Freelance Rate Calculator 2026

Hire or engage externally, stay employed or work freelance: the comparison for Austria 2026. What a position costs per hour worked, from which hourly or day rate an engagement is cheaper, and which rate nets more than the employment.

Position 1

€

Position 1 ⇄ Engagement 1Room €38.85 to €44.66 an hour

Engagement 1

€

rate at the same cost as the position

Hours a year
worked / billednot billedHolidaysLeaveSick leave
Employment2,088 paid
Leave
5 wk
Sick leave
10.5 d
Engagement1,724 available
Leave
5 wk
Sick leave
10.5 d
Utilisation
100 %
What each rate means for both sides
Client saves
Freelancer nets more

Position 1 ⇄ Engagement 1Room €38.85 to €44.66 an hour

Cost-neutral against the position
€44.66
per hour, excluding VAT
Gross salary 76.99% Employer SI 15.77% Other payroll costs 7.25%
Saving
0.00%
€0 a year for the same 1,724 hours
Room
13.01%
same net from €38.85 an hour
Position 1 and Engagement 1 compared
ItemEmployedEngagement
Costs
Hours (worked / billed)1,724 h1,724 h
Gross salary / fee€34.39€44.66
Regular salary€29.47
13th and 14th salary€4.91
Invoice with 20 % VAT€53.60
Employer social insurance€7.26
Employer contribution (DB)€1.27
DB surcharge (DZ)€0.12
Municipal tax€1.03
Severance fund (MVK)€0.53
Vienna employer levy€0.06
Total cost€44.66€44.66
per year€77,000€77,000
monthly average€6,417€6,417
From gross to net
Gross salary / fee€34.39€44.66
Social insurance / SVS€6.24€11.30
Wage tax / income tax€4.57€7.23
Net€23.57€26.13
per year€40,642€45,041
monthly average€3,387€3,753
Share that arrives as net52.78%58.49%

What your result means

Notes · updated live
Room to negotiate

Between €38.85 and €44.66 an hour (€310.81 to €357.31 a day) both sides gain: the freelancer nets more than employed, the client pays less than for the employment.

Workplace and overhead still missing

A position costs more than pay and payroll levies: office, equipment, IT, administration and training. A freelancer brings their own. Enter the amount per year in the position's options, or the position looks cheaper than it is.

Vienna employer levy

For every position in Vienna over 10 hours a week the employer pays the Dienstgeberabgabe, €2.00 per started week, here €106.00 a year. It does not depend on pay and does not shrink with part-time. Employees over 55, apprentices and freie Dienstverträge are exempt.

Illness costs fees

Three weeks of sick leave cost about €5,360 in fees at €44.66 an hour. An employee keeps the salary. The freelancer carries this risk, and it belongs in the rate.

All rates exclude VAT

Above the small-business threshold of €55,000 turnover a year (gross), 20 % VAT comes on top. A business client reclaims it as input tax; the comparison uses the net rate.

How the rate calculator works

Employing someone costs more than the gross salary: the payroll levies come on top, together the total cost of the position. The position is paid for every weekday of the year but worked on fewer: 2026 has 261 weekdays, less 10 public holidays, the leave and the average sick leave.

The position's cost divided by the hours actually worked is the cost-neutral hourly rate. At that rate an engagement costs the client the same as the employment. A freelancer pays their own SVS contributions and income tax out of it and carries holidays, illness and expenses.

Both sides use the same engines as the employer-cost and SVS calculators: the rate at which the client pays neither more nor less, and the rate at which the freelancer nets the same as employed. The room for the negotiation lies between them; the chart under the hours shows, for every rate, what the client saves and what the freelancer nets on top.

Frequently asked questions

Most easily from the position you would otherwise have: its annual cost to the employer, divided by the hours you actually work. A full-time position costing €77,000 a year in total costs €44.66 per productive hour in 2026, €357.31 a day. For the same net as employed you need €38.85 an hour, if every hour can be billed. If you know your target net, enter it in the engagement: the calculator finds the rate that brings it after SVS and income tax.
Not by dividing by the hours of the working week, but the position's cost by the hours actually worked. In the example above that comes to 1.6 times the gross hourly wage: the employer pays payroll levies and the salary on holidays, during leave and sick leave, while an engagement is paid only for hours worked.
At 40 hours a week, 2026 leaves about 1,720 hours after public holidays, 5 weeks of leave and the average sick leave. With 20 % going to sales, quotes and bookkeeping it is about 1,380. Set the utilisation under hours a year.
The rates here exclude VAT. Above the small-business threshold of €55,000 turnover a year (gross), 20 % is added; a business client reclaims it as input tax, so the comparison uses the net rate. For private clients the gross amount is the price. Small businesses cannot reclaim input tax, so their expenses count including VAT.
Usually a full working day, so 8 hours on a 40-hour week. The calculator takes a fifth of the full-time week; you can set another value in the engagement, such as 7.7 hours at 38.5 hours a week.
For the same net as employed, the example above needs €38.85 an hour, 1.4 times the gross hourly wage, if every hour can be billed. If 20 % of the time goes to sales and admin, it is €48.56, 1.7 times. That covers own social insurance, holidays and illness nobody pays for, and own expenses; a margin for profit and risk comes on top.
It depends on the rate, compared for the same work: the hours a position actually works in a year. In the example above the position costs €44.66 per productive hour in 2026; any lower rate saves the company money. On top comes what the position costs beyond pay, such as workplace, equipment and administration, and on short projects the hiring, which then falls on a few months. A client without input VAT deduction also pays the 20 % VAT on every invoice.

Payroll levies and the employee's net with the same engine as the employer-cost and gross-net calculators (ASVG, EStG, FLAG, KommStG, BMSVG); SVS contributions and income tax with the same engine as the SVS calculator (GSVG, EStG); public holidays § 7 (2) Arbeitsruhegesetz; leave § 2 Urlaubsgesetz; sick leave WIFO Fehlzeitenreport 2026 (14.7 calendar days per employee in 2025); start of severance-fund contributions on a fixed term § 6 (1) BMSVG; Vienna Dienstgeberabgabe LGBl. für Wien No. 17/1970 (§ 5 as amended by LGBl. No. 25/2012); WKO Grundumlage from the regional chambers’ announcements; tax-free payments § 3 (1) EStG; Basispauschalierung § 17 (1) EStG; small-business exemption § 6 (1) Z 27 UStG. As of 2026.