What this calculator does
This salary to hourly calculator answers a simple question: if you earn a set salary, how much is each hour of work worth? Enter your pay, tell it how often that pay comes, and enter the hours you work. It then shows your hourly pay, your daily and weekly pay, your biweekly and monthly pay, and your yearly total.
It is useful when you compare a salaried job with an hourly job, when you want to know what a side project should cost per hour, or when you want to see how a long work week lowers the value of each hour. All results are gross pay. That means the amount before taxes, insurance and other deductions are taken out.
How to use it
- Salary. Enter the amount you are paid, such as 75,000 for a year or 4,000 for a month.
- That salary is paid per. Choose year, month, two weeks (biweekly) or week. The calculator turns it into a yearly amount first.
- Hours worked per week. Enter the hours you really work, such as 40. Half hours like 37.5 work too.
- Unpaid weeks off per year. Leave this at 0 if your vacation and holidays are paid. Enter a number only if you do not get paid for those weeks.
The big number at the top is your hourly pay. The rest of the list shows the same salary on other time scales.
How the hourly rate is calculated
The method has three short steps. First, find the yearly salary. Second, find the hours you work in a year. Third, divide.
Yearly salary = amount × pay periods per year
Yearly hours = hours per week × (52 − unpaid weeks)
Hourly pay = yearly salary ÷ yearly hours
The pay periods per year are 1 for a yearly salary, 12 for monthly, 26 for biweekly and 52 for weekly. A normal full-time job of 40 hours for 52 weeks has 2,080 hours in a year. That is why $52,000 a year works out to exactly $25.00 an hour.
The federal 2,087-hour rule
The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sets federal hourly rates by dividing the yearly pay by 2,087 hours. OPM bases it on a 28-year cycle of calendar years (2,087.14 hours on average, rounded down to 2,087). It is the average length of a work year over a long cycle of calendar years, because some years have an extra weekday. The calculator shows this figure on its own line so you can compare. For a $75,000 salary it gives $35.94 an hour, a bit lower than the $36.06 you get from 2,080 hours.
Rounding
Every amount is figured from the yearly salary and rounded to the nearest cent only when it is shown. Because of this, adding up rounded numbers by hand can be off by a cent.
Worked examples
| Situation | Hours per year | Hourly pay |
|---|---|---|
| $52,000 a year, 40 hours a week, 0 unpaid weeks | 2,080 | $25.00 |
| $75,000 a year, 40 hours a week, 0 unpaid weeks | 2,080 | $36.06 |
| $75,000 a year, 40 hours a week, 2 unpaid weeks | 2,000 | $37.50 |
| $60,000 a year, 45 hours a week, 2 unpaid weeks | 2,250 | $26.67 |
| $4,000 a month, 40 hours a week, 0 unpaid weeks | 2,080 | $23.08 |
The fourth row shows the effect of long hours. The yearly pay is the same as a $60,000 job at 40 hours, which would be $28.85 an hour at 2,080 hours, but the extra five hours every week bring the hourly value down to $26.67.
For the $75,000 salary at 40 hours, the other amounts are $288.46 a day, $1,442.31 a week, $2,884.62 every two weeks and $6,250.00 a month.
Salaried workers and overtime
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), most hourly workers who are not exempt must be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The Department of Labor explains that a workweek is a fixed period of 168 hours, seven days in a row, and that hours cannot be averaged across two weeks. For a worker on salary, the Department gives this kind of example: a salary of $405 for a 45-hour week gives a regular rate of $9.00, found by dividing the salary by the hours it is meant to cover.
Whether you qualify for overtime depends on your job duties and pay, not just on being salaried or hourly. This calculator does not decide that. It only gives you the regular hourly figure from the numbers you enter.
Frequently asked questions
- How many working hours are in a year?
- A 40-hour week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours. This is the most common figure used to turn a salary into an hourly wage. Federal pay rules use 2,087 hours.
- Should I count paid vacation and holidays?
- If you are paid for them, leave unpaid weeks at 0. Your salary already covers those weeks. If you are not paid for some weeks off, enter that number and the hourly figure will rise, because you are paid for fewer weeks of work. A weekly or biweekly pay amount is treated as what you get for each week you work, so unpaid weeks lower the yearly total. A monthly or yearly salary is treated as the full yearly total.
- Is the answer my take-home pay?
- No. It is gross pay. Income tax, payroll tax, health insurance and retirement savings are not subtracted, so your take-home hourly amount is lower.
- Why is my monthly pay not four times my weekly pay?
- A year has 52 weeks but only 12 months, so one month is about 52 ÷ 12 = 4.33 weeks. The calculator divides the yearly salary by 12 for the monthly amount.
- What if I work more than 40 hours a week?
- Enter your real hours. The hourly pay will be lower than for a 40-hour week at the same salary. If you are owed overtime, the figure shown is your regular rate, and overtime is at least 1.5 times that rate.
- Can I use it to compare a job offer?
- Yes. Convert each offer with the hours you expect to work, then compare the hourly numbers. Remember to weigh benefits such as health insurance and paid time off, which this tool does not value.
This tool gives a general calculation from the numbers you enter. It is not tax, legal or payroll advice. Rules for overtime and pay can differ by state and by job type, so check with your employer or the Department of Labor if you are unsure.