How to calculate your freelance hourly rate backwards from take-home pay

Freelancers often miscalculate rates by ignoring self-employment tax, employer costs, and the difference between working and billable hours, which typically range from 60 to 70%. While traditional advice suggests doubling a salary-based hourly rate, a backward calculation from desired take-home pay is more accurate. Simultaneously, AI is impacting the market not by replacing jobs, but by lowering the cost of specific deliverables, such as landing page copy or datasets, reducing the value of individual units sold.