A day rate annualises by one honest multiplication: rate × days you will actually bill. A standard year holds about 260 weekdays; take off 28 days of holiday and 8 bank holidays and a contractor who loses little other time bills roughly 220. £400 a day × 220 is £88,000, and paid through PAYE that keeps £61,597.40 in 2026/27. The multiplier is the whole game: this page shows how to pick yours.
How many working days a year really holds
52 weeks × 5 days is 260; subtract the 8 English bank holidays and you are at 252 available weekdays. An employee's 28 statutory holiday days (which for them are PAID) bring a comparable contractor to about 224, and sickness, training and gaps between contracts push most people to 200–220 billed days. Optimists price on 252 and undershoot every year. Pick the days number that matches your last twelve months, not the calendar's ceiling.
Three rates annualised and taxed
At 220 billed days: £300 a day is £66,000 gross, £48,837.40 net under PAYE. £400 is £88,000, £61,597.40 net. £500 is £110,000, £72,357.40 net, an effective deduction rate of 34.22% once the tapering allowance starts to bite above £100,000. These figures assume the rate is paid as salary through an umbrella or agency PAYE; employer costs taken out of the headline rate before your gross is struck will lower them.
A day rate salary calculator UK: turning a salary into an equivalent day rate
Divide the salary by your billed days and add the value of what employment includes: paid holiday (about 12% on top), employer pension contributions, sick pay and the odd bench week. A £50,000 salary over 220 days is £227.27 a day of gross before those extras: which is why a £300 day rate is NOT a £50,000 job with freedom added. Whether a contract sits inside or outside the off-payroll rules is a separate legal question this site deliberately leaves to the contractor-status specialists.
Questions people ask about day rate calculator
How many working days does a contract day rate calculator assume in a year?
260 weekdays minus 8 bank holidays is 252; most contractors bill 200–220 after holiday and gaps. Enter rate × your own realistic days as the gross.
Why is the take-home lower than rate × days × my tax band?
Because the bands stack (allowance, then 20%, then 40% slices), plus NI. The breakdown table on the calculator shows each slice at your figure.
Does the calculator handle a rate paid to a limited company?
No: company profit extraction (salary plus dividends, corporation tax first) is different arithmetic with different rates. This page's figures are for a rate paid as PAYE employment income.
Can I use this as a contract salary calculator?
Yes, in both directions. Rate multiplied by the days you will bill gives the annual gross, and the same figures read backwards turn a salary into the rate that matches it once you have added the value of paid holiday, an employer pension contribution and the weeks nobody is paying you for.
Does a freelance salary calculator work the same way?
It does where the work is billed by the day or the hour and paid through PAYE, because the arithmetic is rate multiplied by billed time and then the statutory deductions. It does not where you invoice through your own company, since profit taken as salary and dividends is taxed differently, and this page's figures are for a rate paid through PAYE.