A £55,000 salary costs an employer £64,150

Employed vs Freelance Calculator

Compare a job offer against freelancing on the same basis. Employer National Insurance and pension add £9,150, which is £384 a day over 167 billable days.

Free tool

Employed vs Freelance Calculator

A salary costs an employer more than the salary, and buys holiday and sick pay you would have to fund yourself. This is the day rate that actually matches it.

The job
£
%
%
Three per cent is the statutory minimum.
Your freelance year
From the Day Rate Calculator.
£
NI is paid on the salary above this.
Day rate that matches the job

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Salary
Employer National Insurance
Employer pension
Total cost of employing you
As a multiple of the salary

Salary over the whole year
Which understates it by

What is still not in that rate

No statutory sick pay, no redundancy, no paid parental leave. If you want any of those you buy income protection, and that is another cost on the same rate.

No employer covering a quiet month. A permanent job pays the same in August as in October.

It works the other way round too. If you are weighing a permanent offer against freelance work you already have, this is the sum that makes them comparable.

The same comparison, in a workbook

With the list of things a rate has to cover that a salary simply gives you.

Download the workbook Free Excel workbook, no signup. Current for 2026/27.

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