# The Contract Rate Card, One Salary Carried to W-2, 1099, and C2C Quotes

*Turn your last salary and benefits into a target and floor for W-2, 1099, and C2C hourly work, plus one rate line to send a recruiter before submission.*

- Canonical URL: https://www.refolk.ai/candidates/guides/contract-rate-card-w2-1099-c2c
- Pillar: Positioning and materials
- Format: Teardown
- Published: 2026-11-05
- Last reviewed: 2026-11-05
- Reading time: 20 min
- Keywords: convert salary to contract hourly rate, what hourly rate to ask a staffing recruiter, W2 vs 1099 vs corp to corp rate difference, contract rate confirmation before submission, how to set my contractor rate from my salary

## Key takeaways

- Dividing a $120,000 salary by 2,080 hours gives $57.69 an hour, which earns about 7.3% less than the salary once you bill only 1,928 hours after 8 holidays and 11 vacation days.
- A contract floor rate divides your annual need by optimistic billable hours, and the target divides it by realistic hours after time off and unpaid bench weeks.
- A 1099 rate adds the employer half of FICA (7.65% below the Social Security wage base), replacement health cover, and retirement; self-employment tax effectively runs 14.13% of net, so the real tax gap over W-2 is about 6.5 points.
- At a $100 bill rate, published staffing margin floors of 32% for W-2 and 18% for C2C imply about $68 and $82 of contractor pay, a $14 gap explained by employer costs the agency pays on W-2.
- In Refolk's index, 150 US IT recruiter headlines mention C2C and 144 mention W2, so expect to be asked for both rate types and name the tax basis in every rate you quote.
- Published C2C premiums over W-2 range from 10-15% to 25-40%; a line-by-line build for one $120,000 engineer lands at 22.9%, which is why a premium means nothing until its inputs are listed.

A staffing recruiter wants your hourly rate before they submit you, and your whole pay history is a salary. This guide takes one salaried engineer on $120,000 from last year's pay record to a target and a floor for W-2 agency, 1099, and corp-to-corp (C2C) work. It shows every intermediate number and every wrong turn, so you can run the same arithmetic on your own record before the call. It ends with the exact rate line that engineer sent and the written confirmation that locked the rate in.

## Why do salary-to-contract-rate shortcuts disagree?

Each shortcut makes a different hidden assumption about hours, benefits, and tax basis, and none of them says which one. Put the same $120,000 salary through the common rules of thumb and the "right" hourly rate ranges from about $58 to $120.

- **Payroll convention, divide by 2,080:** $57.69
- **Calculator rule, salary × 1.3 to 1.5 ÷ 2,080:** $75.00 to $86.54
- **Divide by 1,000:** $120.00
- **Double the 2,080 hourly figure:** $115.38

None of these tells you whether the number is a W-2, 1099, or C2C rate, or whether it is what you get paid or what the client gets billed. Those are the two questions a recruiter's submission turns on. Here are the terms as this guide uses them:

- **W-2 agency hourly:** the staffing firm employs you, withholds your taxes, and pays the employer half of payroll tax.
- **1099:** you work as an independent contractor, get paid gross, and pay self-employment tax yourself.
- **C2C (corp-to-corp):** your own incorporated entity signs the contract with the staffing firm and carries the entity's costs.
- **Pay rate:** what you receive per hour.
- **Bill rate:** what the client pays the agency per hour. The difference between the two is the agency's spread.
- **Rate card:** one page listing a target and a floor for each tax basis, with every figure traced back to your pay record.

A better multiplier won't fix this. What works is building the rate line by line, so you can defend every figure when a recruiter pushes back.

## The worked example: one $120,000 salaried engineer

The example is a salaried software engineer whose last year of pay came to $120,000 in total cash (salary plus bonus). An IT staffing recruiter has called about a W-2 contract role and mentioned the rate is "up to $100." The engineer has one evening to put a number on it.

These are the inputs. Swap in your own at every line.

| Input | Example value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Total cash | $120,000 | Last W-2 and bonus record |
| Age and coverage | 40, single | Personal |
| 401(k) match | $4,800 | Benefits statement |
| Time off kept | 8 holidays, 15 vacation, 7 sick | Personal choice |
| Unpaid bench weeks | 2 per year | Personal estimate |
| C2C entity costs | $6,000 per year | Own quotes |

The match, bench weeks, and entity costs are this engineer's own numbers, not benchmarks. No public source gives an average gap between contracts or a standard entity cost. If you skip those lines because there is no published figure, you are not being conservative. You are leaving out real costs.

