Self employed but earn slightly less or work for employer?

You should decide on how you want to live and choose whatever fits that the best.

This is a complicated question - and this is a long post as the information you have provided does not even scratch the surface of the issues and finances to be considered.

I hope you have a few weeks or more to figure this out.

1st thing is what is your personality and how do you see the world. There are people who are natural Employees - and cannot function very well at all in the other 3 economic areas (Self employed, Big business builder/owner, Investor).

Now people can successfully move from any quadrant (E to S in the case you are proposing) to another with the right education and training - if their economic personality fits into another quadrant.

I highly suggest that you read at least Chapters 1-4, 7, & 15 of "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki.

Are you even the right kind of person to be your own boss in Self Employment? Perhaps you are... and perhaps you are not.

I myself am a natural S (self employed) who can function OK as an E (employee) in the right situations. I'm learning how to transition to a B (big business builder/owner).

The 2nd part of the equation is financial and how much "free cash flow" each one creates.

This is not obvious at all - especially if you have never run your own company.

For starters as an employee you already know that they will withdraw in the United States Social Security, Federal and State income taxes, and whatever health insurance or other programs you are paying for as part of the company benefits.

Figuring your employee "free cash flow" is relatively easy just by looking at your past pay statements (what you are actually paid/the gross pay); and the % stays fairly constant for modest pay changes.

On the other hand things work much differently when you are self employed.

You are now running your own company; which means that you are responsible for all benefits and the employers share of the SS taxes (twice the rate of what is subtracted from an employees pay check).

However, there are also many legitimate business deductions that you can take - and your taxable income (including taxable SS income) may only be a fraction of your "Gross Business income" (the $48K in this case). In fact, you may have a net business loss and not have to pay any taxes.

I do warn you though that if you have such a business loss that you are likely not going to have much "free cash flow" for most businesses.

There are exceptions though: I used to drive Lyft/Uber part time pre Covid-19 and I could easily have several thousand a month "free cash flow" while my net income was in the low 100's per month (so I would pay very little taxes). I could do that because I have an older very reliable fully owned car and the IRS deductible $mileage rate is based on cars less than 3 years old that have a lot of depreciation over their first few years of life. Lyft/Uber drivers who leased cars for ride-share driving would not be able to take advantage of that deduction and significant reduction in "net income" for the business.

I also had a technical gig work business - where about 95% of gross income became net income because there were very few business expenses and deductions allowed.

If you live in the United States you really need to understand the IRS Schedule C and business expenses and deductions (The IRS has a guide document for small business owners that discusses these - its a hundred+ pages if I recall correctly; but, well worth it).

If you are in another country then you need to understand your countries tax codes and requirements to be able to figure this ou.

So you need to be able to properly estimate your business expenses, deductions, etc and net income, from which you can calculate the SS and Income taxes; and also a "free cash flow."

Only then can you understand what the real economics are of running your own business.

But, a key advantage of owning your own busienss is that you are free to find other work projects. You should have multiple clients anyway (what happens if your major client "goes away" or fires you). If you cannot find other business clients then your business will likely fail at some point in the future when the company decides to use someone else to do the work.

I wish you well with figuring this out - and wish you the best!

Its only a few grand difference. Thats a good trade off.

I plan to work as a trucker for a mega carrier than transition into an owner operator.

If I could self employ and do something that made me happy and goof profit I would but I can't

Both. Keep day job as a steady income source until your business grows and becomes profitable enough to make the switch. That's my plan anyway.

With that said, you can't really take time off whenever you want, just because you're the boss. All of the responsibility is on you. I've had to cancel plans to take over for an employee who was sick, or whatever. But in general, I would prefer being my own boss.