Breaking Free

Breaking Free tool

What is your hour actually worth?

The usual calculation divides compensation by 2,080. It leaves out taxes, the spending caused by work, and the hours the job takes without naming. Put those costs back in. The gap is the useful number.

Five inputs

Run the honest arithmetic

Federal and payroll: 2026
California estimate: 2025
Filing status and state Used only to estimate take-home pay.
Open the advanced details

Break apart the estimates without adding anything new to the calculation.

Break apart the extra hours

Break apart work-caused spending

The generic 2,080-hour rate -- Total compensation / 2,080
Your estimated real rate -- After estimated taxes, work costs, and actual hours
The gap --

Your real rate is --.

Estimated annual taxes
--
Work-caused spending
--
Hours the job takes each year
--

Rated, not counted

The arithmetic cannot tell which hours you sold

Capacity and mental load matter, but assigning either one a multiplier would invent precision. They belong beside the number, not inside it.

Capacity: Are you selling your best hours or your leftovers?

Mental load: How much of your non-work time does the job still occupy?

Named, left unpriced

The arithmetic runs out before the decision does

These factors are real. Giving them invented dollar values would make the calculation less honest, not more complete.

  • Foregone skill development
  • Deferred relationship maintenance
  • Health costs that arrive later
  • The geographic cost of living where the job requires
  • Time with your children
Compare one buy-back decision

Use your real rate to compare the cost of a cleaner, delivery, or another task you could pay not to do.

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Every tax assumption, in the open

Federal income tax: Uses the official 2026 federal brackets and standard deductions. IRS source.

Payroll tax: Uses the 2026 Social Security wage limit of $184,500, the 6.2% employee rate, 1.45% Medicare rate, and the Additional Medicare Tax where applicable. Social Security source.

California estimate: Uses California's official 2025 brackets and standard deductions because the 2026 personal-income schedule is not yet published. California FTB source.

Benefits: Non-cash benefits are included in compensation but excluded from taxable salary. Actual tax treatment varies by benefit.

This is an educational estimate, not personalized tax, legal, investment, or financial advice. It excludes credits, itemizing, local taxes, California SDI, self-employment tax, and household-specific facts.