The job is paused. The Tuesdays are still theirs.
In 2026 the ping still lands as “hold off until legal signs,” “pause two weeks while budget frees,” or “don’t start the next sprint yet.” They did not cancel. They did not ask you to fill those hours with someone else. They asked the live job to sit still, and they asked the calendar squares to stay empty so they can restart. Those empty squares have a price — the same hourly floor already sitting on the hub (yearly keep, billable weeks, a tax buffer you set there). This card does not reprint that buffer and does not ship a 50-state tax engine. Dollar marks here so 2 × 10 × $90 × 0.5 is readable. Change currency on the hub if the invoice is not USD. If $90 is still made up, build it on how to set a freelance rate before you name a hold.
Hold fee = weeks on hold × hours/week you would have billed × hourly floor × keep-share. You type the share. Default 0.5 is a half-keep example so the comparison is visible. It is not a 50% industry rule. It is not “kill vs pause is 50%.” This card will not invent that split. Blocked hours = weeks × hours/week. Full blocked keep = blocked hours × floor — what those weeks would have billed if the share were 1.0. Type 0 to eat the pause. Type 1.0 if every blocked hour stays named at the floor. The card multiplies what you typed.
Worked USD: 2 weeks × 10 hours/week × $90 × 0.5 = $900
Preset: weeks 2. Hours/week 10. Floor $90. Keep-share 0.5. Blocked hours: 2 × 10 = 20. Full blocked keep: 20 × $90 = $1,800. Hold fee: 20 × $90 × 0.5 = $900.
That $900 is keep while they wait — not hours already worked, not a deposit comparison, not cash sitting on an invoice. The 20 hours never left the week as labor. They left the week as empty slots you cannot sell. Name the hold before you keep those Tuesdays empty. Copy the sentence. Confirm. Then leave the squares blocked.
Four weeks, same half-keep
Second preset: weeks 4. Still 10 hours/week, still $90, still keep-share 0.5. Blocked hours: 4 × 10 = 40. Full blocked keep: $3,600. Hold fee: 40 × $90 × 0.5 = $1,800. Twice the pause, twice the empty calendar. A longer “wait for legal” is still a hold, not a cancel and not a monthly bag of hours.
If they later walk, stop using this card. Hours already worked vs the deposit already paid live on kill-fee. The hold named weeks that sat empty so they could restart. A cancel is the job dying. Two pings. Two cards.
You were going to eat the hold
Third preset: same 2 weeks × 10 hours × $90 × 0.5. Hold fee is still $900. Eating it does not make you easy to restart. It trains the next “just park it until Q4.” The slots still sit empty. The inbound you turned down still left. Name the keep-share or give the pause away on purpose — do not pretend blocked weeks were free.
This card is not the other money cards
They did not cancel. A cancel is hours already worked × floor, compared to the deposit already paid — the kill-fee keep / unpaid gap. That page is after they walk. This page is while the job is still theirs and the squares stay reserved. Do not paste a keep/gap sentence onto “pause until legal signs.” Do not invent a 50% kill-vs-pause rule to glue the two cards together.
They did not ask you to wait on cash. An invoice already sent, 100% in N days, $0 this week, is the Net 30 vs deposit card — cash this week vs cash later, not an APR. Net 30 is payment timing on work that is still moving, or on a number already billed. A pause is the work sitting still. Two waits. Two clocks. Do not fold a blocked Tuesday into “they pay in 30.”
They did not buy a monthly bag of hours. Included hours × floor, unused buffer you set, overage at the floor, is the monthly retainer. A retainer is reserved capacity they can spend. A hold is capacity they asked you not to spend, and not to sell, until they say go. If they actually want a monthly cap they can use, stop here and price the retainer. If they want this job frozen, stay on this card.
They did not squeeze the same hours into Friday. Same hours, fewer weekdays, is the rush-job compression add-on. A pause makes the calendar longer and emptier, not shorter. Lost Friday lives there. Empty weeks live here.
They did not park hours on Saturday. Weekend extra = weekend hours × this floor × a share you type on the weekend-hours card. Default 0.5 there is a half-again example on hours that actually happen on Sat/Sun. Default 0.5 here is a half-keep example on hours that do not happen because the job is frozen. Two uses of 0.5. Two clocks. Do not fold a pause into “can you just hop on this weekend.”
0.5 is a half-keep example. It is not a kill-fee cousin.
The share starts at 0.5 so half of the blocked week is visible next to $90. That is a planning default you can overwrite. Type 0 and the hold fee is $0 — you are eating the pause on purpose. Type 0.25 if the keep should be thinner. Type 1.0 if every blocked hour stays named at the floor. There is no official 50% freelance pause fee on this page. There is no “kill vs pause is 50%” line. A frozen calendar is not a statute. You pick the share. This page does not invent one.
