What’s an hour of your time worth?

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Money Matters, a newsletter from Britannica Money, on September 6, 2026.

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There’s more than one way to put a price on work.

© tiero, thanksforbuying, Hulahop/stock.adobe.com; Photo illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

If somebody offered to buy an hour of your Labor Day weekend, what would you charge? The answer may not be so straightforward. What 60 minutes is worth depends not only on what you could earn, but also on what you’d give up.

I learned that lesson early in my first career as a market maker fresh out of college. I stood in a trading pit—and later sat at a trading screen—buying and selling commodity derivatives. For many years, I was an independent trader, which meant I could come and go as I pleased. But like a shopkeeper or hairstylist, it’s hard to make money when you’re not there.

Some hours were clearly worth sticking around for—the jobs report at 8:30 a.m. on the first Friday of the month, a Fed announcement, or breaking news of a war, embargo, or political crisis. Other times, I’d look around at a dead trading pit and wish I were home with the family or out on the golf course. And everyone needs a vacation here and there. That double-edged sword of independence got me thinking early (and often) about what my time—and its opportunity cost—was worth.

For most employees, figuring out what an hour of work is worth seems pretty straightforward. If you make $25 an hour, there’s your answer. And if you earn a salary, your pay has an hourly equivalent, too.

Except that’s not quite how employment works.

First off, not all hours are the same. Under federal labor law, most nonexempt employees—typically hourly workers—must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. So that $25 hour can become $37.50 an hour once you cross the threshold. Exempt employees generally don’t get that bump. Stay late, come in early, or spend Sunday night catching up, and your paycheck won’t change a bit.

And your paycheck is only part of the equation. Employer contributions toward health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and other benefits can make your total compensation worth considerably more than your salary or hourly wage alone. Add it all up, and your hourly value can be hard to pin down. Start working for yourself, and the math gets even harder.

Working for yourself puts you on the other side of the equation. Whether you drive for a rideshare service, freelance on the side, or run your own business, the number you charge for an hour of your time isn’t necessarily what you earn from it.

Suppose you leave a job that pays $40 an hour and start freelancing at $50. Sounds like a raise, right? But that extra $10 now has to cover self-employment taxes, business expenses, and any benefits that were once part of your compensation—including funding your retirement.

Then there’s the time you can’t bill anyone for—finding clients, sending invoices, keeping the books, and chasing down the occasional late payment. And as I recall vividly from my trading days, the income meter stopped whenever we took a vacation.

Of course, working for yourself can be about more than replacing a paycheck. Put enough of those hours into building a business, and it may eventually generate income without requiring every hour of your time—and even be something you can sell or pass down to the next generation. 

There’s no single answer, but thinking about the question can help you make better decisions about how you earn, spend, and value your time.

We spend a big chunk of our lives trading our time for money. This Labor Day, give some thought to both sides of that trade. After all, money comes and goes, but your time only goes.