Answer: Enter your values and the Hourly to Salary Calculator returns the exact result instantly — formula, worked example, and a plain-English explanation are included below the tool.
An hourly-to-salary calculator converts an hourly wage into equivalent weekly, monthly, and annual income based on your working hours.
Convert hourly wage to annual salary
Enter an hourly rate, the hours you work per week, and how many weeks per year you are paid for, and the calculator converts the figure into annual, monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, and weekly gross pay. The base formula is simply annual = hourly × hours per week × weeks per year; every other figure is that total divided by the right number of periods. All computation happens in your browser.
The weeks-per-year field is where estimates go wrong. A full-time year is 52 weeks, but unpaid vacation, seasonal work, and school-year schedules all reduce it — the example rows above show how a two-week unpaid break or a half-time schedule changes the same $25 rate dramatically.
| Hourly rate | Hours/week | Weeks/year | Annual salary | Monthly gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | 40 | 52 | $31,200 | $2,600 |
| $20 | 40 | 52 | $41,600 | $3,466.67 |
| $25 | 40 | 52 | $52,000 | $4,333.33 |
| $30 | 40 | 52 | $62,400 | $5,200 |
| $25 | 20 | 52 | $26,000 | $2,166.67 |
| $25 | 40 | 50 (2 wk unpaid) | $50,000 | $4,166.67 |
Monthly gross assumes 12 equal months; note that biweekly pay (26 checks) and semi-monthly pay (24 checks) are different schedules: two months each year carry three biweekly checks. These are gross figures — before income tax, Social Security and Medicare payroll tax, and any benefit deductions.
In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act distinguishes exempt from non-exempt workers. Non-exempt employees must receive at least the federal minimum wage and overtime at one-and-a-half times their regular rate beyond 40 hours in a workweek. Exempt employees — generally those paid a salary above a regulatory threshold who perform executive, professional, or administrative duties as defined by Department of Labor rules — are not owed overtime no matter how many hours they work. The federal salary threshold has been repeatedly revised (with changes litigated and updated over the years), so check the current DOL figure rather than a remembered number.
This creates the classic hourly-versus-salary comparison trap: a nominally higher salary can pay less per hour once expected weekly hours exceed 40. A $70,000 salary worked at a steady 50 hours a week is an effective rate of about $26.92 per hour across all 2,600 hours; the same salary at 40 hours is $33.65. When comparing an offer to an hourly job, divide by realistic hours, not contractual ones.
Once you have an annual number, budget from net, not gross. Federal income tax, state income tax where applicable, and the employee share of FICA payroll tax (7.65% up to the Social Security wage base, plus Medicare beyond it) all come out before the money is yours. A rough planning step is the 50/30/20 framing popularized by Senator Elizabeth Warren in her book All Your Worth — half of net pay to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings and debt paydown — though any budget works when it is built from actual take-home numbers.
For freelancers converting a target salary back into a rate, remember to gross up for self-employment tax (both halves of FICA), unpaid vacation, health insurance, and retirement contributions before dividing by billable hours — billable hours are typically well below total working hours in any consulting practice.
Hourly-to-salary comparisons also depend on where the job sits. State minimum wages above the federal floor change the hourly baseline in more than half the states and many cities; some jurisdictions require paid sick leave that effectively adds compensated hours; and a handful of states impose daily overtime (after eight hours in a day in California, for example) or double-time rules that have no federal counterpart. None of this alters the conversion arithmetic, but all of it alters what a given hourly rate actually yields.
Union contracts, shift differentials for nights and weekends, and on-call premiums similarly mean the effective hourly rate can exceed the base rate — a worker earning a nominal $22 with a 15% night differential is effectively paid $25.30 for those hours. When you enter a rate into the calculator, enter the blended rate that reflects your actual schedule if you want an honest annual figure, and use the unadjusted base when the question is purely contractual.
Finally, remember that annualized pay is a gross abstraction: workers paid hourly are typically paid only for hours worked, so income volatility — slow seasons, schedule cuts, illness without paid leave — is a real financial planning difference from salary, worth weighing alongside the headline numbers.
How much is $20 an hour annually? At 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks, $20/hour is $41,600 per year gross, or about $3,467 a month before taxes.
Is salary or hourly better? It depends on hours and legal status: hourly non-exempt workers get overtime pay beyond 40 hours; salaried exempt workers do not, so long weeks effectively cut your per-hour rate.
How do I account for unpaid vacation? Reduce the weeks-per-year input: two weeks unpaid lowers a 52-week year to 50, which reduces annual pay proportionally.
Are these figures after tax? No — every figure is gross. Income taxes, payroll taxes, and benefit deductions come out afterward and vary by location and filing status.
Why are biweekly and monthly pay different amounts? Biweekly pay divides the year into 26 checks and monthly into 12, so a biweekly check equals annual pay ÷ 26, and two months per year include a third check.