How to raise a freelance rate without losing the client

Raise when the floor moved — not on a vibe

The number on your invoice is only safe if it still covers the hourly floor you built on the hub. Open how to set a freelance rate or the salary → hourly tool and run it again. Three ordinary reasons to raise:

• New floor from the hub. Target income, billable weeks, or the tax buffer you already chose went up. The old rate now sits under the floor. Charge the new floor, not the nostalgic one.
• Your costs went up. Software, insurance, rent, contractors — your receipts. Type a percent on the card that covers those costs. This page does not treat a CPI print, a blog “standard 10%,” or last year’s rumor as a required raise.
• The book is full. You are declining work, slipping nights, or stacking weekends. A higher rate is how a full calendar buys back hours. An empty book is a sales problem, not a discount problem.

You set the percent. There is no official freelance raise schedule. Planning only.

Worked example: $75 → $90

Current rate $75/hr. You type 20% (or you type the new rate). New rate $90/hr. Extra keep is $15 per hour. Formula: new = current × (1 + raise%), or raise% = (new ÷ current) − 1. The 20% is a number on this card, not an inflation mandate.

Optional hours: 40 billable hours in a month → extra monthly keep = $15 × 40 = $600. That is cash that still has to clear after whatever processor or marketplace cut you already handle on other pages. This card has no tax engine and does not add a second tax buffer.

If 40 hours is not your month, clear the box. Extra per hour still shows; extra monthly keep waits until you type hours.

How to say it without a speech

Clients do not need a TED talk about your value. They need a date, a number, and what happens to work already on the books. The card writes that sentence. You add the calendar date and send it.

• Lead with the work that continues, then the new rate, then the date it starts.
• Say what is grandfathered in one clause — current quotes, this sprint, this retainer until the sunset — not a manifesto.
• Offer to shrink scope if the new number does not fit. Do not pre-discount the rate in the same email.
• Skip “I hate to do this,” CPI lectures, and “everyone is raising.” Those lines invite a debate you do not need.

Example line for the $75 → $90 case (grandfather): Starting on a date you name, my rate for new work is $90/hr. Anything already quoted stays at $75 until then. Paste from the card so the math matches the note.

Existing clients vs new clients

New inquiries get the new rate today. Put it on the next project quote and take a deposit against that total. Do not quote $75 “just this once” on a fresh lead while telling yourself you raised.

Existing clients need a policy you can say in one sentence. Two clean options — you pick; neither is a law:

• Grandfather, then sunset. Work already quoted, invoiced, or on a named retainer stays at $75 until a date you write down (end of this project, end of the quarter, a Monday six weeks out). New tasks after that date are $90. This keeps faith on promises you already made and still moves the book.
• One date for everyone. On that date the rate is $90 on all work, including ongoing retainers. Use this when the old rate is below the new floor and you cannot keep losing $15 an hour. Give enough notice that they can cut scope or pause — notice is courtesy, not a statute on this page.

Do not run two secret rates forever. A quiet discount for “nice” clients is how the floor never lands. Pick a sunset, put it in the email, and stop making exceptions in Slack.

If they push, cut scope — not the rate

A client who liked $75 will sometimes ask to keep it. The answer is not a speech and it is not a secret $78. Keep $90. Change the work:

• Fewer hours, fewer revision rounds, a later start, or a smaller deliverable so $90 still fits their budget.
• Rebuild the quote on the quote guide at the new floor, then split a deposit on the deposit guide. The deposit is on the new total, not a loyalty coupon.
• If they still need the old number, decline the extra work. A full book at $75 is how you never get to $90.

Do not cut the rate mid-thread and hope to “make it up on the next one.” The next one will remember the cut.

If the quote already went out and they asked for money off that number — not a rate going up — print keep and off on the discount card. Keep = quote × (1 − share you type). Off = quote × share. Worked: $5,000 × 0.10 → keep $4,500, off $500. You type the share. This raise card is the floor going up. That card is the quote going down. Two different directions.

This page is planning, not a contract

Educational only — not legal or tax advice. We do not invent a required annual raise, a CPI obligation, or “industry standard” percents. Confirm live terms in whatever agreement you already use. If you need an enforceable notice period, ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction. The math here is: current rate, new rate or a percent you type, optional hours, extra keep, one email-sized sentence.

Salary → hourly Set the floor first Quote the new rate They want money off a set quote Take a deposit

Rebuild the hourly floor on the rate calculator if costs or billable weeks moved. Marketplace bids still need a gross-up on the Upwork / Fiverr take-home page after the raise. Direct invoices: PayPal invoice fees and Stripe vs Wise.

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