How this converter works
Enter an hourly rate and your scheduled hours per week, and this tool shows what that comes out to as an annual salary — plus every pay-period breakdown employers actually use: weekly, biweekly (every two weeks), semi-monthly (twice a month), monthly, and daily. Switch the toggle to go the other direction, starting from an annual salary instead. The math is simple but the periods are easy to mix up: biweekly pays out 26 times a year, semi-monthly pays out 24 times a year, and those two numbers are genuinely different for the same salary — not a rounding difference. This tool keeps both clearly labeled so you're never guessing which one your employer means.
A few common rates
$18/hour is $37,440 a year at a full 40-hour week. Drop to a 32-hour week — common for part-time-plus roles — and that falls to $29,952 a year, a reminder that scheduled hours change the annual number as much as the rate does.
$22/hour is $45,760 a year, or $880 a week before tax — sitting right between the $20 and $25 bands on this page, worth comparing against both if you’re weighing similar offers.
$35/hour is $72,800 a year, or $6,066.67 a month before tax. At this income, it’s worth seeing what a steady raise compounds into over several years rather than looking at one year at a time.
$40/hour is $83,200 a year, or $3,200 every two weeks before tax. This is the range where running real numbers on home affordability — rather than a rule of thumb — starts to matter.
$45/hour is $93,600 a year — just under the six-figure mark. Compare that with $50/hour’s $104,000 to see how close a $5-an-hour gap sits to an actual six-figure jump.
$60/hour is $124,800 a year, or $2,400 a week before tax — well past six figures. At this level, tracking net worth over time tends to matter more than the headline pay rate itself.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert an hourly wage to a yearly salary?
Multiply your hourly rate by the hours you work in a week, then by 52 weeks in a year. At a standard 40-hour week, that's rate × 2,080. Enter your own rate and hours above for the exact figure.
What's the difference between biweekly and semi-monthly pay?
Biweekly means every two weeks — 26 paychecks a year. Semi-monthly means twice a month — 24 paychecks a year. The two are easy to confuse but produce different per-paycheck amounts for the same salary.
Does this calculator include taxes?
No — every figure here is gross pay, before any tax or deduction. See the disclosure below the calculator for what that means for your actual take-home pay.
How does overtime pay work?
Under federal law (FLSA), hours worked over 40 in a single week are paid at 1.5× your regular hourly rate. Open the overtime calculator below the main tool to see your own numbers.
Worked examples
A standard 40-hour schedule
$24 an hour, worked 40 hours a week, annualized on the usual 2,080-hour basis.
- Hourly
- $24.00
- Weekly
- $960
- Biweekly
- $1,920
- Annual
- $49,920
At $24.00 an hour across a 40-hour week, the arithmetic is simply rate × hours × 52, landing at $49,920 a year before any deduction. The figure most people carry in their head is the monthly one — $4,160 — but that is an average, not a paycheck: no employer pays in twelfths unless you are on a monthly cycle.
The same rate, 32 hours
Identical hourly rate on a four-day schedule — where the 2,080-hour convention stops applying.
- Hourly
- $24.00
- Weekly
- $768
- Biweekly
- $1,536
- Annual
- $39,936
The rate has not moved, but the schedule is part-time, so the annual total is $39,936 — $9,984 below the $49,920 the same rate reaches at a 40-hour week. This is the single biggest reason two people quoting the same hourly wage report very different salaries. Hours are half the equation and they are the half nobody mentions.
Where unpaid time off bites
A 40-hour week priced across 50 paid weeks instead of 52 — the two-week unpaid gap.
- Hourly
- $24.00
- Weekly
- $923
- Biweekly
- $1,846
- Annual
- $47,998
The 2,080-hour convention quietly assumes you are paid for all 52 weeks. Take two weeks off unpaid and you are really being paid for 50, which is what this $47,998 figure models — roughly $1,922 less than the headline $49,920. Salaried workers absorb that gap invisibly because their pay is fixed; hourly workers pay for every unpaid day directly.
Hourly rate → annual salary, by schedule
Gross annual pay at 52 weeks. Read across to see how much the schedule, not the rate, moves the total.
| Hourly rate | 20 hrs | 30 hrs | 40 hrs | 50 hrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15.00 | $15,600 | $23,400 | $31,200 | $39,000 |
| $20.00 | $20,800 | $31,200 | $41,600 | $52,000 |
| $25.00 | $26,000 | $39,000 | $52,000 | $65,000 |
| $30.00 | $31,200 | $46,800 | $62,400 | $78,000 |
| $40.00 | $41,600 | $62,400 | $83,200 | $104,000 |
| $50.00 | $52,000 | $78,000 | $104,000 | $130,000 |
The 40-hour column is the standard 2,080-hour basis. Columns either side show what the same rate is worth on a different schedule.