## How many hours will you actually bill?

You will bill fewer than 2,080 hours. That figure counts every weekday of the year, including the paid holidays and vacation a contract usually does not pay for. Your billable hours are 2,080 minus the time off you intend to keep and the unpaid weeks between contracts. That smaller number is the right divisor.

Use BLS figures for context, then make your own choices:

- **Paid holidays:** in BLS data, 81% of private industry workers had access to paid holidays, and the average was 8 days.
- **Vacation after one year:** 10 days at establishments with 1 to 99 workers and 14 days at 500 or more. A secondary read of the BLS chart gives 11 days after one year and 20 after 20 years.
- **Sick leave:** a secondary source puts it at seven days after one year.

No standard published billable-hour figure exists. Calculators pick different totals: one uses 1,880 hours after PTO, and another implies 1,920.

| Divisor basis | Hours | $/hour on $120,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll convention | 2,080 | 57.69 |
| Minus 8 holidays, 11 vacation days | 1,928 | 62.24 |
| Calculator "after PTO" | 1,880 | 63.83 |
| Minus 8 holidays, 15 vacation, 7 sick | 1,840 | 65.22 |

The engineer sets two hour figures, and they do different jobs:

- **Floor hours, 1,928:** the optimistic case. Holidays and a modest vacation come out, with no sick days and no bench time. Dividing by the larger number gives the lowest rate that still matches the salary if everything goes right.
- **Target hours, 1,760:** the realistic case. Start at 1,840, which allows for 15 vacation days and 7 sick days, then subtract 80 hours for two unpaid bench weeks.

#### From payroll hours to billable hours

| Stage | Figure | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Payroll convention | 2,080 | Every weekday, paid or not |
| Minus 8 holidays and 11 vacation days | 1,928 | Floor hours |
| Minus 15 vacation and 7 sick days instead | 1,840 | Fuller time off |
| Minus 2 unpaid bench weeks | 1,760 | Target hours |

*Every day you stop being paid for comes out of the divisor, and each one raises the rate you need.*

Agency W-2 contracts often come with no paid time off. That is a common generalisation, not something any source here establishes, so ask the recruiter directly. If the contract does pay holidays, add those hours back to the divisor.

> **Tip:** Put a number on the bench
>
> No public average gap length between contracts exists, so pick your own number of weeks and write it on the card as its own line. A rate with a visible bench line holds up under pushback much better than one with the bench hidden inside a multiplier.

## What goes into a W-2, a 1099, and a C2C rate?

Each rate is built on the one below it. W-2 agency hourly is cash divided by billable hours. 1099 adds the employer costs the agency would otherwise have paid. C2C adds the cost of running your own entity on top of that.

#### How the three rates nest

1. **C2C rate** - 1099 need plus entity costs, divided by billable hours
2. **1099 rate** - Total cash plus employer FICA, health, and retirement
3. **W-2 agency hourly** - Total cash divided by billable hours
4. **Total cash** - Salary plus bonus from the last pay record

*Each contract rate is the one below it plus the costs that move onto you when the agency stops carrying them.*

### W-2 agency hourly

Divide total cash by each hour figure and round up to the dollar.

- **Floor:** $120,000 ÷ 1,928 = $62.24, so **$63**
- **Target:** $120,000 ÷ 1,760 = $68.18, so **$69**

The agency pays the employer half of payroll tax on W-2, so you don't add it here. One condition applies: if the agency's W-2 package has no health plan, take the health line from the 1099 build below and add it here too. Ask the recruiter before you finalise the number.

### 1099

On 1099 you pay both halves of payroll tax and buy your own benefits. The engineer adds three lines to the $120,000:

- **Employer half of FICA:** 6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare is 7.65%. On $120,000 that is $9,180.
- **Health:** the marketplace benchmark silver premium for a 40-year-old was $625 a month in the plan year used here, so $7,500 a year.
- **Retirement:** the $4,800 match from the benefits statement.

That makes an annual need of $141,480.

