Why can’t you compare a day rate with a salary directly?
Because they do not pay for the same thing. A day rate is a turnover figure: it is invoiced only for days actually worked, and everything else comes out of it. A salary is paid every month, holidays included, and your employer pays its own social contributions on top.
So multiplying a day rate by 20 and comparing it with a monthly gross salary overstates the freelance side, often by a wide margin. The right comparison is between two yearly net incomes, and between what each status covers if something goes wrong. Our definition of gross vs net salary explains the employee side of that conversion.
What does a freelancer have to pay out of the day rate?
Start from the yearly turnover: day rate multiplied by the days you really invoice. Then take out, in this order:
- Business costs: accountant, insurance, equipment, training, travel
- Social contributions: 20.5% of net income up to €75,024.54 in 2026, then 14.16% up to €110,562.42, according to INASTI, plus the management fees of your social insurance fund
- Income tax, or corporate tax and director’s pay if you work through a company
- Your own pension savings and income protection, which an employer would otherwise help fund
Billable days are the main unknown. A year has 10 public holidays in Belgium, listed by the SPF Employment, none of them paid to a freelancer, and every holiday, sick day or week between assignments is a day without income. How to build that into a rate is set out in how IT freelancers set their day rate.
What does an employee get on top of the gross salary?
In Joint Committee 200, where many IT employees fall, a full-time employee gets paid holidays with holiday pay, explained in how holiday pay is calculated, and an end-of-year bonus. Many packages add meal vouchers, group insurance, hospitalisation insurance or a company car.
The employee also has wider cover: salary paid during the first period of sickness, unemployment benefits after a dismissal, and a notice period. A self-employed person is only paid incapacity benefits for incapacities of more than seven days, and only after a six-month qualifying period, according to INASTI. The employee’s net is calculated in how to work out your net salary from your gross.
So which pays more?
It depends on three numbers you can check yourself: the day rate you can actually get for your profile, the days you can realistically invoice, and the package you are offered as an employee. A freelancer with a strong rate and few gaps can end up with a higher net income. A freelancer with long gaps, or a junior rate, can earn less than an employee while carrying more risk.
No average settles it, because rates vary widely by skill, sector and client. Run the calculation with your own figures before you choose, and look at both sides of the market in our current contract and permanent roles.
