RealWage
About RealWage
Last updated: September 10, 2026
RealWage started from one recurring, annoying gap: the number an app or a job offer shows you is never the number you actually keep. A $30 delivery payout isn't $30 once gas, wear on your car, and taxes come out of it. A $65,000 salary offer isn't $65,000 an hour once payroll tax and income tax are withheld and you divide by the hours it actually costs you. RealWage exists to close that gap in one honest number: your real net hourly wage, calculated the same transparent way every time.
Who it's for
Two groups, covered by one calculator: gig-economy drivers (rideshare, delivery, courier work across platforms like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Amazon Flex) who need to see past a gross payout to what a shift actually paid after fuel, vehicle wear, and self-employment tax; and salaried or hourly employees comparing a job offer, a raise, or a schedule change who want to know what a paycheque is really worth once payroll and income tax come out of it. Both use the same underlying idea — what you actually keep, divided by the hours it cost you — applied to two different tax realities. See the How It Works page for the exact formulas and figures behind each.
What makes it worth using
- No login, no account, no data collection. Every number you type stays on your own device. There's nowhere for it to leak, because RealWage's own servers never receive it in the first place — see the Privacy Policy for the full detail.
- Transparent math, not a black box. Every formula, tax rate, and mileage figure RealWage uses is written out plainly on the methodology page, so you can check it, disagree with it, or just understand why the number is what it is.
- Honest about what it doesn't know. RealWage has real, researched tax and mileage figures for the US and Canada only. Every other country gets a working calculator with your own currency and units, and a tax-reserve rate that starts at zero and waits for you to fill in a real number — never a guessed one dressed up as fact.
- Free, and funded honestly. RealWage is supported by ads (Google AdSense) rather than a paywall or a data-selling business model, disclosed plainly in the privacy policy.
What it isn't
RealWage is a planning tool, not a tax preparer. It uses simplified, current-year-approximate tax and payroll figures to give you a fast, useful estimate — not your exact liability, which depends on your full financial picture (other income, filing status, deductions, credits) in a way a quick calculator never can. Treat the number it gives you as the figure you check before a shift or a job decision, not the one you write on a tax return; verify anything that matters with the IRS, the CRA, or a licensed tax professional.
Who's behind it
RealWage is built and maintained independently, not by a large company or a funded startup — which is also why it's a single, fast, dependency-light tool rather than a sprawling platform. Feedback, corrections (especially on tax figures, which are checked periodically but can drift out of date between reviews), and questions are always welcome; the fastest way to reach the calculator's actual data and behavior is the How It Works page and the FAQ, both kept in sync with what the calculator really does.