Worth Per Hour Calculator
Stop guessing what your hour is worth.
Run the numbers.
Your business math gives you a number. The way your week is built tells you who you actually are as an operator today, and what the low-value work still on your plate is costing you every year.
Step 1. Tell me about your business
Pick the one that fits, then drop in your numbers.
How does your business make money?
Your business says your hour is worth
$0/hr
Drop your numbers in above to see your hourly worth. Scroll down when you're ready for Step 2.
Step 2. Show me your week
Drag each slider to roughly match how your week breaks down. Quick estimates are fine. Tap the lock to hold one in place while you adjust the others.
$10/hr
Data entry, customer service, scheduling, invoicing
50%
Confirming appointments, processing invoices, working as a technician. The work anyone with a pulse could do.
Most owner-operators land around 40–60% here.
$100/hr
Lead gen, sales, managing the team, hiring, marketing
30%
Generating leads, running sales calls, managing employees, implementing software. Useful, but not where the leverage is.
Typical range: 20–35%.
$1,000/hr
Systems, content, coaching, vision, events
15%
Designing systems and processes, recording video, working with a coach, deciphering your core values, sharing your vision. The work that compounds.
Most owners are under 15% here the first time they run this.
$10,000/hr
Family, exercise, public speaking, podcasting
5%
Time with your kids, date nights, adventures with friends, public speaking, podcasting, working out. The life that fuels everything else.
Be honest. Most underestimate this by half.
Zone 1 · Delegate now
50%
$10/hr work
Zone 2 · Delegate soon
30%
$100/hr work
Zone 3 · Where you're building toward
20%
$1k + $10k work
The five tiers
Technician
·
Bottleneck
You
Manager
Next
Owner
·
Architect
·
Right now you're
The Bottleneck
The business runs on you doing low-value work. Most owners live here. Every decision, every fix, every fire routes through you, and that's exactly what caps your growth.
Next move. Pick the Zone 1 work first, then the Zone 2 work, and start moving it off your plate through a system, an automation, or a person.
Reach the next step up and you'd save
The Manager
$7,020/yr
That's the annual cost you'd pull off your own plate by shifting just enough Zone 1 and Zone 2 work to cross into The Manager. Capturing it takes the systems, automations, or people behind the recovered hours.
And that's before accounting for the compounding lift on your own hourly value.
The straight math
What this work would cost to hand off*
$37,440/yr
Zone 1 hours × $15/hr + Zone 2 hours × $35/hr
* Flat rate only. If you bring on a W-2 employee, add roughly 25 to 40 percent on top for payroll taxes, FICA, workers' comp, and benefits. Contractors, VAs, and automated systems come at the rates shown.
The bigger picture
Your hour is currently worth about $0/hr, which is close to or below what Zone 1 and Zone 2 work costs to hand off. Outsourcing doesn't pencil yet. The first move isn't delegation. It's pricing or volume, so your hour is worth more than what it costs to replace you.
And the math still understates it
The numbers above assume your hour stays worth what it's worth today. It won't. When you stop doing $10/hr work and spend those hours selling, building systems, or sharpening your team, your hour gets more valuable. The recovered time doesn't just produce at your current rate. It lifts your rate over time.
Step 3. Get the personalized read
Your numbers, read back in plain English
Frequently Asked
Still have questions? Here are the answers.
What is the Worth Per Hour Calculator?
A free tool that gives you two honest reads on your time. The first is what your business actually pays you per hour, based on your revenue or profit. The second is what your week is actually built out of, mapped to the four buckets and grouped into three zones. You get a tier name that tells you where you really sit as an operator today, and an annual dollar figure for the low-value work still on your plate. Then you can adjust the sliders to model what shifting your mix would be worth.
How is my worth per hour calculated?
The business number divides your annual revenue (or net profit and owner compensation, depending on which mode you pick) by the hours you work each year. That's the clean anchor. The calendar side is a time-distribution model, not a blended hourly rate. Your four bucket percentages get grouped into three zones: Zone 1 ($10 per hour work), Zone 2 ($100 per hour work), and Zone 3 ($1,000 plus $10,000 work combined, the work that builds the business and the life that fuels it). Your percentage of time in Zone 3 sets which of five tiers you're in.
What are the four time buckets?
The leverage framework Tomas has been teaching and coaching operators on for years. Four buckets, ranked by what an hour of that kind of work is actually worth. The $10 per hour bucket is admin, scheduling, invoicing, customer service, and technician-level work anyone with a pulse can do. The $100 per hour bucket is lead gen, sales, managing the team, hiring, and marketing. The $1,000 per hour bucket is systems, content, coaching, and the work that builds the next version of your business. The $10,000 per hour bucket is the life that fuels everything else: family, fitness, partnerships, public speaking, and the moves only you can make.
What are the five tiers?
A leverage ladder. Where you spend your week (specifically your percentage of time in Zone 3, the building-toward work) places you on one of five rungs. The Technician (under 15% Zone 3) owns a job that owns them. The Bottleneck (15 to 34%) runs the business by doing low-value work, and this is where most owners live. The Manager (35 to 54%) has started handing low-value work off and is splitting the week between building and grinding. The Owner (55 to 79%) spends most of the week in the work that builds the business and the life that fuels it. The Architect (80% or above) is operating where the framework points: the business runs without them in every seat, and their time is in the work only they can do.
What is "The Price of Doing It Yourself"?
It's how much your Zone 1 and Zone 2 work is actually costing you, shown in three layers. The straight math is what it would cost to hand the work off (Zone 1 hours times the Zone 1 rate plus Zone 2 hours times the Zone 2 rate, defaults of $15 and $35 per hour, both adjustable). The bigger picture is the gap between what your hour is worth and what that work is worth, which is the real annual cost of doing it yourself. And we note that the math still understates it, because as you stop doing low-value work your own hourly value tends to rise over time. The number is route-neutral: a system, an automation, a virtual assistant, or a teammate can all get the work off your plate.
What does the asterisk on the straight-math number mean?
The cost-to-hand-off figure is a flat rate. If you bring on a W-2 employee for this work, factor roughly 25 to 40 percent on top for payroll taxes, FICA, workers' comp, and benefits. If you go the contractor, virtual assistant, or automated-system route, the rate shown is closer to what you'll actually pay. The calculator stays route-neutral on how you get the work off your plate, but it's worth knowing the loaded cost if W-2 is on the table.
Is the Worth Per Hour Calculator free?
Yes. The calculator runs free in your browser. The personalized analysis in Step 3 asks for your name and email so Tomas can send you the breakdown, but there's no payment and no obligation. You'll get the analysis on screen and a copy in your inbox.
Who is Tomas Keenan?
Tomas Keenan is an operations strategist, author of Unfuck Your Business, and the founder of Step It Up Academy. He has 29 years of operations experience and works with founders and CEOs to install the systems that turn vision into a working business. He built this calculator to help operators see what their time is actually worth, and where the leverage is hiding in their week.