On This Page
- The formula in one line
- Which hours number to use
- Pay periods are not interchangeable
- Five conversions, worked
- When the 2,080 assumption breaks
- Gross is not take-home
- How the conversions are checked
- FAQ
The Formula in One Line
For a standard full-time job that is 40 × 52 = 2,080 hours, the divisor the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and most payroll systems use.[1] So $25 an hour is $52,000 a year, and a $62,400 salary is $30 an hour. Going the other way is the same division: salary ÷ annual hours.
Enter any figure, hourly or any pay period, and the calculator fills in all the others. The two fields that matter most are hours per week and weeks per year, because they replace the textbook 2,080 with your real schedule.
Which Hours Number to Use
The math is trivial. Choosing the hours is the judgment call, and it moves the answer by thousands of dollars. The same $62,400 salary is $30.00 an hour at 40 hours a week but $32.00 at 37.5, so the person working longer weeks earns less per hour on the same paycheck.
| Schedule | Annual hours |
|---|---|
| 40 hrs × 52 weeks (standard full-time) | 2,080 |
| 40 hrs × 50 weeks (two unpaid weeks off) | 2,000 |
| 37.5 hrs × 52 weeks (unpaid lunch) | 1,950 |
| 35 hrs × 52 weeks | 1,820 |
| 20 hrs × 52 weeks (half-time) | 1,040 |
If you are not sure what you actually average, log a couple of weeks with the Work Hours Calculator before converting.
Pay Periods Are Not Interchangeable
Divide the annual figure by 52 for weekly pay, 26 for biweekly, 24 for semi-monthly and 12 for monthly. The trap is biweekly versus semi-monthly. Biweekly means every two weeks, 26 paychecks a year. Semi-monthly means twice a month, usually the 1st and 15th, 24 paychecks. Multiply a semi-monthly check by 26 by mistake and you overstate the salary by about 8%.
Five Conversions, Worked
| Situation | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Offer of $34/hour, full-time | $34 × 2,080 | $70,720 a year; $5,893.33 monthly, $2,720 biweekly |
| Posted salary of $90,000 | $90,000 ÷ 2,080 | $43.27 an hour |
| Part-time: $22/hour, 25 hrs a week | $22 × 25 × 52 | $28,600 a year |
| Monthly salary of $4,500 | $4,500 × 12 ÷ 2,080 (or ÷ 173.33) | $25.96 an hour |
| Freelancer wanting $80,000 after 15.3% self-employment tax, 3 unpaid weeks | $80,000 ÷ 0.847 = $94,451; ÷ (40 × 49) | $48.19 an hour |
When the 2,080 Assumption Breaks
- Unpaid weeks off: two unpaid weeks cut the year to 2,000 hours, so an $80,000 target needs $40 an hour, not $38.46. Set weeks per year to 50.
- Overtime: five hours at time-and-a-half pay like 7.5 regular hours. The straight conversion ignores this.
- Contracting: no employer benefits and the full 15.3% self-employment tax mean a contract rate usually needs to sit 25–30% above the equivalent employee wage. The Freelance Rate Calculator builds that rate up from a target income, expenses and billable hours.
- Commission: convert the base salary here, then add expected commission with the Sales Commission Calculator.
- Rounded time clocks: if your employer rounds punches to 5, 6 or 15 minutes, your paid hours can drift from what you worked. Our 7-minute rule guide shows how to check the rounding is fair.
In a spreadsheet, with the hourly wage in A1, hours per week in A2 and weeks in A3, the annual salary is =A1*A2*A3 and the hourly rate from a salary in A4 is =A4/(A2*A3).
Gross Is Not Take-Home
Every figure here is gross pay. Federal and state income tax, Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%) and benefit deductions come out first,[3] so a $52,000 salary might leave $39,000 to $44,000 in the bank depending on filing status and state. Texas and Florida charge no state income tax, while California and New York add a progressive one, which is why offers in different states should be compared after tax. The Gross to Net Pay Calculator does that step. If you are pricing a business rather than a paycheck, the Profit Margin Calculator is the one you want.
How the Conversions Are Checked
This calculator accepts pay from six different starting points: hourly, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or annual. Whichever one you enter gets converted to annual first, using that period's own real divisor, then every other period is derived from that single annual figure. Biweekly and semi-monthly are where hand math usually goes wrong: 26 pay periods a year divided by two looks close to 24, but it isn't, so the calculator keeps them on separate fixed divisors (26 and 24) instead of approximating one from the other. The same applies to hours: annual hours are always your actual hours-per-week times weeks-per-year, so a compressed four-day week or a reduced number of working weeks changes every downstream number instead of only the one field you edited.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate hourly rate from a monthly salary?
Multiply monthly salary by 12, then divide by 2,080. Shortcut: monthly ÷ 173.33. A $4,500 monthly salary: $4,500 ÷ 173.33 = $25.96/hour. Select "Monthly" in the pay period selector above and enter 4,500 to verify.
How do you calculate a daily rate from an annual salary?
Find the hourly rate first (annual ÷ 2,080 for a standard schedule), then multiply by hours worked per day. A $52,000 salary is $25.00/hour, and at 8 hours a day that is $25.00 × 8 = $200.00/day. The calculator's daily figure updates automatically from your hours-per-week input.
How do I convert a compressed 4-day work week to an hourly rate?
Use your actual total weekly hours, not the number of days. A 4-day week built from four 10-hour shifts is still 40 hours, so the standard 2,080-hour math applies unchanged. A 4-day week built from four 8-hour shifts is only 32 hours a week, or 1,664 hours a year: a $50,000 salary there works out to $50,000 ÷ 1,664 = $30.05/hour, noticeably higher than the same salary spread over 40 hours.
Does paid vacation or holiday time change the hourly-to-salary conversion?
Not for salaried employees. Their annual salary already assumes 52 paid weeks, including time off, so no adjustment is needed for standard vacation and holiday allowances. For hourly workers, paid holidays add compensation beyond hours physically worked, which raises effective annual earnings slightly above what the straight hourly × hours × weeks formula predicts.
References
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Usual Weekly Earnings: the source for the 2,080-hour annual full-time standard and average hourly and weekly earnings by occupation.
- Salary on Wikipedia: definition of salary, distinction from hourly wages, and international context for annual vs. periodic pay.
- IRS Topic 401: Wages and Salaries: what counts as taxable wages and how federal withholding applies to both hourly and salaried workers.