- **Floor:** $141,480 ÷ 1,928 = $73.38, so **$74**
- **Target:** $141,480 ÷ 1,760 = $80.39, so **$81**

Why add 7.65% and not 15.3%? Self-employment tax is 12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare. It applies to 92.35% of net earnings, so the effective rate is about 14.13% of net profit. A W-2 employee already pays 7.65%, so the real extra cost is about 6.5 points. You can also deduct half of the self-employment tax when you work out adjusted gross income. That lowers your income tax but not the SE tax itself. Adding the full 7.65% is a simple approximation with a small cushion built in. Adding 15.3% counts the employee half twice.

Health is the line most likely to be out of date. The benchmark rose from $497 to $625 a month when enhanced premium tax credits ended. That is about $1,536 more a year, or roughly $0.80 an hour at 1,920 hours. A calculator built on the earlier premium undercounts it.

### C2C

Add the entity's costs to the 1099 need. The engineer's own quotes come to $6,000 a year, which makes $147,480.

- **Floor:** $147,480 ÷ 1,928 = $76.49, so **$77**
- **Target:** $147,480 ÷ 1,760 = $83.80, so **$84**

That puts C2C 22.9% above W-2 at both floor and target. Published C2C premiums disagree: one staffing firm says 10 to 15%, another says 25 to 40%, and they appear to count different costs (not verified). This engineer's figure falls between the two. A premium only means something once its inputs are listed line by line. Budget time for onboarding as well, because C2C onboarding is slowed by insurance review.

### The benefits cross-check

BLS employer cost data gave private industry employer costs of $32.82 an hour in wages and $14.07 in benefits, so benefits were about 30% of total compensation. The engineer's explicit lines add up to $21,480: FICA $9,180, health $7,500, and the $4,800 match. Paid leave is worth about $13,846, the value of the 240 hours between 2,080 and 1,840. Together that is $35,326, about 23% of a $155,326 total.

Coming in under 30% doesn't make the build wrong. A single 40-year-old has cheaper health cover than the average worker. But it is your prompt to look for lines you dropped: disability cover, life insurance, or family health coverage. If you want to compare a specific category, pull the category split from Table 1 of the BLS ECEC release yourself. I haven't used it here.

## Pay rate versus bill rate: what does the agency keep?

The agency keeps a spread between the bill rate and your pay rate, and the spread is wider on W-2 than on C2C. On W-2 the firm pays employer taxes, insurance, and often benefits out of its spread. On C2C or 1099 you carry those costs, so the firm's margin is lower. That is why a figure a recruiter mentions has to be converted before you answer.

| Model | Source spread | Pay at $100 bill |
|---|---|---|
| W-2, 32% margin floor | Staffing firm A | $68.00 |
| C2C, 18% margin floor | Staffing firm A | $82.00 |
| W-2, 55% markup | Staffing firm B midpoint | $64.52 |
| C2C, 30% markup | Staffing firm B | $76.92 |

The arithmetic: pay = bill × (1 − margin), or pay = bill ÷ (1 + markup). One firm publishes gross-margin floors of 32% for W-2 and 18% for C2C. The W-2 floor is about 1.8 times the C2C floor, which works out to a $14 pay gap at a $100 bill rate before any of your own costs. Another firm reports average markups of 50 to 60% on W-2 and about 30% on C2C. Pass-through payrolling, where the client has already found you and the agency only runs payroll, carries a flat 10 to 20%. I found no trade association figure. All of these come from staffing firms, so read them as a range, not a rule.

### The sanity check, run on the example

To find the bill rate a pay rate needs, divide it by one minus the margin:

- **W-2 target $69:** $69 ÷ 0.68 = $101.47 bill
- **C2C target $84:** $84 ÷ 0.82 = $102.44 bill

The recruiter said "up to $100." At a 32% margin, a $100 bill rate supports about $68 of W-2 pay. That is a dollar under the target and $5 above the floor. So the target is within reach and the floor is safe.

### Wrong turn: anchoring on the $100

The engineer's first instinct was to answer "$95 on W-2" because $100 was the number on the table. At a 32% margin floor, $95 of pay needs a bill rate of about $140. That submission would price the engineer out, or the agency would quietly submit a lower number.

> **Watch out:** A number you hear is not yet a rate
>
> Treat any figure a recruiter mentions as unclassified until you ask two questions: is that the pay rate or the bill rate, and on what tax basis? A bill rate quoted back as your W-2 pay rate is the fastest way to lose a submission.

