How to Convert an Hourly Wage to a Yearly Salary
Short answer
Multiply your hourly wage by the hours you work per week and by the weeks you work per year. For a full-time job that is usually hourly rate × 40 × 52 = hourly rate × 2,080. So $25 an hour is about $52,000 a year. A quick estimate is to double the hourly rate and add three zeros: $25 → about $50,000.
Job ads mix hourly, weekly, monthly and yearly pay, which makes offers hard to compare. Converting between them takes one multiplication once you know how many hours you really work. This guide shows the standard method, a mental shortcut, how to go from salary back to hourly, and the details such as unpaid leave and overtime that change the answer.
The basic formula
yearly salary = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks per year
A standard full-time week is often 40 hours, and there are 52 weeks in a year, so 40 × 52 = 2,080 paid hours. That is why you often see the shortcut hourly × 2,080.
Worked example
You are offered $25 an hour for 40 hours a week, paid all year including holidays.
- Weekly pay: 25 × 40 = $1,000.
- Yearly pay: 1,000 × 52 = $52,000.
- Monthly pay: 52,000 ÷ 12 ≈ $4,333.
- Bi-weekly pay (every two weeks): 52,000 ÷ 26 = $2,000.
Note that a month is not exactly four weeks. Dividing the yearly figure by 12 gives the correct average monthly pay; multiplying weekly pay by 4 underestimates it.
The mental shortcut
For a quick estimate, double the hourly rate and add three zeros. $20 an hour is about $40,000 a year, $35 is about $70,000. This works because 2,000 is close to 2,080. It slightly underestimates a full 52-week year, which makes it a nicely cautious figure for budgeting. Going the other way, halve the salary and drop three zeros: $60,000 a year is about $30 an hour.
Converting a salary to an hourly rate
Divide the yearly salary by the hours you work in a year:
hourly rate = yearly salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year)
$60,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $28.85 an hour. Some employers use a slightly different divisor. For example, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management uses 2,087 hours to compute hourly rates for most federal employees, because that is the average number of paid hours in a year once leap years are taken into account. With that divisor, $60,000 works out to about $28.75. The difference is small, but it explains why two calculators can disagree by a few cents.
Adjust for how you actually work
The 2,080-hour figure assumes paid holidays and full-time hours all year. Change the inputs if that is not your situation:
- Part-time: use your real weekly hours. $22 × 25 hours × 52 weeks = $28,600.
- Unpaid time off: if you are paid only for weeks worked, use fewer weeks. A contractor taking four unpaid weeks off works 48 weeks: $40 × 40 × 48 = $76,800.
- Overtime: add overtime hours separately at the overtime rate, since it often pays more per hour.
- Shifts and days: if you are paid per shift, multiply the shift rate by shifts per week and weeks per year.
Our salary and hourly wage calculator lets you set hours per week, days per week and weeks per year, and shows the result as hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and yearly pay at once.
Gross versus take-home pay
All of the figures above are gross pay, before income tax, social security or pension contributions and other deductions. Your take-home pay will be lower, and how much lower depends on your country, province or state, and personal situation. The salary calculator includes an optional estimated tax rate to give a rough net figure, but your payslip or your tax authority’s calculator is the authority on the exact amount.
Comparing a salaried job with an hourly one
When you compare offers, look beyond the headline number:
- Hours: a salary of $55,000 with regular 50-hour weeks is about $21 an hour, less than an hourly job at $25 for 40 hours.
- Benefits: health cover, retirement matching and paid leave have real value.
- Raises: a 3% raise on $52,000 is $1,560 a year. The percentage calculator works out raises and differences between offers.
Example: comparing two real offers
Imagine two offers. Job A pays $24 an hour for 37.5 hours a week with paid holidays. Job B pays a $50,000 salary but expects about 45 hours most weeks. Job A works out to 24 × 37.5 × 52 = $46,800 a year. Job B is higher on paper, but 50,000 ÷ (45 × 52) ≈ $21.37 an hour, well below Job A’s $24. Which is better depends on whether you value the higher total or the extra free time, but now you are comparing like with like.
Turning salary into a plan
Knowing your monthly income is the first step in a budget. From there you can decide how much to save each month and use the savings calculator to see how regular deposits add up. If you are house hunting, lenders will compare your gross monthly income with your debts, as explained in how much house can I afford.
Frequently asked questions
How much is $20 an hour per year?
At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $20 × 2,080 = $41,600 a year before tax, or about $3,467 a month.
How many working hours are in a year?
A full-time year is usually counted as 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). Some employers, such as the U.S. federal government, use 2,087 hours to account for leap years.
How do I convert my salary to an hourly rate?
Divide your yearly salary by the hours you work per year. For $60,000 and a 40-hour week, 60,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $28.85 an hour.
Should I multiply weekly pay by 4 to get monthly pay?
No. Most months are longer than four weeks. Multiply weekly pay by 52 and divide by 12, which is the same as multiplying by about 4.33.
Is the result before or after tax?
These conversions give gross pay before tax and deductions. Take-home pay depends on your local tax rules.