SALARY

Salary to Hourly Calculator

Some job offers quote a yearly salary, while others quote an hourly rate, so comparing the two side by side is awkward. This calculator converts a salary into its hourly rate. It also breaks your pay down by week, paycheck and month, so you can see what you earn in each period and compare offers on equal terms.

How to use this salary to hourly calculator

1. Enter your annual salary. Your offer letter or latest payslip shows the gross figure before tax.
2. Enter the hours you work per week. Use the hours in your contract, or the hours you actually work if the two differ.
3. Enter the weeks you work per year. That is 52 if you are paid for the whole year. Use fewer weeks if you take unpaid time off.
4. Press Calculate. You will see your hourly rate, your daily rate, your weekly pay, your biweekly pay and your monthly pay.

A worked example

Say you earn $78,000 a year, working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year.

That is 2,080 working hours in the year, so your hourly rate is $37.50. The same salary works out at $300.00 a day, $1,500.00 a week, $3,000.00 per biweekly paycheck and $6,500.00 a month.

With the hourly figure in hand, you can compare the salary directly against a job offer quoted by the hour, or judge whether a side job or freelance work really pays as well as your main job, hour for hour. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers free guides on pay, budgeting and managing money.

Related calculators

• Pay Raise Calculator: turn a raise percentage into your new salary, monthly pay and hourly rate.
• Self-Employment Tax Calculator: work out the Social Security and Medicare tax on your self-employed income.
• Budget Calculator: split your pay across bills, spending and savings to see where it goes.
• Estimated Tax Calculator: estimate your federal tax bill and the quarterly payments to set aside.

How this salary to hourly calculator works

A full-time year holds 2,080 working hours: 40 hours a week multiplied by 52 weeks. That 2,080 figure is the standard divisor employers and the US government use to turn a yearly salary into an hourly rate. Divide a salary by the hours worked in a year and you get its hourly equivalent.

Salaried pay is fixed, whatever the hours. You receive the same salary in a quiet week as in a busy one, so your real hourly rate rises when you work fewer hours and falls when you regularly work longer hours. The rate only means something alongside the hours it is based on.

Unpaid time off changes the true rate, because it changes the number of hours your salary has to cover. That is why weeks worked per year is an input on this calculator. Set it to the weeks you actually work, and the hourly, daily and weekly figures adjust to match.

Practical tips

• When you compare a salaried offer with an hourly one, add the value of benefits to the salaried side. Health cover, a retirement match and paid time off can be worth a large slice of pay, and hourly roles often lack them.
• Count honest hours. Regular unpaid overtime quietly cuts your real hourly rate, so include the hours you actually work each week, not just the hours written in your contract.
• If you work as a contractor, charge well above the equivalent employee hourly rate. Contractors carry their own taxes and benefits and are not paid for time off, so matching the employee rate will leave you short.
• Use the hourly figure to judge side work and freelance offers quickly. If a side job pays less per hour than your main job, you can see at a glance whether it is worth your time.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate?

Divide your annual salary by the number of hours you work in a year. For full-time work that is salary divided by 2,080, so a $70,000 salary at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is about $33.65 an hour.

How many working hours are there in a year?

There are 2,080 working hours in a year for full-time work: a 40-hour week across 52 weeks. That total is before holidays and time off, so your own working hours will be fewer if you take unpaid leave or work part-time.

How do I convert an hourly rate back to a salary?

Multiply the hourly rate by the number of hours worked in a year. For full-time work, multiply by 2,080, so $25 an hour is about $52,000 a year.

Does this hourly rate include taxes and benefits?

No, it is gross pay only, before tax. Taxes reduce your take-home pay, and employer benefits such as health cover and retirement contributions add value on top of the salary.