Example: blocked hours 20, floor $90, you type keep-share 0 → hold fee $0, full blocked keep still $1,800. Same hours, you type 0.5 → hold fee $900. Same hours, you type 1.0 → hold fee $1,800. The share is a number you asked for, not a rule we invented, and not a secret half of a kill fee.
Send the sentence before you leave the slots empty
Name the weeks. Name hours/week you would have billed. Name the floor. Name the keep-share you typed. Name blocked hours, full blocked keep, and the hold fee. Copy from the card so the dollars match.
- 2 weeks × 10h × $90 × 0.5. You asked me to pause for 2 weeks. Those 2 weeks stay blocked at 10 hours/week (20 blocked hours). Hold fee at my $90.00/hr floor with keep-share 0.5 is $900.00. Please confirm that hold before I keep the slots empty. If you later cancel, hours already worked vs deposit is a separate number.
- 4 weeks, same half-keep. You asked me to pause for 4 weeks. Those 4 weeks stay blocked at 10 hours/week (40 blocked hours). Hold fee at my $90.00/hr floor with keep-share 0.5 is $1,800.00. Please confirm that hold before I keep the slots empty. If you later cancel, hours already worked vs deposit is a separate number.
- Eat the hold. You asked me to pause for 2 weeks. If I eat the hold, I still leave 20 hours blocked and I give away $900.00 of keep while you wait. Hold fee is $900.00. That is not free. Please confirm that hold before I keep the slots empty.
Skip guilt, fake scarcity, and “pause hold is 50% of a kill fee — industry standard.” Those lines turn a blocked week into a lecture. There is no official pause percent on this page. If they will not confirm, do not leave the squares empty. You can fill them. If they actually cancelled, leave this card and use kill-fee. If the $90 floor moved, rebuild it on the hub before you name the hold. If they wanted monthly hours they can spend, price a retainer instead of a freeze.
Planning math, not a hold clause
Educational only — not legal, tax, or collections advice. We do not invent a required 50% pause fee, a statutory calendar-hold, a kill-vs-pause split, marketplace pause fees, or a 50-state tax engine. Use the SOW you already have. An enforceable pause line is something a lawyer in your jurisdiction writes before you leave the squares empty. This card does not write that line.
Inputs: weeks on hold, hours/week you would have billed, hourly floor, keep-share (default 0.5 as a half-keep example). Outputs: blocked hours, full blocked keep, hold fee, one pasteable sentence. Dollar marks on this page; currency and tax buffer live on the hub.
Rate calculator They cancelled — keep / gap Invoice already sent — Net 30 vs deposit Monthly included hours they can spend Set the hourly floor
Rebuild the floor on the hub if the billable-week count moved, then come back and type weeks × hours/week. A live job they asked you to freeze, with slots left empty so they can restart, is named here — keep-share you type, not a 50% kill-vs-pause rule. A cancel lives on kill-fee. Cash timing on an invoice already sent lives on net-30. Monthly hours they can spend live on freelance-retainer.
FAQ
How do I charge a freelance pause or hold fee when a client asks me to wait?
Hold fee is weeks on hold × hours per week you would have billed × your hourly floor × a keep-share you type. Blocked hours = weeks × hours/week. Default keep-share is 0.5 as a half-keep example you can change. The job is paused, not cancelled. Planning math, not a contract.
Is a freelance pause hold 50% of a kill fee?
Not on this page. There is no official kill-vs-pause 50% split here, and no claim that a hold is half a cancel. 0.5 is a half-keep example of the hours those blocked weeks would have billed. Change it. Type 0 to eat the pause. Type 1.0 to name the full blocked week. This card will not invent a 50% industry rule.
Is a pause hold the same as a kill fee, Net 30, a retainer, a rush job, or weekend hours?
No. A kill fee is after they cancel: hours already worked vs the deposit. Net 30 is cash timing on an invoice already sent — $0 this week vs 100% in N days. A retainer is monthly included hours they can spend. A rush job is the same hours squeezed into fewer weekdays. Weekend hours are Saturday, Sunday, or after the day they already bought. This card is a live job they asked you to pause while the calendar slots stay blocked.
What if they later cancel the paused job?
Then leave this card. Hours already worked vs the deposit already paid live on the kill-fee page. The hold named weeks that sat empty so they could restart. A cancel is a different ping: the job is dead. Do not paste a hold sentence onto a walk-away.
Is this pause-hold math a contract, tax engine, or legal advice?
No. Educational planning only — not legal, tax, or collections advice. Dollar marks so 2 × 10 × $90 × 0.5 is readable. Currency and tax buffer live on the hub calculator. This page is not a 50-state tax engine. Filling the card does not write a hold clause.