## The rate card procedure, step by step

This is the procedure the engineer followed, in order. Steps 1 to 3 are the slow ones, roughly 45, 30, and 15 minutes. The rest is arithmetic plus one phone call. These durations are estimates, not published figures.

#### From pay record to confirmed rate

1. **Pull the pay record** - Gather last year's W-2, bonus record, and benefits statement. Done means one total-cash figure and one employer-benefits figure.
2. **Price replacement benefits** - Price health from the marketplace benchmark adjusted for your age and state, and add the retirement match. Check the total against the roughly 30% BLS benefits share.
3. **Set floor and target billable hours** - Start from 2,080 and subtract holidays, vacation, sick days, and planned bench weeks. Done means one optimistic floor-hours figure and one realistic target-hours figure.
4. **Compute the W-2 agency hourly rate** - Divide total cash by each hour figure and round up. Carry the health line in if the agency offers no health plan.
5. **Compute the 1099 rate** - Add employer FICA (7.65% up to the wage base, 1.45% above it), health, retirement, and insurance, then divide by each hour figure.
6. **Compute the C2C rate** - Add your entity costs line by line to the 1099 need and divide again. State the premium over W-2 as a percentage.
7. **Run the bill-rate sanity check** - Divide each target by one minus the likely margin. If the required bill rate is far above what the recruiter has signalled, decide before the call whether to hold or move toward the floor.
8. **Hold the rate call and confirm the RTR in writing** - Give your pay rate with its tax basis, keep the floor private, and reply to the right-to-represent email in writing before submission.

The output fits on one page. Here is the template the engineer filled in:

**One-page contract rate card**

```
CONTRACT RATE CARD

Total cash (last year):        $120,000
Floor hours:                   1,928  (2,080 - 8 holidays - 11 vacation days)
Target hours:                  1,760  (2,080 - 8 hol - 15 vac - 7 sick - 2 bench weeks)

W-2 agency hourly
  Annual need:                 $120,000
  Floor:   $63   (120,000 / 1,928)
  Target:  $69   (120,000 / 1,760)

1099
  + Employer FICA 7.65%:       $9,180
  + Health (age 40, single):   $7,500
  + Retirement match:          $4,800
  Annual need:                 $141,480
  Floor:   $74   (141,480 / 1,928)
  Target:  $81   (141,480 / 1,760)

C2C
  + Entity costs:              $6,000
  Annual need:                 $147,480
  Floor:   $77   (147,480 / 1,928)
  Target:  $84   (147,480 / 1,760)

Bill needed for W-2 target at 32% margin:  $101.47
Bill needed for C2C target at 18% margin:  $102.44
Floors are private. Never quote them.
```

*Replace every value with your own; keep the derivation lines so you can defend each figure on a call.*

## Where rate cards go wrong

Most bad rates come from one of eight mistakes, and each one produces a number that looks fine until you check it. For each mistake below you get what it looks like, why it is misleading, and the check that catches it.

1. **Dividing by 2,080.** Your rate gets priced as if the contract paid for holidays and vacation, and it doesn't. The $57.69 "matched salary" quote earns $111,226 at 1,928 hours, 7.3% short of $120,000. At 1,880 hours the shortfall reaches about 9.6%. Check: recompute with the divisors in the hours table.
2. **Anchoring on the bill rate.** The recruiter says $100 and you ask for $95 on W-2. Margin floors imply $68 or less. Check: ask whether the number is a pay rate or a bill rate, and on what tax basis.
3. **Quoting a 1099 or C2C number on a W-2 role.** An $84 C2C figure sent as a W-2 ask prices you out, or the agency quietly resets it. Check: write "W-2" or "C2C" in every rate line you send.
4. **Using the age-40 benchmark as your health cost.** The benchmark is priced for a 40-year-old, and the age curve runs from 1.278 at 40 to 3.0 at 64. A 64-year-old's equivalent is about $1,467 a month. A 60-year-old pays roughly twice the age-40 figure, and state benchmarks range from $401 to $1,299. No national family benchmark is established. Check: apply your age factor, or get a quote by window-shopping on healthcare.gov for your household.
5. **Forgetting bench weeks.** The gaps between contracts are unpaid. With no public average to lean on, the line tends to get dropped. Check: subtract your own planned gap weeks as a visible line.
6. **Ignoring the Social Security wage-base cap.** Above the wage base ($184,500 in the tax year used here), the 12.4% portion stops, and only Medicare continues. On $200,000 of cash, the employer half is $11,439 plus $2,900, which is $14,339. A flat 7.65% gives $15,300, so it overstates by $961, and a flat 15.3% overstates by much more. Check: compute both sides of the cap.
7. **Changing the rate after the RTR.** Once you sign, the original submission stands at the old rate. Check: if the terms change, ask for a new RTR.
8. **Trusting headline keyword counts.** Market counts built on title keywords pull in roles that aren't contracts. In Refolk's index, only 13 of 25 sampled US profiles matched on contract terms actually had literal contract titles, against 15 of 25 in Canada. Check: read the sample titles before you quote a count, including the ones below.

