How to calculate your real hourly rate

Your real hourly rate is what you keep from a job after platform fees, the cost of getting there and a tax set-aside, divided by every hour it took, paid or not. Self-employment tax, which the IRS sets at 15.3%, applies to net earnings after expenses, not to gross payouts.

How to calculate real hourly pay after expenses

Divide what you keep by all the hours the work took: (payouts − platform fees − costs of earning − tax set-aside) ÷ all hours. A per-job, per-task or per-route payout has no hours attached, so you supply them. Run the formula for one job, divide by that job's minutes, then multiply by 60. For a week, add up the net figures and the hours first and divide once, so one slow job doesn't disappear into an average.

The example below follows one Rover drop-in visit from payout to hourly figure. The pet sitting page covers how that work is paid.

A job payout next to an 'earn $X an hour' claim

Platform hourly figures are the provider's claim about a typical driver or sitter, not your result for one job. Amazon Flex advertises $18 to $25 an hour for most drivers, and says it varies by location, tips and time. Veho advertises $20 to $26 an hour, based on average monthly pay by region over the past year, not a guarantee. Kango frames its up to $48 an hour as a peak, best-case figure. Set the last line of the example beside figures like these; none of them nets out your fuel, tax or waiting time.

The FTC says its Business Opportunity Rule requires truthful disclosure of the basis for earnings claims, so ask what any hourly figure is based on before you compare it with your own.

What to subtract before you divide by hours

Three things come off the payout: the platform's cut, the cost of getting to and doing the work, and tax.

Self-employment tax set-aside

Half of the tax is deductible when you figure adjusted gross income, but the deduction affects only income tax. Self-employment tax is figured first, so the deduction doesn't shrink that line. Only part of your net earnings is subject to the tax, and the example applies that share.

The IRS publishes no recommended set-aside percentage, and income tax depends on your bracket and filing status. Check the IRS or a tax professional for your situation.

Mileage and car costs

The IRS business standard mileage rate changed mid-year in 2026, so match each trip's date to its rate. The example uses the rate for trips from Jul 1 to Dec 31, 2026. Gas is one of the actual expenses the IRS lists as the alternative to the standard rate, and parking and tolls are deductible separately under either method.

Setting a price so you keep your rate

Work backwards: pick the hourly rate you need, add fees, travel and unpaid time, then set the price.

Listing price that survives the platform fee

On Rover, the list price on a sitter's profile includes the sitter-paid service fee, so set it from the payout you need, not the other way round.

Cleaning price by room, hour or visit

Angi puts hourly rates for a single deep-cleaning pro at $25 to $70. Thumbtack's national range for a regular clean is $146 to $202 per visit. Both are provider figures. For house cleaning, a visit price only means something once you divide it by your own quoting, travel and cleaning time.

Quotes for small jobs

Leave travel and materials out of a quote and they come out of your hourly rate. Thumbtack says travel fees can be a flat fee or per mile, such as $10 flat or 50 cents per mile, with small parts folded into the hourly rate. Angi notes many handymen charge minimum service fees for single small jobs. The handyman services page covers the work itself.

Checking profit after fees and costs

Profit is what's left of a sale or a month after fees and costs, so check it there rather than on the listing price.

Resale profit after fees and shipping

Mercari lists items free and charges fees only when an item sells. An unsold listing costs no fee but earns nothing for the hours you put into it. Add sourcing trips at the mileage rate. With the Form 1099-K threshold at $20,000 and over 200 transactions, many sellers get no form but still owe tax. Thrift store flipping adds stock cost to the same math.

Nightly rates for a car, RV or room

Turo hosts keep 70%, 80% or 90% of the trip price depending on their plan. Since Oct 8, 2026, delivery fees and Extras use the same take rate as the plan, and Turo says last-minute trips earn less. To compare a rental with other work, divide a month's net by the hours you spent on cleaning, messaging and handoffs. The renting out your car page covers that case.

Counting your time, paid and unpaid

Count every hour the job needed: quoting, messaging, travel between jobs, waiting for tasks and time on screeners that end without pay. The IRS and FTC pages don't define hours worked for a personal rate, so this is a method, not a tax rule. Apply it the same way every week.

The rule bends where a platform pays for the overrun. Prolific works out a study's effective hourly rate from median actual completion time and recommends $12 an hour or more. A study that runs longer than estimated can become underpaying, and Prolific requires bonus top-ups in that case. Those top-ups don't count toward the minimum hourly pay, so check which number you are comparing.

Per-task pay needs its own minutes. Userbrain pays $5 per approved test and says tests take about 5 to 20 minutes. That is $60 an hour at 5 minutes and $15 at 20, before sign-up and unpaid time. See paid website and app user testing for how that work is paid.

A task that asks you to deposit your own money has a negative hourly rate; How to spot side-hustle scams has the tests.

Checks to run on every hourly figure

Run these before you trust any hourly number, yours or a platform's:

The IRS says gig income must be reported even without an information return, so the net figure in your rate still belongs on your return.

Guides for pricing, profit and time

Each of these takes one part of the calculation further.