How to Calculate Your Real Hourly Rate from Gig Work

The number on a payout screen is gross. Your real hourly rate is net divided by the hours you actually worked. Gas, parking, and sitting in a lot all belong in that math.

GigMeter shows net and net per hour on the active shift and again on the clock-out summary. Download on the App Store.

The formula

Net = payouts (skip anything you rejected) minus expenses. Hourly rate = net ÷ hours, with hours floored at one hour so a 58-second test clock-in does not look like a thousand-dollar hour.

Hours should exclude pause time. If you stop for lunch or a school pickup, that is not work. GigMeter pause freezes the timer and stops GPS. Resume starts both again. Clock out from pause folds the open pause first.

Where mileage fits

Net per mile (or per km) is the same idea for distance: net over miles, with a one-mile floor so a tiny hop is not a fake rate. It is a display rate. Miles are not turned into an IRS deduction inside the app and are not subtracted from net on their own.

If you want fuel in the hourly number, track gas. GigMeter can estimate it from miles × MPG × the price you set, then save Gas (Estimated) at clock out. That expense comes off net like parking. Read how gas and miles work together.

Using the rate to decide, not to “negotiate with an algorithm”

You cannot walk into Uber HQ with a spreadsheet. You can decline a stacked offer that pencils out at $8/hr after gas, or drop a platform for a week when the report says it lost money. That only works if the rate includes expenses and paused time.

GigMeter’s live net/hr updates as you add payouts. After clock out, the summary shows net largest, then net/hr and gross/hr side by side so you can see how much expenses moved the number.

Week and month, not just one night

One good Friday lies. Reports roll hours and net for today, a Monday–Sunday week, month, and year to date. Period net includes payouts you logged without attaching them to a session. Miles and hours still come only from sessions.