> A rate you cannot rebuild line by line on a phone call is a guess, and recruiters can tell.

## The rate call, the RTR, and the line I sent

Name your pay rate and its tax basis in one sentence, keep the floor to yourself, and confirm in writing before you are submitted. A right to represent (RTR) is written confirmation that one staffing firm may submit you for one role, usually at a stated rate for a stated period. Practitioner guidance is blunt: get it before you submit, never after.

### Who will ask you for which rate

Both rate types come up often. In Refolk's index of professional profiles, US recruiters with Technical, IT, US IT, or Bench Sales titles are almost evenly split between "C2C" and "W2" in their headlines.

**150 vs 144 - US IT recruiter headlines mentioning C2C versus W2**

From Refolk's index of professional profiles, so expect to be asked for both rate types.

| Query | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| US recruiters, "C2C" in headline | 150 | NJ: 4 of 25 sample |
| US recruiters, "W2" in headline | 144 | TX: 5 of 25 sample |
| Contract software titles, US | 910 | 7.1× Canada |
| Contract software titles, Canada | 129 | Toronto/GTA: 7 of 25 sample |

C2C demand in these samples clusters in IT staffing corridors: New Jersey (Piscataway, Edison, Iselin), Frisco in Texas, and Chantilly in Virginia. The C2C set includes firms such as Technumen, Apetan Consulting, TEK Inspirations, and RIT Solutions, and the W2 set includes USM Business Systems and Ztek Consulting. Apply failure mode 8 to all of these counts: matching is loose.

### The order of the call

Recruiter call scripts tend to follow the same order. Sources disagree on one point: some put the RTR right after the rate negotiation, while others put it only after you have been qualified for the role.

#### The rate call, in order

1. **Dual-submission check** - Recruiter asks whether you are already submitted for this role
2. **Rate question** - You give your target pay rate and its tax basis
3. **Bill-rate probe** - You ask whether any figure they mention is pay or bill
4. **RTR sent** - Firm emails the role, rate, and period for consent
5. **Written reply** - You confirm, naming the rate, basis, and role

*Settle the rate and its tax basis before the RTR arrives, because the RTR fixes whatever was agreed.*

> **Rule:** Every rate line names its basis
>
> No rate leaves your hands without "W-2", "1099", or "C2C" next to it and the words "pay rate". That applies on calls, in emails, and in profile rate fields.

### What happened in the example

The engineer opened with $69 W-2. The recruiter confirmed the client bill rate was $100 and countered at $68. The engineer checked the card: $68 was above the $63 floor and matched the implied pay at a 32% margin. So the engineer accepted, on one condition: the RTR had to say $68 W-2 as a pay rate. The recruiter also asked for an updated resume to attach to the submission. This is where [Refolk](/candidates) saves real time: it tailors your resume to that specific posting and scores how well you fit it. The score also tells you whether you have the leverage to hold your target or should settle closer to the floor.

These are the two pieces of text the engineer used:

**Rate line and RTR confirmation reply**

```
RATE LINE
My rate for this role is $69/hour W-2 (pay rate, no paid time off assumed). For C2C it is $84/hour.

PROFILE RATE FIELD
$69/hr W-2 | $81/hr 1099 | $84/hr C2C (pay rates)

RTR CONFIRMATION EMAIL
Subject: RTR confirmation - [Role title], [Client or req ID]

Hi [Recruiter name],

I confirm that [Staffing firm] has my right to represent me for [Role title] at [Client or req ID], at a pay rate of $68.00/hour on a W-2 basis, for [stated period].

To be clear, $68.00 is my W-2 pay rate, not a bill rate. If the rate, tax basis, or role changes, please send a new RTR before any submission.

Thanks,
[Your name]
```

*Use the first line on calls and in profile rate fields; send the email unchanged except for the bracketed fields.*

## Keeping the rate card current

Rebuild the card whenever one of its inputs changes, not on a fixed schedule. Each input has a known source, and most of them change every year. If you keep your pay history and profiles in Refolk, update the total-cash line there after each contract, so the next card starts from your real record rather than your memory of it.

