Hourly wage to annual salary: how much is it a year?

How to turn an hourly wage into a yearly salary

Multiply the hourly rate by the hours you work in a week, then by the weeks you are paid for in a year. For a full-time job of 40 hours a week, paid for all 52 weeks, that’s 2,080 hours:

Yearly pay = hourly rate × hours per week × 52

$25 an hour × 40 × 52 = $25 × 2,080 = $52,000 a year

So $25 an hour is $52,000 a year, about $4,333 a month, $2,000 every two weeks and $1,000 a week, before tax. The same method works in any currency.

Hourly to salary chart

Full-time, 40 hours a week, 52 paid weeks, before tax:

$7.25 is the US federal minimum wage, in force since July 2009. Many states and cities set a higher minimum.

Monthly is the yearly figure divided by 12, not four weeks of pay. Months average about 4.33 weeks, so four weekly paychecks understate a month by around 8%.

More hourly rates, per year and per month

Every figure is the hourly rate × 2,080, and the monthly one that total ÷ 12. For any rate not listed, the calculator gives the exact amounts.

The doubling shortcut

For a quick answer in your head, double the hourly rate and add three zeros. $25 becomes $50,000; $18 becomes $36,000.

That works because 2,000 is close to 2,080. It runs about 4% low, which is roughly two weeks’ pay, so it’s a fair estimate for someone who takes two weeks of unpaid leave. For the exact full-time figure, add 4%: $50,000 × 1.04 = $52,000.

Part-time and other weekly hours

Change the hours per week and keep the rest of the formula. At $25 an hour, 52 weeks a year:

If your hours vary week to week, add up a few months of hours from your pay stubs and divide by the number of weeks to get a fair average.

Twelve-hour shifts and daily pay

Jobs with long shifts, such as nursing, security or factory work, often don’t fit a 40-hour week. Work from the shifts instead:

Hours a week = shifts a week × hours per shift

• Three 12-hour shifts a week is 36 hours: at $35 an hour, 36 × 52 × $35 = $65,520 a year.
• A rota of three shifts one week and four the next averages 3.5 shifts, or 42 hours a week, before any overtime.

For daily pay, multiply the rate by the hours in a shift. An 8-hour day at $25 is $200; a 12-hour shift at $35 is $420. Unpaid meal breaks come off first: a 12-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid break is 11.5 paid hours. The hours worked calculator takes breaks out for you.

Unpaid time off and holidays

The 52-week figure assumes you are paid for every week, including holidays and vacation. If some weeks are unpaid, use the weeks you are actually paid for:

The US federal government uses a slightly different year: OPM divides an annual salary by 2,087 hours, an average that allows for leap years and how the calendar falls, to get a federal employee’s hourly rate.

With regular overtime

Under the US federal rule, a non-exempt worker earns at least 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Work out a typical week, then multiply by the paid weeks:

45 hours at $25: 40 × $25 + 5 × $37.50 = $1,000 + $187.50 = $1,187.50 a week

$1,187.50 × 52 = $61,750 a year

That’s $9,750 more than the base salary. The overtime pay calculator works out a week with overtime, and the overtime pay guide covers the rules.

What a raise is worth

Every extra dollar an hour is worth 2,080 dollars a year at full time, before tax. That makes it easy to compare an hourly raise with a salaried one:

A raise given as a percentage works the same way on either figure: a 4% raise on $25 an hour is $1 an hour, and 4% of $52,000 is $2,080 a year. The percentage calculator works out any raise as a percentage.

Before and after tax

Everything on this page is gross pay. Your take-home pay is lower after income tax, social security and Medicare in the US, and any health insurance or retirement contributions. How much lower depends on where you live, your filing status and your benefits, so there is no single figure that fits everyone.

To estimate take-home pay, start from the gross figure here and subtract the deductions shown on a recent pay stub, or use your own tax figures. Treat any rule of thumb you see online as a rough guide only, because state taxes alone vary from none to several percent.

When comparing an hourly job with a salaried one, also compare what each one pays for: paid holidays, sick days, health insurance and retirement matching can be worth thousands a year. The gross pay calculator shows one paycheck before tax, with overtime.

In Excel or Google Sheets

With the hourly rate in A2, hours per week in B2 and paid weeks in C2:

Going the other way, from a salary to an hourly rate, divide instead. The salary to hourly guide has the chart.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor: State minimum wage laws. Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour
• U.S. Department of Labor: History of federal minimum wage rates. $7.25 effective July 24, 2009
• OPM: Computing hourly rates of pay using the 2,087-hour divisor. Federal hourly rate = annual pay ÷ 2,087
• U.S. Department of Labor: Overtime pay. At least 1.5 times the regular rate over 40 hours in a workweek