Finance · 4 min read

How to Convert Hourly Wage to Salary

To convert an hourly wage to an annual salary, multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours you work per week, then multiply that by the number of weeks you work per year. Our hourly to salary calculator handles this instantly, but the underlying formula is simple enough to run by hand.

The standard formula

• Hourly rate: $25.00
• Hours per week: 40
• Weekly pay: $25.00 x 40 = $1,000.00
• Weeks per year: 52
• Annual salary: $1,000.00 x 52 = $52,000.00

For a standard full-time schedule of 40 hours a week, a useful shortcut is to multiply the hourly rate by 2,000, since 40 hours x 50 weeks (accounting roughly for time off) is close to 2,000 hours a year. It's an approximation, not an exact figure, so use the full formula above when precision matters.

Adjusting for actual weeks worked

Using exactly 52 weeks assumes you're paid for every week of the year, including any vacation or holiday time. If you take unpaid time off, subtract those weeks first. Someone earning $25.00 an hour working 40 hours a week but taking two unpaid weeks off would base their salary on 50 paid weeks instead of 52, giving an annual figure of $50,000.00 rather than $52,000.00.

Part-time and non-standard hours

The same formula works regardless of how many hours you work each week. Someone earning $30.00 an hour for 25 hours a week would calculate weekly pay of $750.00, and multiplying by 52 weeks gives an annual figure of $39,000.00. Just make sure the weekly hours figure reflects your actual typical schedule rather than a full-time assumption, since part-time hours can vary week to week in a way full-time schedules usually don't.

Going the other direction: salary to hourly

The same formula runs in reverse. Divide an annual salary by 52 to get weekly pay, then divide that by your weekly hours to get an hourly rate. A $60,000.00 salary divided by 52 weeks gives $1,153.85 a week, and dividing that by 40 hours gives an hourly rate of about $28.85.

Gross salary versus take-home pay

The salary figure from this conversion is your gross pay, before taxes, retirement contributions, or health insurance premiums are deducted. Two people with the same converted salary can end up with noticeably different take-home pay depending on their tax bracket, state, and benefit elections. Treat the converted number as a starting point for comparing offers, not the amount that will actually land in your bank account.

Why employers quote salary differently

Some job postings quote an annual salary, others quote an hourly rate, and comparing the two directly can be misleading if the assumed hours don't match. A job posted as $22.00 an hour sounds lower than one posted at $48,000.00 a year, but at 40 hours a week and 52 paid weeks, $22.00 an hour actually works out to $45,760.00, less than the salaried offer. Running both numbers through the same formula puts them on equal footing.

Checking your own numbers

Plug your hourly rate, weekly hours, and paid weeks per year into the hourly to salary calculator to get an exact annual figure, along with monthly and weekly breakdowns. It's worth rerunning the numbers any time your hours, rate, or paid time off changes, since even a small shift in weekly hours compounds meaningfully over a full year.

Frequently asked questions