- **Social Security wage base:** it changes every tax year. Look it up in IRS Publication 15-A, and look up the self-employment tax rules in IRS Topic 554.
- **Health premium:** benchmark premiums reset every plan year and moved sharply when the enhanced tax credits ended. Check KFF's state benchmark table or get a healthcare.gov quote for your own age and household.
- **Benefits share:** re-read the latest BLS ECEC release. The series definition changes from time to time, and workers' compensation costs are being removed from it.
- **Bench weeks:** after each contract, replace your planned gap with the gap you actually had.
- **Agency margins:** these come from staffing-firm publications, not neutral sources. When a recruiter tells you a bill rate, use it to recalibrate the sanity check.

#### Before you send a rate

- [ ] Every rate on the card names its tax basis and says "pay rate".
- [ ] W-2 figures divide by your own billable hours, never by 2,080.
- [ ] Bench weeks appear as a separate, visible subtraction.
- [ ] The health line is priced for your age, state, and household, not the age-40 national benchmark.
- [ ] If your cash exceeds the Social Security wage base, the tax line is computed on both sides of the cap.
- [ ] C2C entity costs are listed line by line, and the premium over W-2 is stated as a percentage.
- [ ] The bill-rate sanity check has been run for each target.
- [ ] Your floors are written down and have not been shared with anyone.
- [ ] The RTR you sign states the same rate, basis, and role you agreed on the call.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I convert my salary to a contract hourly rate?

Divide your total cash compensation by the hours you will actually bill, not by 2,080. Subtract holidays, vacation, sick days, and unpaid weeks between contracts first. For a $120,000 salary, that gives about $62 an hour at 1,928 billable hours and about $68 at 1,760. That is the W-2 agency figure. For 1099 or C2C work, add the employer half of payroll tax, replacement health cover, retirement, and entity costs before you divide.

### What is the difference between W-2, 1099, and C2C rates?

The difference is who carries the employer costs. On W-2 the staffing firm employs you and pays the employer half of FICA out of its spread, so your pay rate is the lowest of the three. On 1099 you pay self-employment tax and buy your own benefits. On C2C your own company contracts with the agency and also carries the entity's insurance and running costs, so it needs the highest rate.

### Should I tell the recruiter my floor rate?

No. Give the recruiter your target pay rate and its tax basis, and keep the floor for your own decisions. The floor is the number you walk away below. Once a recruiter hears it, it tends to become the rate they submit. If they counter, compare the counter to your floor privately, and accept or decline it on that basis rather than revealing where the line sits.

### Can I change my rate after signing a right to represent?

Not without a new one. A right to represent (RTR) is written consent for one firm to submit you for one role, usually at a stated rate. Practitioner guidance says that if the terms change, consent has to be given again. Changing the rate after submission without a new RTR leaves the original submission standing at the old rate. No public source says whether a submitted rate can be renegotiated at all, so settle the number before you sign.

### Is the 1099 premium over W-2 really 15.3 percent?

No. Self-employment tax is 15.3%, but it applies to 92.35% of net earnings, so it works out to about 14.13% of net. You already pay 7.65% as a W-2 employee, which makes the extra cost about 6.5 points. On top of that, half the self-employment tax is deductible for income tax. Adding the full 7.65% employer half is a safe, slightly cushioned approximation. Adding 15.3% overstates the gap.

### What if the recruiter only tells me a bill rate?

Convert it to the pay rate it implies before you answer. Published staffing margin floors are 32% for W-2 and 18% for C2C. At a $100 bill rate, that implies about $68 of W-2 pay or $82 of C2C pay. Compare those numbers to your floor and target. Never quote back a number close to the bill rate as your W-2 pay rate, because the submission will price you out.

---

*From the Refolk guide library. I revise these guides rather than replacing them, so the current version is always at https://www.refolk.ai/candidates/guides/contract-rate-card-w2-1099-c2c*