Actual Hourly Wage

Something I've always noticed about commuters is none of them take into account the cost and time taken BY THEIR COMMUTING. For example, if you make $10 an hour for eight hours, that's $80 a day, but if you take two hours a day to drive, you're actually making $80 in ten hours, or $8 an hour. Furthermore if you spend $10 a day on a vehicle, fuel, and insurance, you're making $70 in ten hours, which is below minimum wage. You'd be better off walking to a $7.50/hour job, and you wouldn't have to worry about car ownership complications.

I wrote what I consider a rather nifty calculator so you can calculate your actual wage! I play-tested it for about ten minutes, so it may not take every conceivable variable, so if you manage to break it, let me know. It also assumes that your car is used only for commuting, which is reasonable for two-car families, or poor people who don't go Sunday driving.

Days per Week:
Hours per Day:
Hourly Wage:
Vehicle Cost:
Vehicle Life Expectancy(Years):
Vehicle MPG:
Commute Miles per Day:
Commute Time(Minutes per Day):
Gasoline Price:
No car, I ride a:
Other Daily Commute Expenses (Tolls, Fares):
Auto Insurance per Month:
Transit Cost per Day:
Your Actual Hourly Wage:
% of Your Life in Transit:
Cubic Feet of CO2 per Year:

The functions to calculate are all rather simple, and this doesn't include yearly car expenses, such as oil changes, new tires, or other repairs. If you'd like, for accuracy, you can add your best guess for total vehicle maintenance cost (and yearly registration, for that matter) into the entire vehicle cost.

As I'm a strong proprietor of public transit, it's worth mentioning that transit doesn't necessarily save time in the long run, but the time you have is responsibility-free, so you can sleep, eat, work, or Skype your children while you travel, and if you do choose a bus or train, you're anywhere from 16 to 30 times more likely to survive the trip, and as stated here you can achieve the equivalent to hundreds of miles to the gallon.

Happy Commuting!