My kid's friend asked how much I make per hour and it threw me

I was working at the kitchen table yesterday and my son's buddy, maybe 10 years old, just pointed at my screen and asked straight up, 'What do you get for an hour of that?' I gave some vague answer, but it stuck with me. I realized I actually don't know my real hourly rate after you factor in admin time, unpaid pitches, and chasing invoices. I tracked it for a project last month: 8 hours of design work, but 3 more hours of emails and changes. That's a big difference. How do you guys figure out your true take-home pay per hour?

3 comments

3 Comments

corap6110d ago

My cousin's kid asked if our house cost a million dollars last Thanksgiving.

knight.uma10d ago

Yeah and it's not just the unpaid work, it's the mental load too. Like when @corap61's cousin's kid asked about house prices, that stuff just lives in your head rent free after. For me, the real hourly rate killer is the "waiting time" between projects. That week where you're just checking your email hoping for a reply? That's a zero dollar hour you have to count. So my 8 hour design job might actually be spread over 12 days of being mentally "on call" for it, which totally wrecks the per hour number.

grantnelson10d ago

Man, @knight.uma is so right about that waiting time. It's the worst kind of work because you can't even properly relax or start something else. Your brain is just stuck in a holding pattern, checking the phone every ten minutes. That totally wrecks any idea of a fair hourly wage.