises that idea into a precise real hourly wage figure.