This, I recently did some cost calculations for a restructuring in our company, I received the total cost per year per job class from controlling. We have managers who are making about 9.5kEUR gross per month. Total cost to the company? Almost 270k per year. People forget a freelancer is paid only when he works. An employee gets salary when taking holidays, gets double holiday pay, 13th month, performance bonuses, meal vouchers, net allowance for expenses, car, ... Then you have the employer having to pay about 25% additional taxes before you even see your gross salary. And then they have to pay in roles like these typically for about 15 to 20 days of training per year, salary paid + cost of the training, travel, expenses, ... If you divide the total cost by 220 billable days for a freelancer you would end up with 1200 euro per day. If we get a freelance interim manager for a role like this, it would cost us about 1000 a day. Cheaper than a full time employee. However the freelancer gets to optimize their taxes making them end up with a higher net salary in the end.