I built a free 1099 vs W-2 calculator for full transparency
Hey Indie Hackers! I built Real Contractor Pay to clear up the confusion between 1099 contractor rates and W-2 salaries after self-employment taxes and overhead. It helps workers know their true worth before negotiating job offers. Check it out at https://realcontractorpay.com and let me know what you think or if you have any feedback on the UX!
I build bookkeeping spreadsheets for a living, so this is the same math I work in daily. Most of it comes down to the layer people skip: a 1099 rate that matches a W-2 gross still lands behind, because the worker pays both halves of the tax and handles quarterly estimated payments alone. The figure that made it click for the freelancers I've built tools with was per-invoice, not annual. 'Set aside this percentage on every invoice' is something someone can actually do; a yearly number just sits in a tab. Plain math, not tax advice.
The “true worth” framing makes the purpose pretty clear. Curious whether people find the comparison easy to understand on the first try.