Salary to Hourly Calculator
Convert between an annual salary and an hourly rate.
Your pay and schedule
52 minus any unpaid weeks off.
Equivalent hourly rate
$28.85
Weekly pay
$1,153.85
Biweekly pay
$2,307.69
Monthly pay
$5,000
Estimate calculated from the numbers you entered. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice — always consult a qualified professional before making significant financial decisions.
How the Salary to Hourly Calculator works
This tool converts between an annual salary and an hourly rate using your actual hours per week and weeks worked per year, and breaks the result down into weekly, biweekly, and monthly pay.
The formula
Hourly rate = Annual salary ÷ (Hours per week × Weeks per year)The standard full-time year is 2,080 hours (40 × 52). Most salary-to-hourly conversions you see online assume that figure and stop there. The reason this calculator asks for your real hours is that the assumption is what usually makes the answer wrong.
Worked example
A $75,000 salary at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is $75,000 ÷ 2,080 = about $36.06 an hour. That's roughly $1,442 a week, $2,885 biweekly, and $6,250 a month before deductions.
Now suppose the role really runs 50 hours a week. The annual figure hasn't moved, but the hours have: $75,000 ÷ 2,600 = about $28.85 an hour, a 20% cut in what each hour is actually worth. Comparing a $75,000 offer at 50 hours against a $68,000 offer at 40 hours ($32.69/hour) reverses the ranking the headline numbers suggest — the lower salary pays better per hour.
Common mistakes
- Using contractual hours instead of the hours the job actually takes, which flatters the rate.
- Counting 52 weeks when some of your time off is unpaid — subtract those weeks.
- Comparing a gross hourly rate against a take-home figure. Compare like with like.
- Ignoring benefits when comparing offers. Employer-paid health insurance and a retirement match can be worth several dollars an hour.
- Assuming a contract rate and an employee rate are interchangeable — self-employment tax and unpaid leave sit between them.
- Rounding 2,080 hours down to 2,000 for anything more consequential than a mental estimate.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate?
Divide the annual salary by the total hours worked per year (hours per week × weeks worked per year). A $60,000 salary at 40 hours/week for 52 weeks works out to about $28.85/hour.
Should I use 52 weeks or fewer?
Use 52 if you're paid for holidays and vacation (typical for salaried employees). Subtract any UNPAID weeks off — for example, 2 unpaid weeks means 50 weeks — since that time isn't actually compensated and would overstate your true hourly rate if included at 52.
Does this account for overtime?
No — this is a straight-line conversion assuming every hour is paid at the same rate. If you regularly work overtime at 1.5x pay, your effective average hourly rate from a salaried position would be different (usually lower per hour, since salaried pay typically doesn't increase for extra hours).
Why do people say "double it and add three zeros"?
It's a shortcut for converting an hourly rate to an approximate annual salary: $25/hour → $50,000. It works because 40 hours × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours a year, which is close to 2,000. The shortcut runs about 4% low, so a $25/hour job at 2,080 hours is really $52,000. Fine for a rough sanity check, not for comparing two offers.
Is my hourly rate comparable to a contractor's rate?
No, and treating them as equivalent is an expensive mistake. A W-2 employee's rate excludes benefits the employer pays for — health insurance, the employer half of FICA (7.65%), paid leave, and any retirement match. An independent contractor covers all of that themselves and pays self-employment tax on top. A contract rate typically needs to be substantially higher than an employee's equivalent hourly rate to leave you in the same position.
Does a higher hourly rate always mean better pay?
Only if the hours match. A $70,000 salary at a genuine 40 hours a week is about $33.65/hour; the same salary at a real 55 hours is about $24.48. The headline salary is identical and the effective rate differs by nearly a third — which is exactly why entering your actual hours, not your contractual ones, is what makes this calculation useful.
Does being salaried mean I can't get overtime?
Not automatically. Overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act depends on whether your role is classified as exempt or non-exempt, which turns on your duties and salary level — not simply on being paid a salary. Salaried non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime. If you're unsure of your classification, your employer's HR department or the Department of Labor can confirm it.
Sources
What actually moves this number
Specific levers, and roughly what each one is worth. Not “save more” — the things that change the figure above by an amount you can measure.
Divide by real hours, not 2,080
A $95,000 salary at 50 hours a week is about $36.50 an hour, not $45.67. Comparing two offers on the standard year hides exactly the difference that matters most.
Add 25-30% when quoting a contract rate
A contractor covers self-employment tax, health insurance, unpaid time off, and equipment out of the same rate. Converting a salary one-for-one to an hourly rate is how contractors underprice themselves.
Check exempt status before assuming no overtime
Exemption requires meeting both a salary threshold and a duties test. A misclassified role may be owed overtime, and the classification is worth confirming rather than assuming from the job title.
Price the benefits into the comparison
An employer 401(k) match, health premiums, and paid time off commonly add 20-30% on top of salary. Two offers with the same headline number can differ by five figures once those are counted.
What this calculator does not cover
Every calculator simplifies, and the useful thing is knowing exactly where. These are the specific gaps between this estimate and your real situation:
- It converts gross pay. Take-home is lower by taxes, FICA, and benefit deductions, and the gap varies with your state and elections.
- Salaried and hourly work are not equivalent even at the same effective rate: overtime eligibility, benefits, and paid time off differ substantially.
- A standard 2,080-hour year assumes 40 hours a week with no unpaid time off. Actual hours worked change the real hourly figure considerably.
- Contractor rates need to cover self-employment tax, health insurance, unpaid time off, and equipment — a straight salary-to-hourly conversion understates what a contractor needs to charge.
For anything that turns on an exact figure, use the primary sources below or a qualified professional. How these limits are decided and disclosed is described in the editorial standards.