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Job offer, or stay freelance? Compare the real numbers.

Health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid time off are broken out separately, since lumping them into one guessed "benefits" number usually hides the single biggest cost freelancers underestimate: health insurance.

$
$
$
days
$ /hr
hrs
wks
$
$
%
Freelancing nets you
$0
more per year than the job offer
Job: salary$0
Job: health insurance value$0
Job: retirement / other benefits$0
Job: paid time off value$0
Job total value$0
Freelance: gross income$0
Freelance: minus health insurance$0
Freelance: minus other expenses$0
Freelance: minus taxes$0
Freelance net take-home$0
This still leaves out harder-to-price factors: unemployment insurance and disability protections that come standard with a job but not with freelancing, income predictability, and schedule control. A higher freelance number on paper does not automatically make it the safer or better choice for your situation.

Why health insurance gets its own line

Employer-sponsored health insurance is often the single largest hidden cost freelancers underestimate when comparing pay. The default figures here reflect real national averages, employers contribute roughly $7,900 a year toward single coverage on average, while an unsubsidized ACA marketplace benchmark plan runs about $6,000 a year nationally, though both vary significantly by age, location, and specific plan. Adjust either number if you know your actual figures.

What this still doesn't capture

Beyond the dollar figures, a job typically comes with unemployment insurance if you lose it, and often short and long-term disability coverage. Freelancing generally does not include either by default. These matter for risk, not just take-home pay, and are worth weighing alongside the numbers above, not instead of them.

If you're leaning toward freelancing, the true rate calculator can help you sanity-check whether the hourly rate you used here is realistic for your experience level and market.