is it worth your time?
your real hourly rate. commute, anxiety, getting dressed. your contract doesn't mention those hours. your therapist does.
YOUR REAL HOURLY RATE
Everyone knows their salary. Almost nobody knows what they actually earn per hour when you count all the unpaid stuff. The commute. Getting ready. The post-work scroll where you decompress from Karen in accounting. Sunday night dread. The 3am wake-up wondering if you replied to that email. All unpaid. All real.
Your contract says 8 hours. You give 11. Maybe 12. Same paycheck.
THE MATH
Annual salary, divided by every hour you spend on work-related anything. Not just desk time. The result is always lower than you expect. Sometimes embarrassingly lower. An office worker on €40,000 who commutes an hour each way and spends 30 minutes getting ready is not earning €20.83/hour. More like €14. That's a 30% pay cut you agreed to without knowing.
Remote workers do better. No commute, no getting dressed (sorry, colleagues on Zoom). That alone can bump your real rate up 20-40%. Your pajamas are pulling more weight than your degree.
SO WHAT?
Once you know your real rate, you start seeing time differently. Driving 20 minutes to save €5 on groceries? Do the math. Queuing 30 minutes for a €3 coupon? Definitely don't do the math. This calculator won't make you richer but it might stop you wasting time on things that aren't worth it. Or it'll just make you sad. Probably both.