How to Calculate Your True Hourly Rate in Gig Work

The true-hourly-rate formula

Your true hourly rate is net earnings divided by total hours worked. Start with gross pay, subtract platform fees, subtract your deductible mileage (70 cents per mile at the 2025 IRS standard rate), and subtract other real costs — then divide by every hour you were engaged, including the unpaid time spent waiting for orders and driving between them. That denominator is what most gig workers leave out, and it is why the headline rate an app advertises rarely matches what you keep.

For example, $200 in gross pay over an 8-hour shift looks like $25/hour — but after $30 in fees, 90 deductible miles ($63 at $0.70), and the unpaid wait time folded into those 8 hours, the real figure is far lower. UnifyOne by 1Commerce computes net earnings after fees and mileage across every platform you run, so your true hourly rate is a number you can actually trust when deciding where to work.

Why the true rate changes your decisions

Knowing your real hourly rate per platform and per zone reshapes how you work:

• ✦Compare platforms on net pay per hour, not advertised gross.
• ✦Count mileage as a cost — high-mile orders can pay less than they look.
• ✦Include unpaid wait and reposition time in total hours worked.
• ✦Drop zones and times whose true rate falls below your target.
• ✦Track the trend so a quiet market shows up before payday does.

Calculate it free across every app

UnifyOne's free Gig Worker Real Hourly Rate Calculator at /tools/gig-hourly-rate computes your effective rate after expenses, and the Multi-Platform Earnings Consolidator at /tools/earnings-consolidator does it across several apps at once. In the full UnifyOne app, Kai surfaces which platforms and shifts maximize net pay using your real data rather than marketing averages.

Frequently Asked Questions