Rather not answer your question directly . I ' m a fulltime freelancer . This has been a good year so far , though things have started going south . When comparing to my friends who have salaried jobs , I made a little bit more ~ 5 % than the highest paid one . But then he works 15 hours a day , I work 5 DIf I was still employed in the regular workforce I ' d probably be making 3040 % of what I ' m making right now , while working 1418 hours a day . The big problem is of course that my income varies a lot . This year , my best month I made 1 . 4 x my annual average . My worst month so far was 0 . 68 x my average . Decembers are always bad . I just had 3 contracts close out on me within a week . If I don ' t find any new work , I ' ll probably end December making 0 . 19 x my average . And with that my average at the end of the year would be ~ 97 % of what my friend makes . Hope that helps , thanks for listening , and wish me luck !