Gig Economy Earnings Calculator

Gig income looks bigger on the app's dashboard than it is in your pocket, and this calculator walks through why. It starts from your gross monthly earnings, subtracts the platform's cut (the percentage Uber, DoorDash, or similar take before you ever see the money), then subtracts vehicle costs split into two pieces: fuel, estimated by dividing your monthly miles by an assumed 25 miles per gallon and multiplying by the gas price you enter, and a separate per-mile maintenance/depreciation cost you supply directly to cover wear, tires, and the vehicle's declining resale value. What's left is taxable income, against which a self-employment tax rate is applied (floored at zero so a loss month doesn't produce a negative tax) to arrive at net earnings.

Dividing net earnings by your monthly hours — hours per week times 4.33 weeks — gives the Effective Hourly Rate, which is usually the number that matters most for deciding whether gig work beats an alternative job. The biggest source of error is the vehicle cost inputs: the 25-mpg fuel assumption won't match every vehicle, and the per-mile maintenance figure is only as accurate as what you enter, so pulling from IRS standard mileage guidance or your own repair history will give a more honest picture than guessing. The self-employment tax rate defaults to the combined Social Security and Medicare rate but doesn't account for the deduction gig workers can typically take for half of that tax when filing.