What changes the answer
Hours per week
The multiplier with the widest practical range. Moving between a 30- and a 50-hour week changes annual pay by two-thirds at an unchanged rate — a far bigger swing than most raises deliver.
Paid weeks per year
The 2,080-hour convention assumes 52 paid weeks. If your time off is unpaid, price your year on the weeks you are actually paid for, not the calendar.
Overtime availability
Routine overtime can lift effective annual pay well above the base calculation, but it is the least reliable component — it is usually the first thing cut when budgets tighten.
Unpaid meal breaks
A daily unpaid half-hour removes about 2.5 hours from a paid week. Small per day, but it compounds to roughly 130 hours a year.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Multiplying by 2,000 for a mental estimate, then treating the result as exact. It is a deliberate 4% undercount — useful for a quick sanity check, wrong on an offer letter.
- Comparing an hourly offer to a salaried one without pricing the benefits. Employer-paid health premiums and retirement matching routinely swing the comparison by more than the wage gap does.
- Assuming the annual figure is spendable. Everything here is gross; income and payroll tax come out before anything reaches your account.
- Forgetting that hourly pay stops when you do. A salaried worker is paid through a slow week or a sick day; an hourly worker generally is not.
Practical takeaways
- State the schedule alongside the rate whenever you quote hourly pay. "$24 an hour" is not a salary until someone says how many hours.
- Price your year on paid weeks, not calendar weeks, if any of your time off is unpaid.
- For a fast mental conversion, double the hourly rate and read it as thousands — $24/hr is roughly $48k. It runs about 4% light against the true 2,080-hour figure.
- When comparing offers, convert both to the same basis first, then adjust for benefits and expected overtime separately.
Key terms
- Annualization basis
- The hours-per-year figure used to turn an hourly rate into a yearly one. The US convention is 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). It is a convention, not a law: it assumes you are paid for all 52 weeks, including any weeks you take off. If your time off is unpaid, your real annual pay is lower than the 2,080-hour figure.
- Gross pay
- Pay before any deductions — income tax, payroll tax (Social Security and Medicare), health premiums, and retirement contributions all come out after this number. Every figure this calculator produces is gross. Take-home is typically 20-30% lower, depending on your state, filing status, and benefit elections.
- FLSA overtime
- Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5× their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The 40-hour trigger is based on hours actually worked in that week — not on your scheduled hours, and not averaged across two weeks.
- Pay period
- The stretch of time one paycheck covers — weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. It affects the size and timing of each check but never your annual total. Changing pay period does not change what you earn; it only changes how it is sliced.
More questions answered
Why 2,080 hours and not 2,000?
2,080 is 40 hours × 52 weeks — the exact number of hours in a full-time year with no weeks excluded. 2,000 is a rounding convenience that makes mental math easy and undercounts by 80 hours, about 4%. On a $50,000 salary that gap is roughly $1,900, so use 2,080 whenever the number matters.
Should paid holidays change the calculation?
No, as long as they are paid. Paid holidays and paid leave are already inside the 2,080-hour basis — you are compensated for those hours whether or not you work them. Only unpaid time reduces your real annual total, because those are hours you are neither working nor being paid for.
My hours change every week. What figure should I use?
Average your actual hours over a full quarter rather than picking a typical week, and use that average here. Seasonal work makes any single week misleading in one direction or the other. If your hours vary widely, calculate a low-week and high-week annual figure and treat them as a range, not a point estimate.
Model assumptions & disclosures
Gross pay only — not take-home pay. Every figure this converter shows is gross (pre-tax) pay. It never computes federal or state withholding, FICA, or any other deduction — your actual take-home pay will be lower, and by how much depends on your tax bracket, filing status, benefits elections, and state, none of which are modeled here.
A standard schedule, not your specific one. The default 40-hour week and 52-week year (2,080 hours/year) is the common full-time annualization basis — enter your own scheduled hours if yours differs. Paid time off, unpaid leave, and irregular schedules aren't modeled separately.
Overtime models FLSA weekly rules only. Hours over 40 in a week are shown at 1.5× the base rate. Daily-overtime rules that some states apply (for example, hours over 8 in a single day) are not modeled — check your state's specific rules if they may apply to you.
Not financial or legal advice. This calculator provides illustrative estimates based on the inputs you enter. Consult your employer's HR team, a tax professional, or your state labor office before making decisions based on these figures.