The Paid-for-Labor Calculator

Are you actually getting paid for your labor?

A price built from material costs alone quietly leaves one cost out: the hours you spent. If a piece uses €8 of materials and takes three hours, a price of €20 pays for the materials and leaves €4 an hour for the person who made it — before selling fees are taken out.

Being paid for your labor means your hourly rate is inside the selling price, not absorbed by it. The quickest way to check is to take a price you already charge, subtract materials and fees, and divide what is left by the hours the product takes. That number is what your labor is currently earning — and it is the number this calculator is built around.

Pricing gets messy fast

You made the product. You know what the materials cost. But what about your time? Your hourly rate? Selling fees? And the profit you actually want to keep?

Most makers add up their materials, guess a number that "feels right", and end up working for far less than they think.

You work hard. Your price should reflect that.

Instead of guessing or copying whatever a competitor charges, you price from the full picture: what you spend, what your time is worth, what the platform takes, and the profit you want to keep.

What you calculate

• • Material costs
• • Time spent
• • Hourly rate
• • Selling fees
• • Desired profit
• • Minimum selling price

Who it's for

Makers and small product businesses who sell what they create: handmade goods, crafts, and other creative products where materials and time both matter.

What you get out of it

• • Stop pricing based on guesswork.
• • Make sure your time is actually accounted for.
• • Understand what you need to charge to make a profit.
• • See your minimum selling price clearly.
• • Price with more confidence.

What does the Paid-for-Labor Calculator calculate?

The Paid-for-Labor Calculator helps you work out what a product needs to sell for by accounting for the costs that are easy to overlook — including your time, your hourly rate, selling fees and the profit you want to make.

Your time is part of the price

One of the easiest ways to underprice a product is to count the materials and forget the person making it. Your time is a real cost.

The Paid-for-Labor Calculator helps you include the time you spend making a product alongside your material costs, selling fees and desired profit — so you can make pricing decisions based on the actual work involved.

How do you calculate what a product should sell for?

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I calculate what to charge for a product?

Start from what the product actually costs you to make and sell: your material costs, the time you spend making it valued at your hourly rate, the selling or payment fees taken out of each sale, and the profit you want the product to make on top of that. A price that only covers materials leaves your labour, fees and profit unpaid.

Should I include my time when pricing a product?

Yes. The hours you spend making a product are a real business cost, exactly like the materials you buy. If your price does not include them, you are effectively paying for your own labour out of your margin, which makes a product look profitable when it is not.

How do I calculate my labor cost?

Labor cost = time spent × hourly rate. If a product takes 1 hour and your hourly rate is €25, the labour cost of that product is €25. Count every hour that goes into it, not just the pleasant parts.

Why isn't materials × 2 enough?

A simple materials markup ignores everything that is not materials. Two products can use the same €8 of materials while one takes twenty minutes and the other takes four hours, and a flat multiplier prices them identically. It also ignores selling fees and leaves no deliberate profit.

How do I include selling fees in my product price?

Selling, listing and payment fees are taken from the amount a buyer pays, so they reduce what you actually keep. That means you divide your costs by the share you keep rather than simply adding the fee on top: at a 10% fee you keep 90% of the sale, so you divide by 0.90.

How much does The Paid-for-Labor Calculator cost?

€17 one-time payment. No subscription. No monthly fee.

Who is The Paid-for-Labor Calculator for?

It is designed for makers, crafters, artists, product sellers and small creative businesses who want a clearer way to calculate what their products need to sell for.

What does the calculator include?

You enter your material costs, the time spent, your hourly rate and your selling fees. You get a cost breakdown, your minimum selling price, selling prices at 10%, 20% or 30% desired profit, and a check that shows the effective hourly rate behind a price you type in yourself.

Do I need a subscription?

No. The calculator is a one-time €17 purchase.

Read more about our product pricing calculator or our guide on how to price products.

How access works

After your payment is confirmed you're taken straight back to the calculator and it unlocks right away. You also get an access code on the confirmation screen — keep it, together with the email address you used, to restore access on another device or browser.